Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1941)

December 6, 1941 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 41 TRADE, ALL INDUSTRY AFFECTED BY INFLUENCE OF FILMS:-COLDEN Commerce Department Consultant Outlines Effect of Screen on War and Peace Economy; Worldwide Influence Seen Externally and internally, Hollywood's motion pictures are of great and little realized importance, concerning manifold factors involving ail other industries and all individuals ; they use materials at stupendous rate; they are trade trail-blazers in foreign countries ; they stimulate manufacturing ; they maintain morale; they create, and influence, public opinion, here, and in other countries; in short, they play a "World Role in Time of Crisis," according to Nate Golden, formerly in charge of the Department of Commerce motion picture division, and now its motion picture consultant. Mr. Golden develops his thesis in an article of that title in the December 6th issue of Foreign Commerce, a Government weekly. Noting the amounts of material used by the studios, Mr. Golden says, in example, that they need, in one year, more than 20,000,000 feet of lumber and wallboard panels, in addition to 5,700,000 feet of composition boards ; that the annual requirements of iron and steel, in rounds, flats, shapes, cold-rolled and tubed is 850 tons; and that the industry uses in one year more than $250,000 worth of hardware — "the scope of these things ranging from carriage bolts to piano wire, from solder to screws. Quantities of Materials Used He continued : "Aluminum, brass, and copper and their alloys (in sheets, rounds, flats, and shapes) account for nearly 36,000 pounds of the material needed by Hollywood studios in the course of a year — along with almost 100,000 pounds of foundry metals, new and scrap aluminum, brass, copper, lead, zinc, tin and babbitt. Vital to the work of making, repairing, and operating the studios' precision machinery, and of devising countless props and pieces of equipment for the settings, are the 350 gross of tools — drills, taps, reamers, and comparable utensils — which the motion picture industry needs every twelvemonth. "More than 2,000,000 feet of electric wire and cable are needed yearly for production purposes, together with about $137,000 worth of electric motors, batteries, and accessories — the batteries being absolutely essential for the cameras and for the operation of the entire soundequipment system. Other Commodities "Paints used annually in the industry (95 per cent for actual production) reach the formidable totals of 158,000 gallons of one type and 254,000 pounds of another type. Ropes and fiber used come to more than 360,000 pounds a year. Photographic supplies for "still" pictures alone attain the impressive figures of $235,000 yearly, and the annual value of the laboratory chemicals used (such as acetone, carbon tetrachloride, sulphuric and oxalic acids, chrome alum) is not less than $283,000." Drop backgrounds and set dressings use more than 500,000 yards of canvas, burlap, muslin, webbing, denim, and cotton tape yearly, he said. Ammunition, fireworks, liquid smoke, used for special effects, account for $45,000 per year. The industry also needs, for that period, 277 SEES ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR IN DEFENSE Harry C. Arthur, Jr., president and general manager of Fancho & Marco in St. Louis, linked the motion picture industry with the national defense effort in a recent statement. "If America's national defense is to be brought up to the high standards and high-speed production schedules necessary, keen minds, capable hands and happy hearts to accomplish this are virtually as necessary as raw materials," he said. The theatre executive continued, "To keep those minds keen and the hands capable, workers now toiling daily in defense plants throughout the country must have entertainment to ease the strain of hour-after-hour topspeed production effort. Motion pictures, because of their widespread distribution and low admission prices, constitute more than ever the standard form of entertainment for the average family." tanks of helium, for the balloons that float over sets warning aviators to keep away. And he added : "Nearly $75,000 worth of rubber goods are used by the motion picture industry in the course of a twelvemonth — comprising such items as fire hose, sponge rubber, ordinary hose and tubing, latex, matting, rubber cement. An arresting use of latex is in the construction of artificial animals such as elephants or crocodiles. In a recent big picture, not less than $10,000 was spent in the single cast of fabricating an artificial, mechanical octopus." The foregoing materials not only come from this country ; they come from overseas, he reminded, remarking: "So, back of the scenes in the film that one sees at his neighborhood theatre lie countless real-life pictures : of brown men in Malayan forests making herring-bone cuts to tap rubber trees — of tung oil for paints coming perilously out of war-rocked China — tin ore being shipped to the South American coast from the Andean heights of Bolivia — bauxite being mined far up the Cottica River in Surinam (Netherlands Guiana) to make the aluminum needed in Southern California — workers busy growing hemp on the sides of extinct volcanoes on the island of Mindanao, to make, eventually, the ropes used often in the settings that Hollywood devises for the creation of illusion." The industry, he said, realizes the extent to which it depends upon international commerce, and therefore supports the present Administration's foreign policy. He then outlined the forms assumed by that support: The Motion Picture Committee Cooperating for National Defense, responsible for short subjects and features for army training and public exhibition ; maintenance of morale of the armed forces, and distribution of U. S. films to neutral nations. Of the committee's efforts, he remarked upon its slogan: "A Defense Film with Every Program", and noted the short subjects produced for recruiting, for placement of skilled workers, for training of armed men, and the features made on stories based upon the tank and parachute forces. He recalled the 50 films being made under the auspices of the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and that the film industry had distributed and exhibited in more than 12,000 theatres, "with no cost to the Government," ten Government-produced short subjects; that the industry, too, has helped the Government's Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps program, its efforts to conserve gasoline and oil, and collect scrap aluminum, the U.S.O. drive, and the State Department's goodwill policy in Latin America. Of the industry's contribution to maintenance of morale in the armed forces, Mr. Golden said : "The U. S. Army Motion Picture Service operates 555 theatres at 277 army posts, with a total average attendance of 277,500 men in uniform daily. Every week there are, on an average, 2,120 separate programs — each containing one feature picture and at least two short subjects. At all of the new Atlantic bases, at tent shows during Army maneuvers, at the Navy's shore stations and on board ship, motion pictures are playing their role in morale-maintenance today. And the pictures themselves are being supplemented by a great many personal appearances of celebrated stars, headlining or contributing to the stage entertainments arranged at camps and other bases of this nation's armed forces." Finally, of the distribution of American films to neutral countries, as part of the U. S. film industry's support of the current foreign policy, Mr. Golden found "great significance" in the fact that Europe's war beleagued neutrals still insist on enjoying American films. He cited Sweden : it still gets more than half its screen fare from this country. And he cited comment by a Swedish circuit film booker : "In these days, it is of common interest to the United States and Sweden that the Swedish public maintains its contact with the Anglo-Saxon world, and its ideals, that American films transmit." Fiims Are "Silent Salesmen" American films not only transmit our mental attitudes to foreigners ; they transmit our material culture, Mr. Golden remarked : " 'Silent Salesman' is the term that has been frequently, and justly, applied to the setting and pictorial background of Hollywood's motion pictures. What is really displayed here is an 'animated catalog,' with goods used by livingpeople about whom there is unquestionably more romantic glamor than there is about any other group of persons in the world. Everywhere, people imitate the Hollywood stars and follow with keenest interest their activities, feelings and preferences. As a result, the articles that they handle in their films, the merchantable commodities by which they are surrounded on the screen, are rendered alluring to the audiences in every part of the world — and the influence on foreign trade is noteworthy Sports Reels for Army Harry Buxbaum, Twentieth Century^ox New York exchange manager, has compiled three reels of the highlights of the most important football games played this season from Fox Movietone News Clips. These will be shipped to Army advance outposts in Iceland and Bermuda for screening for the troops.