Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

July 10, I 943 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 19 O X THE MARCH by RED KAMN HOLLYWOOD FILTERING into this Southland from up-state have come rumblings of dissatisfaction among independent theatre men. The filtering has been under way for some time. It ties to disaffection over circuits and their buying power and the insistence that distributors will not adjust grievances, no matter how justifiable the conditions or how persistently they publicize their intentions to be reasonable. Those rumblings stop being irregular and now break into the open under the following circumstances: "Socker" Coe, continuing his cross-country speech-making before outside groups, recently added San Francisco to his tour in an address before the Pacific Advertising Association. Later that same evening, he met a group of exhibitors for a face-toface talk, thereby marking the second phase as entirely an industry matter. Having made it plain at the beginning that he was not authorized to discuss trade practices and film prices, somewhere along the line the vice-president and general counsel of the Hays association, nevertheless, proceeded to tell why UMPI failed. What with one thing and another, the barriers thereafter dropped and the heat was on. Hyman Levin, operator of the Roosevelt and the Avanue, among others in San Francisco, asked a question or more about the independent exhibitor and why he seemed never to get anywhere in this business. Ben, son of Hyman and secretary of the ITO of Northern California, which is an MPTOA affiliate, went filial in his father's defense when the back-and-forth became caustic, which it did. H. V. (Rotas) Harvey, president of the exhibitor unit as well as an independent circuit man of parts in those parts, sought further information on Coe's public relations plan. He learned San Francisco was not blueprinted for a representative, but he likewise pointed out local theatremen knew the ins and outs of legislative halls and did not take too kindly to an "outsider" crashing the gate with manuals on how and wherefore. D. M. McNerney, partner to Joe Blumenfeld, who is an independent of means, too, threw the direct question by seeking to learn just what Coe was trying to accomplish. They Said No, Positively IN the cross-fire which threatened to blow the mercury through the top of the thermometer, one or more exhibitors finally turned very definite on these points : That Northern California independents were damned well fed up with the distributor attitude which assumed exhibitors were at their ready beck and call whenever trouble, the real or the imaginary, rattled the rafters. That cooperation is a two-way road and that exhibitors were frigid about the whole matter unless distributors displayed mutuality by listening to proper grievances and taking action after they listened. Uncomplimentary messages were deposited in Coe's lap for delivery to "those guys down there in Hollywood." The cause of amity certainly was not advanced, moreover, when Coe clearly conveyed this challenge, if not in these direct words : "If producers and distributors can cooperate, they can also fight if that's what you want." Furthermore, those present who knew their history subsequently voiced astonishment tinged with resentment over the statement made by Coe that exhibitors were responsible for the consent decree in its present form. The astonishment and the resentment welled from the knowledge that it was the lawyers for the five majors who drew up the text which was approved by Judge Henry Warren Goddard. as prepared, despite exhibitor delegations before the then Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold and the public hearings subsequently held in Judge Goddard's court in New York. Thus, the San Francisco episode turned out anything but happily. The break which made the open there evidently proved to be a flowering of what simmered sporadically when Coe spoke in New York, where Harry Brandt was challenger, what threatened but did not develop under similar circumstances in Boston and what sputtered and died in Detroit when Alex Schreiber showed his mood was one of fight. Incomplete as they are, these signs are new tokens thai all is not well. The independents are not on the march, but they are displaying restlessness. In San Francisco, they were belligerent. Signals in the Breeze RB. MURRAY director of the U. S. Army Motion Picture Service which currently books 6,834 shows weekly, told • us while here: "Good war films click with the men in the armed services. However, the men get newsreels which are largely war and training films which are all war. Therefore, escapist fare is growing and is definite in value. 'My Friend Flicka,' as a case in point, was a hit." The operating head of a national circuit who allows use of his viewpoint but not use of his name : "Our theatres, I think, represent the nation cross-sectionally. Our experience shows war pictures, even the big ones, have been getting off to a fine start, then many of them drop off. Contrariwise, escapist films, which also get off to a fine start, show greater staying power. They drop off, too, dependent upon quality and appeal, but the point is they are dropping off less rapidly than war films." David Rose, managing director for Paramount in Great Britain, reports : Escapist films are doing business in that country, at war since September 1, 1939. Reasons : Too much dramatic license employed too often by Hollywood in war films ; the battle is too close. Hilary St. George Saunders, librarian of the House of Commons, who was here some weeks ago : "Two types are necessary. One for the armed services and one for the public. The armed services [British] want entertainment that has little to do with the war, but will take the occasional war subject if it is meritorious. The public must be kept abreast of the war ; therefore, it is important to make a number of war films, provided they are not merely good, but excellent." Unfair, This Time from India REPORTING from an American air base in India, Herbert L. Matthews in the New York Times puts the industry under a cloud, however innocently it may have come about. He tells how lack of parts is making projectors run down and quotes one commander : "Get someone to put a carton of projector bulbs on the next plane leaving Miami and I'll guarantee a 100 per cent rise in the morale of my outfit over night." Matthews also is critical of film quality. "Sometimes it looks as if Hollywood reserves its third or fourth class pictures for India. Often there are good ones, of course, but all too often they are pictures you couldn't drag people in to see in the United States. I have actually seen soldiers walk out. . . . Moreover, there are not enough films." This inevitably creates the impression the condition traces to Hollywood. Of course, it traces to nothing of the sort. The blame, if there is blame, belongs in Washington. War Activities Committee : Please note, take action. ■ Benjamin de Casseres in his Hearst press column : "General Eisenhower cabled the War Department that the movies are great morale builders. This must be apparent to any movie fan. I think the big stars — male and female — can do better work for us on the screen than they can in uniform. They are worth a thousand 'pep' talks." ■ Imperishable line of the week, from Hedda Hopper's column in the Los Angeles Times : "The British War Office cabled Sam Goldwyn and received his permission to star Major David Niven in their biggest production to date, based on the history and exploits of the British army." ■ Studio brain conference, tossing around a flock of titles with "larceny*' in them and unable to decide which one, was virtually stopped by a visiting theatre man highly conscious of percentage terms. Observed the visitor: "Why not call it 'Larceny' and quit there?"