Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD MART I N QUIGLEY COLVIX BROWN, PubUdjer President and Editor-in-Chiej TERRY RAMSAYE, Editor Vol. 157, No. 13 mWjwM December 30, 1944 Projectionist and Hero C There are heroes, even unto death, on the home front, too. When fire broke out in the booth of the Orpheum theatre at the final war bond rally in the little city of Ortonville in Minnesota, Alfred Weatherby fought the flames and stood to his machines. The audience in the crowded theatre below sat unaware that disaster was just overhead. When the show was over, the projectionist quietly went to bed and died of his hurts. Mr. Weatherby had been in charge of that booth for twenty-eight years and knew, by sight at least, every member of that audience of his townsmen. He knew what fire and panic could do to that filled theatre. If he had called for help against the fire, he would have precipitated the panic. It .was a job for one man alone, and a fast thinking, brave man. There was that kind of man there to do it. It was done and it consumed the man who did it. Men are doing and dying like that around thp world under the duress of war, thousands of them. But today we are thinking of a man beside a flaming projector in a booth up there in a village of mid-America, fighting Fate and winning — for his fellows. Many heroes dash into deeds of daring and sacrifice in circumstances of spectacular inspiration. They do and try while others ivaver and wait. That sets them out for their moment of glory. Not so with this man Weatherby. He did it all alone — and tvent home when the show was over. THE MONEY MAKERS THIS is a woman's world and we have the statistics to prove It. In "this issue is the thirteenth annual presentation of the vote of the exhibitors of the nation on "The Ten Best Money-Making Stars" at the box office. This year, as in nine of the years before, the strong majority is of men, seven to three. Also, through the years 1940-43, war years, too, the count held high — eight to two. Only in 1933 and '34 did feminine stars predominate, narrowly, six to four. And in 1932 and '38 they achieved a tie at five to five. With its years behind it, and the fundamental validity of it as a document of the judgment of exhibitor showmen, and no one else, this Ten Best poll has become an institution of the industry. In the wake of its growing success have come an array of polls of all manner of sources of opinion — their results never squaring with the basic facts direct from the experience of the box office. The place to find the successes of the screen is where the screens are. That is where the Ten Best poll makes its intensive inquiry, year after year. When the exhibitor names the Ten Best on Motion Picture Herald's questionnaire, they are the ten best. ■ ■ ■ PRODUCTION ECONOMY SOMETHING to get militant about is an essential of the operation of Mr. Pete Harrison's publishing policy, and these days he has to do a bit of looking about to find it. So it comes that he has recently had a spell of indignation over what he considers "studio waste." It seems to boil down to discussion of footage which is left on the cutting room floor. One suspects that arrangements to closely limit or eliminate that would prove decidedly expensive to the product. Production of pictures has not yet, and never will, reach the precision of pouring a casting. The pouring of the picture into scenes on film is quite as creative a process as the making of the alloys in the melting pot. No great work of words on paper was ever achieved without revisions after it had been made visual. i J:^ J A set of figures comes back to memory. They pertain to Mr. Charles Chaplin's famous Lone Star two-reel comedies, a line of product which may in fact represent the highest final gross per negative foot in the annals of the art. Typical was "Easy Street." About 115,000 feet of negative was made, to get a final 1,650, less titles. It was about five weeks on the stage, at a cost of around $100,000 of which about $60,000 was Mr. Chaplin's salary. He left about I 14,000 feet of negative on the cutting room floor. It was part of his process of production— and that was not waste. Competitors were making tworeelers out of ten to twenty thousand feet of negative, and you cannot re.member who they were. Economies in motion picture production, and there could be some, will have to come, if ever, in terms of basic executive policy in refating the pictures to the market and dealing with factors that are not inside the horizons of the men who actually make the pictures. * Seeking to save film footage In picture production would be about equivalent to a newspaper rule limiting a reporter's supply of copy paper. ■ ■ ■ THE Chrlstmastlde announcement of the Impending departure of George E. Browne and William Bioff, formerly of Chicago and Hollywood, from a Federal hostel at Sandstone In Minnesota will be of interest to their many friends and associates, and others. A calculation, based on the accountings made under examination in New York, finds that, for the three years of their sojourning as guests of the Government, in their take from the Industry they averaged about $4,800 a week each, with board and room. Including deductions for certain charges by the U. S., but not calculating what division may have been made — must have been made — with "The Boys from Chicago". That could be rated as agent's fees, anyway. At midweek it was said that their plans for future connections would not be announced Immediately. — Terry Ramsaye