Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD COLVIN BROWN, Publisher MARTIN QUIGLEY President and Editor-bt-Cbkf TERRY RAMSAYE, Editor Vol. 159, No. 2 OP April 14, 1945 TRIAL and RETRIAL THAT impending investigation of monopoly charges pertaining to picture exhibition by a Senate committee has the curious and special aspect of legislative attention to a subject now before two Federal courts. In essence it promises to be a trial by committee of a cause in the process of adjudication. One might suppose that the argument would be that the inquiry by the Senators is to decide if there should be a new law; while the court cases seek a judgment under existing law. In that event the Senate might well call its inquiry an examination of the adequacy of the Sherman law and the Clayton act. However, it is obviously not that simple. According to a news account in this issue the Senate committee's attention derives from the interest of Mr. Dewey Anderson, executive secretary, who held that same position with the Temporary National Economic Committee, which, you will recall, paid a lot of attention to the motion picture some four years ago. It seems to be in the nature of a specialization. The immediate provocation is said to be the complaints of the Park-Butte Theatre company of Butte, Montana, but that matter is now in the Federal court in Montana. The issues, moreover, are not to be found differing in essense with some of those which are embodied in the big national case, the United States versus Paramount, et. al., now so long and tediously before the Federal court in New York. CORRESPONDENCE THE Monday mail is always interesting. To hand just now is a letter from Mr. E. V. Richards, Jr., of New Orleans, enclosing a copy of a letter he has had from Mr. Y. Frank Freeman on the general subject of product and how to relate it to the exhibitor's requirements. Says Mr. Freeman's letter: "I have decided, by establishing a special service department under my immediate jurisdiction, I can get many suggestions from you and other exhibitors that will help us make pictures nearer the quality that you want, and will help us to find out what subjects are desired by you and other exhibitors. I am going to write you every week or ten days whether you answer or not " Mr. Freeman was writing from and for Triangle Film Corporation, 1457 Broadway, New York, under date of September 10, 1917. Maybe Mr. Richards is about to reply. A POX OF PHRASES THE language, printed and spoken, in these excessively voluble days of causes, movements, issues and chicane, high and low, is greviously accursed of dumb cliches. Mostly the cliche habit finds its addicts among persons who do not know what a cliche is. Two of the worst are "no comment" and "off-the-record". "No comment" tends to wane. It was tremendously smart for awhile. It was taken to mark the speaker as a firm minded person of such utter dignity that he really should not have been approached by a mere press person on the subject con cerned— or perhaps any subject. Its real meaning is that "you've got it on me but I will not admit it", or "if I should say, I'd put myself in a spot", or "I'm so dumb I don't understand the question". "Off-the-record" is much more complex. The meanings depend on the circumstances, the personality of the speaker, the nature of the "environment, and the time of day with respect to the cocktail hour, the highball hour or the Byrnes hour, when man's work is done. "Off-the-record" primarily means "I do not care how far this story travels just so it is not hung on me as the source". It may also indicate to the press "let this cool for a few days and then attribute it to an unnamed source in Washington or New York", that depending on which is the other city. "Off-the-record" is another form of irresponsible broadcasting when the utterance is to more than two persons. It can also mean "when this gets out, I shall announce that it is a lie". Yet another nuance of this form of communication means "this statement is a miserable lie, but 1 want it whispered around". "Off-the-record" is frequently used before audiences of a thousand or so persons. Remarks so delivered are commonly not published before the following morning. While "no comment" implies "But, boy! What I could say if I wanted to", its elusive companion phrase, "off-the-record", is considered, by those who use it, to denote that the speaker is of course positively permeated with and encrusted over with the most utter inside authority on the subject. The democracy is playing hell with the King's English. IN THAT annual report of a fortnight ago from Mr. Will Hays you'll be finding a quotation from Mr. Elmer Davis, friendly to the screen, but saying: "The motion picture, which was a quaint embryo at the last peace conference ..." At that period the motion picture was a worldwide industry. It had about 16,000 theatres in the United States and was quite as dominant among amusements as it is today. Just for a sample figure Mr. Charles Chaplin, then the No. I box office star of the world, was earning about a million dollars a year. Considerable embryo, and not so quaint, Elmer. THE old apple tree which stands on the bank where the garden meets the brook buds again with brave promise after a hundred New England winters. It is gnarled and storm-torn, seamed with scars and dwarfed by drought and meager soil. It survives now by reason of its decorative charm and valourous devotion to life. It also casts a kindly shade through the summer, inviting the gardener to rest and reflection when weather and the world alike oppress. In the dry glacial gravel where the grass is thin flint arrowheads are to be found, with memories of those red primitives who were so uncivilized they settled their differences by war. And just under the surface are circles of black char where the redmen made fires to broil their venison. Presently the tossed branches will be bedecked with fragrant bloom in pink and white and the nesting bluebirds will flash in contrast like turqoise jewels on pale brocade. There will be no fruit, but the ancient tree has come to grace with the years. One would like to do as well. — Terry Ramsaye