Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1946)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD MARTIN QUIGLEY, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher TERRY RAMSAYE, Editor Vol. 163, No. I OP June 15, 1946 THE OUTLOOK WITH so much of uncertainty, unrest and speculation in the atmosphere of the motion picture, it may be of interest to consider some of the certainties, as they appear now. Foremost is the fact that the screen stands, and promises to continue to stand, dominant among the entertainments of the people. That is because it has achieved the capacity to deliver more entertainment at the price, or any price, than other mediums. It is substantially certain, too, to continue that capacity for efficiency. The cost of the motion picture is not established by inherent qualities but by competitions of its producers, distributors and exhibitors in their pursuit of the box office customers. The motion picture can and will be produced, distributed and exhibited at a profit within the buying power of the customers, whether that buying power rises or falls. Let the political economists piffle as they will, the control of prices is solely in what the traffic will bear. Parenthetically, we are having a demonstration of that right now in the experience of the nationwide black market situation in the face of what the Office of Price Administration is striving to do. In the larger sense, price is decided by the willingness of the customer to pay. It is within the capacity of the motion picture to adjust to that, either up or down, with considerably more facility than most other industries. That is because the price of so much that it buys and sells is so directly conditioned by a state of mind. It is clear enough, for example, that many of the components of cost, such as story materials and special skills of writers, directors and players, are established by competitions for box office attention, the price the customer is induced to pay. In mind at the moment is an excellent actor who a few years ago, appearing in stage plays, drew a top of $500 a week. Today he rates about $3,000 a week in Hollywood. He is not six times as good an actor as he was on Broadway, and he does not work as hard. He has merely moved into a bigger market, and it is the size of the market opportunity that decides his price. The basic certainty is the customer. The principal variable is his buying power. The realm of the uncertainties Is inevitably getting the most of current attention. Some of them were enumerated by Mr. Mitchell Wolfson, Miami exhibitor, in a Jacksonville speech the other day, among them: The outcome of the Government suit; the impending flood of new theatre construction said to be around the corner, when controls are relaxed; the development of 16mm exhibition. To that must be added the question of maintained customer buying power, when war savings and unemployment relief are spent. After that it will be a question of payrolls in industrial production. The issues of today add to the uncertainties of normal destiny the artificial whimsies of the planned economy exponents who write their formulae for today's peacemaking without the authority of a state of war. One is to be reminded again of that phrase, "bootstraps economy", of a dozen years ago. The endeavour is still being made. Fiat does not grow wheat, build homes, but it does make money — of a sort. There will, however, always be a motion picture and a motion picture theatre, and It will take whatever Is being used for money at the time. ■ ■ ■ READING Mr. Sherwin Kane's dispatch to Motion Picture Daily from Columbus, "this somnolent Mississippi town", Mr. Francis Harmon, earnest southerner, is romantically reminded that it was there that our national Memorial Day was born. After the War Between the States, Father Ryan wrote his now classic, "The Blue and The Gray", which inspired Columbus to decorate the military cemetery there, founding what the South calls Decoration Day. Down there it is April 26, because that is when their roses bloom. ■ ■ ■ LITTLE whispers are to be heard here and there to indicate a possibility that there just might be an end to some of . the inflationary madnesses of the war-end sellers' market, at least here and there. Some dealers are finding no market, even in New York, for new radio sets of unknown name. Reports in various trade journals indicate that some of the out-of-town department store buyers are getting right "picky" about goods. It Is said that a Pennsylvania dealer followed up about two thousand so-called "back orders" for electric water heaters and closed only thirty-five sales In a week. There are reports of truck tires at a discount in some cities. The Wall Street Journal looking about finds: "There is the first fluttering of failures among business enterprises founded by veterans", operating on Government-guaranteed loans. ■ ■ ■ KNEE-DEEP IN JUNE is strawberry time In the valley of the Silvermine, and time for strawberry shortcake. You'll remember that pious sage who said: "Doubtless, God could have made a better berry but, doubtless, He never did." As much might be said for the great classic, American shortcake. There would be no point in improving it. That, to be sure, assumes that It be made to perfection. The cake component can be none of those unhappy substitutes of yellow dough or brittle biscuits common to restaurants and commerce. It must be made unsweetened, but rich with pure shortening, somewhere between a perfect biscuit Inside and a perfect piecrust outside. It is to be split and spread inside with fresh butter and put back in the oven for a moment, then removed and laved within and without with the chopped and sugared berries, dead ripe when picked, and allowed to stand in their juice at room temperature for an hour or two. It is to be served in a big soup plate and over-all goes a generous pouring of heavy Jersey cream. Preferably the cream should come from a heavy stone pitcher, beady with the coolness of a spring house where the clear water gurgles between the stones. So made and served, a strawberry shortcake is an act of righteousness. Any deviation makes it both a cardinal sin and an expression of the barbarism of ignorance. — Terry Ramsaye