Motion Picture Herald (1954)

THE MEETING of the board. Standing, left to right: Irving Dollinger, Sig Goldberg, Al Myrick, Glen Thompson, Nate Yamins, Beverly Miller, Don T. Schultz, D. E. Blissard, Trueman Rembusch, Wilbur Snaper, Neil Beezley, A. B. Jefferis. Seated: Elmer Hunke, Leon B. Back, Stanley Kane, Abram F. Myers, Ben Marcus, Rube Sh or, Horace Adams, Jack Kirsch, Col. H. A. Cole. ALLIED MEETS ( Continued from preceding page) after it has been in effect for three years, FTC shall report to Congress on its administration experience with recommendations for changing or repealing the act. Enforcement of the act is brought under the provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The measure would become effective six months after its enactment. In his keynote speech delivered directly after the official convention opening Tuesday afternoon, and after copies of the proposed regulation bill had been distributed to delegates, Mr. Myers made obeisance to the Silver Anniversary but stuck firmly to the title of his speech, “Allied Looks Ahead.” Fie recalled “with pride” the long fight which culminated in divorcement and said that it was “Allied’s unrelenting opposition” which saved independent exhibitors from the “brutal system” of affiliated circuit theatres. He also recalled the fight against compulsory block booking and asked those who he said were now muttering about a return to the good old days: “In view of the changed habits of theatre goers and their disposition to shop around for the best pictures, how would you like to revert to compulsory block booking and let the film companies decide which pictures you shall play?” “Of course,” the general counsel continued, “we in Allied are painfully aware that some of the reforms for which we fought are not working as well as they should. That is not because they were unsound in theory but because counsel for the film companies pulled the wool over the eyes of the Government lawyers in drafting the consent decrees and the Department of Justice has not the will to enforce the decrees to the extent that they can be enforced.” Mr. Myers said it was obvious that industry reforms would be most effective and workable when developed by industry representatives with knowledge and experience working in harmony and he pointed out that Allied through its history had participated in a great many industry conferences which “had come to naught” because “the film companies’ representatives, especially their attorneys, would not budge an inch on what they asserted to be their legal rights.” He then pointed out that since the reforms could not come about by agreement they had had to come by way of legal proceedings “by and under the control of the Government.” But, he charged, after the victory was won in the courts the Department of Justice snatched defeat from the jaws of victorv” and “frittered away the fruits of victory in the so-called consent decrees.” As a result Mr. Myers said that ineffective provisions had been drafted against two of the trade practices condemned by the courts — distributor control over the admission prices charged by the exhibitor, and compulsory block booking or forcing of pictures. "In the present state of affairs,” he continued, ‘ the only hope for relief from these practices ... is additional legislation to be enforced by some agency other than the Department of Justice.” Mr. Myers then said that even with “the crudely drawn” decrees, the full benefits of divorcement might have accrued to independent exhibitors — through the swelling of the product flow — had it not been for the advent of television. “With the precipitate decline in boxoffice receipts during the time when television exerted such a strong novelty appeal, the people would abandon their sets only for outstanding attractions and a new era was ushered into our business,” he said. “Had the film companies had in mind the welfare of the whole industry, and not merely their own selfish interests, they would have concentrated on making more good pictures. They were right when they said that it pays only to make good pictures ; they were cruelly mistaken when they decided that it paid to make only a few good pictures. . . . “Bigger profits from fewer pictures shown in fewer theatres on longer runs at higher admission prices — that’s the film companies’ ticket. It’s good for one delirious joy ride, if they have no fixed destination in mind, if they don’t care a hoot for the disasters that lie ahead and are heedless of the consequences to themselves and to the entire industry.” TOA BOARD WILL STUDY INVITATION Walter Reade, Jr., president of TOA, answering the invitation of Ben Marcus to join Allied's “Declaration of Emergency," if not in the actual move for government regulation, said the matter would be considered by the TOA board at its meeting immediately preceding the organization's convention October 31. The Allied invitation mentioned recurring reports of a possible merger of the two units. Mr. Marcus said he thought this premature "at this time," but he added it might be worthwhile for the two to "start going together and prove our compatibility." He charged that the film companies are operating on the theory that the public can be induced to seek out the motion pictures they want to see in the key theatres and that the revenue from the smaller theatres can be safely eliminated. Then Mr. Myers asked: “Has this great industry that means so much to the American people the right to commit suicide, whether it realizes what it is doing or not?” The general counsel took up some of the arguments circulated against government regulation since the step was first proposed. One of the claims, he said was that Government regulation would mean an end to free enterprise. He quoted a letter from Harry Arthur which said that his group had “come to the conclusion that Government regulation would be superior to . . . regulation by the film companies” and then said, “Without profits there can be no free enterprise. . . . Yet the evidence is overwhelming that the film companies are rapidly eliminating all profits from theatre operations or are reducing them to a bare subsistence level.” Quotes Precedent in Milk Industry New York Case He quoted at length from a Supreme Court decision — the Nebbia case — which upheld the right of New York State to regulate prices in the milk industry and said, “The present court may reasonably be expected to be at least as liberal, if not more so, in passing upon legislation enacted in the public interest.” Mr. Myers urged the delegates to study the draft of the bill carefully before acting upon it on the convention floor. He explained that the bill provided for adminisvration by the Federal Trade Commission because Congress would be reluctant to set up a new agency and the Federal Trade Commission seemed the most logical to perform the task required. Myers concluded his address by asking the convention to join him in honoring the man “who stands as a symbol of the idealism, integrity and devotion that characterizes Allied— Col. H. A. Cole. 14 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER Ifr, 1954