Evidence study no. 25 of the motion picture industry (1933)

CHAPTER I BACKGROUND OF THE INDUSTRY No attempt to understand the present problems of the American motion picture industry can be even partially successful without some appreciation of the character of the development out of which the present situation has evolved. That development has been interesting from many different angles. For the purpose of the present discussion, however, it is chiefly important that attention should be centered on the character of the problems which confronted those responsible for the development of the business in so far as they related to the commercial aspects of production, distribution, and exhibition. These problems were very numerous, very diverse, and very perplexing. The men who undertook to solve them had, in the main, no precedents to guide them. If under these circumstances many mistakes were made and the record of failures seems high, it must be borne in mind that it is doubtful whether in the hands of any other persons a better record would have been possible. There seems in some quarters to be a tendency to cast unfavorable reflections upon these pioneers in the motion picture industry. The fact that many of those identified with the business were born abroad and that their earlier years were spent in other lines of business is deemed sufficient grounds for speaking more or less sarcastically about the men and their achievements. Yet when all is said and done, these men met problems distinctly novel, substantially unlike those which had existed in other fields of industry; made at least measurable progress toward solving them; and built up results far beyond anything achieved by the vast majority of those who criticize so freely, results which were very tangible in terms of financial return and which 1