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110 -^ ^> <b. The Motion Picture Industry
the rest of the country. Even if this were not true, it would seem that those responsible for motion picture policy would have had experience enough to demonstrate in terms of dollars and cents the inaccuracy of the assumption that as goes Broadway so goes the nation.
All this introduces a problem which producers should consider but to which they rarely do give attention — the problem as to the wisdom of releasing pictures which are known to be unsatisfactory. In other lines of business, merchandise which is inferior, and which if distributed would injure the manufacturer's name, often is destroyed. Pictures, however, once produced very rarely are voluntarily withheld from release. Censorship requirements may interfere with their general distribution; on the whole, however, after a picture has been produced, every effort is made to secure widespread distribution. In fact, so generally is this true that it is doubtful whether the desirability of withholding a picture from release is ever seriously considered.
An example of what is involved in this question is to be found in the experience of one producing company which actually faced the problem. RKO Productions, Incorporated, in the 1929-1930 selling season considered the advisability of permanently withholding the release of a film, costing approximately $110,000 including studio overhead charges, which in the opinion of the company's distribution executives would not meet with public approval. The cast included but two fairly well-known stars' names. The plot was risque and the dialogue ultrasophisticated. The censorship boards of three states, on the basis of preview showings, had banned the picture from exhibition in territories under their jurisdiction.
Although most of the company's major executives, except the production officials, were agreed that the picture in question would not achieve box office success, opinion was divided on the advisability of permanently withholding its release. Those who favored withholding the release averred that it would be decidedly unwise to chance a loss of good