Motion Picture News (Nov-Dec 1925)

November 2 8 , 19 2 5 2537 been recorded for posterity. The News film has come to be the greatest historian of all. Our Presidents, our soldiers and our public men, from now on will live forever. •'When our grandchildren read in their histories of some great political event, some bitter struggle, some great victory won, they will look up from the letter and from the printed word and see as real as in the living presence the men who did these things. "How much better they will be able to understand. It is because of these things that we feel the greatness of the news film, and why we wish to celebrate its achievement tonight, and as we view this film which we have entitled "The Flashes of the Past," it makes us wonder what the flashes of the future will be, what destiny will inscribe on these celluloid pages of history. As the progress of human events marches on, perhaps this very method of news recording will itself be further perfected so as to do still greater service to the public. Time and space in the transportation of films will be reduced and minimized. Who can foretell if in our own lifetime we will see the day when motion pictures will be transmitted by the ethereal waves of the radio, so that the public will be able to sit in its favorite theatre and watch the events throughout the world, even as they see transpiring, when the whole world will be linked together in instantaneous understanding." 4 'Business, Not Politics" Seider Policy Woodbull and Cohen Also Important Speakers at Session of A. M. P. A. HAKMOXY among all branches of the industry was stressed at an important meeting of the A. M. P. A. November 12 in New York by a group of exhibitor leaders — Joseph M. Seider, Business Manager of the M. P. T. 0. A. ; R. F. Woodhull, President of the organization and Sydney S. Cohen, chairman of the board of directors. Strict business devoid of politics was announced by Mr. Seider as his policy in the business management of the M. P. T. 0. A. This was his first official pronouncement since taking office. It follows: "As Business Manager it will be our policy to conduct the affairs of the organization along strictly business lines. "The important subject of the moment, contract and arbitration, is nearing adjustment. Legislative problems will be worked out and the mass of detail necessary will be properly handled. "And although there naturally must result from this undertaking a certain measure of hope and confidence to the theatre owner, yet, he wants to know that he will be permitted to remain in business and enjoy the opportunity to carry on in his chosen field of endeavor. He wants to be sure of his future in this Industry. "It is argued that the building: of theatres Fix Penalty for Failure to Deliver Film AT an Albany meeting attended by J. H. Maclntyre, Robert Mochrie, Jack Krause and Ted O'Shea, representing the exchanges, and Julius Berinstein, Abe Stone and Louis Buettner, representing the exhibitors, decision was reached as to the method that would hereafter be employed by the exchanges in adjusting matters where a motion picture theatre has been forced to remain dark through failure of shipments to arrive on time. It was decided that in such cases where the rent of the film amounted to $15 or less, and where there were no facts to establish the amount of the claim, the exhibitor be awarded four times the cost of the picture, and furthermore that the picture be furnished the exhibitor without cost at a later date. In cases where the rental of the picture was up to and including $25, the award to the exhibitor is to be three and onehalf times the cost of the film, and in instances where the rental ranges from $25 upwards, the award is to be made on the basis of three times the cost of the picture to the exhibitor. cannot be stopped because the "wheels of progress cannot be blocked." "Is it progress to overbuild and overseat? Especially where the purpose is to eliminate the smaller competitor by the weight of larger financial resources. Is it progress to threaten a small operator with opposition unless he purchases a certain product? "Shall it continue impossible for a small operator to purchase qualitv product when he has for a competitor a large influential purchaser ? Should a theatre owner who has purchased for a number of years the product of a particular distributor lose that particular product without opportunity with the arrival of a more influential purchaser ? Or will the product be allocated so that he with 'clean hands' may live? "These are the problems confronting and disheartening the theatre owner and these are the problems we have presented to Mr. Hays, and these are the problems received most sympathetically by Mr. Hays." President Woodhull and Sydney Cohen, who acted as toastmaster, prefaced their remarks with laudations for Mr. Seider. Both Mr. Cohen and Mr. Woodhull urged members of the A. M. P. A. to cooperate with the Business Manager in the efforts that are being made to. bring about a perfect mutuality in the entire industry. In his speech, which was interspersed with bits of clever humor, President Woodhull took issue with an observation made by Adolph Zukor at a previous meeting of the A. M. P. A. "I think perhaps it is right to say that Zukor is the outstanding figure in the progress of the film industry," Mr. Woodhull said, "but I cannot agree with him in saying to you that the success of the film industry is practically a fifty-fifty proposition — the producers and the exploiteers. In fact I think it might be made a trio when you consider that the pictures have to be projected and that the exhibitor is the man who does that. But — when you come right down to it there is the public carrying the air, so after all a quartette describes, or apportions, it better to my way of thinking. "You advertisers and exploiteers are the lifting and driving power of the motion picture industry. You have all seen poor pictures that you fellows have absolutely put over. But you get your material from the producer and you work in the exhibitor's box office and the public eye is caught by your work. Therefore, how can it be a fiftyfifty proposition? When you come right down to it I do not think that anyone will ever be able to tell which of the four of us is the most responsible for the success and progress of the industry. It will always be the four of us and therefore the four of us will always have to stick together and work together. "I am in absolute accord with Mr. Hays' suggestion, made when he first entered the industry, that the industry needs a strong exhibitor organization and that representatives of that organization and of the producers should all sit down at the same table and decide matters as they present themselves. "Most of the so-called trouble in this Industry is founded on nothing but the whisperings of busy-bodies. It is up to us to recognize this fact and the sooner we do the sooner there will be real harmony and a perfect machine which will work for the mutual benefit of all of us." That the geography of the industry is constantly changing and that one company may be a power today and a total loss tomorrow was the theme which Mr. Cohen struck home to his audience. Due to such power menacing theatre holdings and harassing exhibitors, other units are springing up and fortifying themselves, Cohen said. With this angle in mind he declared: "It looks to me as if the battle of the giants will be fought in 1928." In connection with the "battle," Cohen referred to the inception of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America. "I firmly believe that if our organization had Lot been formed then that now one or two companies instead of owning 500 or 600 theatres, would own 5,000 or 6,000 theatres — meaning that lots of us who are now in would be out." Beetson Visits Eastern Canada Cities A recent visitor in Eastern Canadian cities was Frederick W. Beetson, secretary-treasurer of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc., Los Angeles. Beetson declared that the aim of his association was to regulate child labor in the moving picture industry, making it a recreation instead of an. imposition. Montreal Censor Seizes 30 Posters Martin Singher, moving picture poster censor of Montreal, Quebec, seized 30 posters at the Laurier Palace Theatre, 1683 St. Catherine Street, East, Montreal, on November 10, on the ground that they did not bear the approval stamp of the censor and that they were unfit for public display.