Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1916)

APR 20 1916 '^QaB'd59150 "When You See it in 'The News' It's NEWS" LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 427 SO. FIGUEROA STREET Ntwi HAS THE gUALITY CIRCULATION OF THE TRADEl NEW YORK CITY SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE SEVENTH AVENUE "The Exhibitors' Medium of Communication CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 110 SO. DEARBORN STREET Volume XIII APRIL 29, 1916 No. 17 The Fat in the Fire THE fat is in the fire. The threatened breach between the Board of Trade and the Exhibitors League of New York is wide open. Two expositions will be held in New York City, one by the Exhibitors at Grand Central Palace, May 1-6; the other by the Board of Trade, May 6-13, at Madison Square Garden. iji ^ ^ YJ^E have tried sincerely, as others have, to bring about harmon}', hoping, as others have, that the whole useless agitation would surely be amicably settled, and hesitating to add unnecessary publicity to an unnecessary affair. But the spirit of Europe seems to be in the air. They are going to fig'ht. They are going to do their best to kill two shows, the objects of which are to strengthen the industry within and to introduce to the public the progress and dignity of our art and industry. They are eager, it seems, to present to the outside world a silly spectacle of inability and disorganization. Let's to it ! * * * QO we present now all the documents in the case, all the added and ecjually unfortunate developments that have just arisen. We present these to the exhibitors of the country with a pretty confident belief that they will weigh the evidence with a fresh impartiality, to which we recommend the wholesome additions of a little humor and plenty of plain horse sense. This will close the matter, so far as this publication is concerned. * ^ * pERHAPS the writer's version of the affair will have some weight. It is an impartial statement of facts. Two previous expositions have been held in New York, in 1913 and 1914. They were promoted and managed by exhibitors' organizations. The manufacturers paid liberally for space and sent their stars as attractions. The shows were successful, on the whole. Politics spoiled the conventions ; too few exhibitors attended ; the manufacturers over-printed, etc. ; and there was the usual dissatisfaction over various matters that always follow initial enterprises of this kind. But the shows made money and this money was honestly expended in strengthening exhibitor organization and against outside oppression. The exhibitors Avorked hard and entirely without remuneration. * * * ITH 1915 came the Board of Trade. It seemed only natural that the Board of Trade, an organization of the industry, should told the industry's exposition. W But, as a matter of fact, so very busy was this new organization in getting a start and in tackling the more immediate and serious problem of censorship, that nothing was thought or said of a trade show until the return to New York of S. L. Rothapfel, exhibitor member of the directorate of the Board of Trade, from his speaking tour of the countrv. * * * |\AR. ROTHAPFEL made an enthusiastic appeal for a trade show. The industry needed it. It would be most valuable for the exhibitor. A fine, elevating, artistic exposition should be got up and, if possible, put on wheels and brought to the attention of every exhibitor in the country, acquainting him with the newest and best advancements in the art of making and showing motion pictures. At this very meeting of the Board the suggestion was adopted and a national exposition was announced. A little later the executive committee of the Motion Picture Exhibitors" League of America met in Chicago raid decided to hold its annual convention and exposition in that city, July 11-16. A T this juncture a letter, thoroughly well-meant, we have every reason to beheve, but containing a single paragraph possible of unfortunate construction, was sent to the executive committee of the Motion Picture Exhibitors' League of America by the executive secretary of the Board of Trade. Undoubtedly a joint meeting would have laughed this misconception away in one minute, but most of us prefer to fight rather than reason ; so the little incident grew big i<nd at the State League Convention at Albany it, burst forth into general hostihty against the Board of Trade. We denounced this action at Albany — and again we denounce it — for one reason alone, that no one present had the remotest knowledge of the Board of Trade, its purposes, and work. DUT to return to the announcement by the Board of ^ Trade of a trade show in New York. lust here the Board of Trade made, in the writer's opinion, a serious error. Not one man alone was guilty of it, but every member of the executive committee was equally at fault. The writer takes his own blame, fully and a little more, in the matter. The error was this. The Board of Trade should at the outset, have invited the co-operation and participation in its exposition, of the Motion Picture Exhibitors' League of America through the New York branch, it having been (Continued on f"S<^ 2500.) Copyrigtit, 1916, hy F..\Iiil>H ors' Times, Inc.