Motion Picture News (Jul-Aug 1916)

JUL 12 1916 / 0)Cl. ' When You See it in 'The News* It's News" LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 427 SO. FIGUEROA STREET I HAS THE gUALlTY CIRCULATION OF THE TRADE | , {. NEW YORK CITY SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE SEVENTH AVENUE "The Exhibitors' Medium o( Communication " CHICAGO. ILLINOIS no SO. DEARBORN STREET Vo] ume XIV JULY 22, 1916' No. 3 The Exhibitors' Opportunity THE statement by Frank J. Rembusch in last week's issue of ]\IoTioN Picture News on the deposit sysstem evidently struck a chord with the exhibitor. Mr. Rembusch has forwarded to us a number of responses to his article and a large number of letters bearing on tlie subject have been received by us. If the facts as stated in these letters are true they constitute a severe arraignment of certain exchanges, of their bad faith as well as their deplorable business policies. They also indicate pretty clearly why some exhibitors are not making monev. * * * r\ NE letter, in its simple recital of facts, leaves no doubt as to its honest)^ and awakens at once a sincere sympathy and a condemnation of the lax business methods which make possible such cases. A husband and wife, five years ago, invested their all in a theatre out A\'est, buying the building and lot on contract payments. They struggled along for a few years and finally contracted for a first class program, taking the program's advice as to booking good pictures steadily, advertising them persistently and building up a permanently good patronage. They added good music — and they succeeded with a house which had been stamped as a white elephant. * * * NTOW — to cut the story short — a newer house, erected •"•^ because of their success, has their program. Their previous advertising is sending their patronage to their competitor. They are back to vaudeville and cheaper pictures and neither house is making money. Which presents, of course, a business situation which is bad and faultv from every angle. * ' * * I N each of these letters, most of which are evidently from men hot under the collar, there's a dare expressed or implied that we do not print the letters. In reply we have to say that we do dare print the letters. But to what avail ? Whom will it benefit ? To yell in print at the producer and distributor won't help the exhibitor one particle nor will it avail the producer and distributor to shout back denials and recriminations. We might print volumes of such letters and statements and still be right back where we started. * * * "T" HERE'S only one possible way to solve these very broad vital problems and that is for these dominant branches of the industry to arrange, through an association, for systematic and emergency conferences at which disagreements and misunderstandings can he threshed and settled in a thorough-going, business-like manner. The new National Association of the Motion Picture Industr}'', just formed, upon a charter and by-laws framed carefully by an impartial, hard-working, honest-minded committee of twelve, and which will be presented at Chicago for the consideration of the Exhibitors' Convention, offers just this opportunity. It bridges the big gap now standing between exhibitor and producer. To do this was one of the prime reasons why the Association was started — and it does it. * * * T ET the exhibitor clearly understand the fundamentals of this association. It is, in fact, a federation, an alliance of the main branches of this industry. It gives to each its own selfgovernment. It says to each : go ahead and organize and run your own affairs. It encourages, by every means possible, the development of these various bodies ; for instance, it emphasizes the importance of the M. P. E. L. of America and stimulates its development by stating that exhibitors may only become members of the National Association through first being members in good standing of the M. P. E. L. of America. * * * C O it encourages the organization of each branch of the industry into a firmly knit active body ; but it also arranges that each shall be brought into active conference and co-operation with the other whenever disturbances threaten within or without the industry. This systematic and emergency conference basis will be of inestimable advantage to exhibitors, and to producers. It is absolutely the only solution of present and future difficulties disturbing equally the business welfare of each. * * * T"" O the exhibitors who have written us such heated arraignments of present exchange methods I should say: it is your first duty to go to Chicago, if you possibly can. Become a member of and help organize your own body. Then help to federate your exhibitors' organization into a national association of the industry. This will give you your first opportunity to lay ^^our grievance before the manufacturers — ^not one but all the manufacturers. You do not have to deal with an exchange, which may admit you are right but is helpless to help you. You can take your complaint direct to headquarters and you will get the weighty consideration of an entire organization. 5f: ^ H= \/"OU have never had this opportunity before. You can have it now. And it is your only hope. Organization and organization alone can straighten out for you the undoubted business fallacies and looseness which prevail in this business and affect, ever}' day, your box office receipts. You have got to enter into a trade association. William A. Johnston. Copyright, 1916, 6;/ iloiion Picture Xeicn, Inc.