Motion Picture News (Jul-Aug 1916)

MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 14. No. 5 734 ]has the quality circulation of the trade MOTION PICTURE NEWS EXHIBITORS' TIMES Published on Tuesday Every Week by 729 SEVENTH AVENUE, COR. 49TH STREET, NEW YORK. WILLIAM A. JOHNSTON President and Editor HENRY F. SEWALL Vice-President E. KENDALL GILLETT Secretary H. ASHTON WYCKOFF Treaeurer and Business Manager WENTWORTH TUCKER Asst. Treasurer R, M. VANDIVERT Advertising Manager THEODORE S. MEAD Chicago Manager J. C. JESSEN Los Angeles Manager LESLEY MASON Manaoing Editor WILLIAM RESSMAN ANDREWS News Editor The office of the company is the address of the officers. Entered as Second-Class matter at the New York Post-Office. Subscription ?2 per year, postpaid, in the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. Canada, $3; Foreign, $4 per year. N. B. — No agent is authorized to take subscriptions for Motion PiClbEB Nbws at less than these rates. Have the agent taking your subscription show his credentials and coupon book. VOL. XIV August 5, 1916 No. 5 Why Oppose the Schools and Churches? AT the Chicago Convention a resolution was passed against the use of motion pictures in schools and churches. The action brings to mind a situation which developed this year in Massachusetts. A bill was presented in the state legislature licensing churches, schools and similar institutions to install projection equipment and show motion pictures. The Exhibitors' League of Massachusetts, a very excellent organization, was minded at once to oppose the bill and placed their wishes before ]Mr. Granville S. MacFarland, editor of the Boston American, a man in whose ability and friendship they have the greatest confidence. * * * 'T'HEIR advisor said: " Don't oppose the bill." And he gave two very brief and excellent reasons. In the first place, said he, it is impossible to control the showing of motion pictures, just as impossible as it is to control the product of the printing press. In the second place, said he, opposition is inadvisable, in the exhibitors' best interests. tMien free and circulating libraries were started book publishers and sellers thought they spelled the doom of their business. On the contrary, their business was increased because a new public was taught to read books. Just so institutional pictures will create regular patrons of motion picture theatres among those who have never been properly introduced to the screen. * * * lyiR. MacFARLAND, in our opinion, is right— in both points. Within the past year probably several million people have become regular patrons of picture theatres— and it is regular patronage upon which most theatres depend — because they saw one or more good pictures and found that pictures were quite dififerent from what they thought they were. W't believe, that as many more people will be brought to picture theatres in the same way and through seeing pictures elsewhere than at picture theatres. Trade pa])ers, as wcW as all other publications, are used to being denounced and are inclined to take denunciations smilingly and not over seriously. At Chicago they got their full share, which perhaps was to be expected though one is unavoidably forced to question the grounds for the attack. * * * It is a well-known publishing axiom that with any reputable, established journal its readers come first. The exhibitor, in this trade, being the principal reader, it follows that the exhibitors' interests are held first. There is no argument about the matter. Either they are held first or else the journal has no reading circulation and shows upon its face that it is of no consequence. In other words the matter is a plain business one. If the publication, still acting in its readers' best interests, disagrees with some action of theirs, in the way of business policies or organization matters, it is in all honesty moved to declare its opinion openly and flatly. Certainly its motives are sincere and its intentions of the best ; and so they must appear ever to the reader with whom the publication takes issue. * * * "VY/E are always suspicious of the man who constantly " fawns upon us and assures us we are right whatever we do. W e are suspicious either of his motives or his intelligence. Our real friends we count as those who tell us the truth, even if it hurts. The exhibitor, we take it. doesn't want to be kissed by his publication. That is scarcely the function of an independent and authoritative journal. He wants, we assume, editorial honesty and intelligence whether he agrees with the editorial opinion or not. And in addition he wants a good service publication, one that will help his business, just as he wants good pictures and for the verv same reason. It is our function and our intention to get out just such a publication. AnotJier Photoplay Editor s Point of View JULIAX T. BABER, photoplay editor of The Daily Advance, of Lynchburg, Va., makes an interesting contribution to the discussion of a subject which has, apparently, aroused more than passing interest among both publicity and newspaper men — the question of the publicit}' editor's point of view versus that of the newspaper editor. ]\Ir. Baber's letter we think sufficiently interesting to bear quotation. Says he : * * 4: **T SEE from your issue of July 15, that the troubles of tlie motion picture editor and the motion picture publicity man are still unsolved and there still exists a gap which remains unbridged because of the fact that these two agencies cannot reach an intelligent understanding. Certainly, the newspaperman knows what he needs and I am certain that he has done his part in attempting to make plain through the columns of AIotion Picture Xews the reason for the refusal of many papers to use the matter which some press agents persist in sending out. " I want to sustain the indictment of Charles F. Cobry, photopla)' editor of the Omaha Bee, in which he charged, in eflfect, that the publicity matter sent out to the newspapers by film publicity men is unsuited to newspaper use, and in some cases worthless. It appears that some of the publicity men have not yet learned what the papers want {Continued on page 791)