Motion Picture News (Apr-Jun 1919)

3016 Motion Picture News Sol Lesser and Wm. Seabury Speak Up Independent Distributor Takes Hand in Discussion on " Open Market Versus Program," and Finds Place in Sun for Both — Seabury Advances Cooperative Plan AS we promised you last week — Sol Lesser has come to bat with one of the most interesting contributions yet to the discussion on film distribution started by William A. Johnston's recent editorials. The Pacific Coast film man — whose activities really stretch all over the country at times — takes up the question from the viewpoint formed by his own experience, and presents a cool analysis of " Open Market " and program necessities. William M. Seabury, recently associated with the Film Clearing House, advances an ambitious plan for cooperative booking and distribution. Though the scheme may seem to border on the Utopian, Mr. Seabury puts the force of good argument behind it. My Dear Mr. Johnston : I am very thankful for the opportunity you have extended for an expression of my views on the open market situation ; not so much because self-expression is attractive to me in itself, as for the reason that I believe the question involved is at the present moment of vital interest to the entire motion picture industry and one requiring first, illumination, then analysis, and finally the acceptance of a conclusion that will represent a standard of opinion to the whole trade. For the " open market," like the gods of old, are made to represent many things, but singularly, rarely reflects the open market itself. I believe the very name was adopted to throw sand in the eyes of the exhibitor; a figure of speech, ay mere verbal camouflage, a phrased substitution for the real open market demanded so long and so unanimously by all forward-looking exhibitors. But the genuine open market will come during the next few months ; indeed, its presence, materializing in the new trend toward fewer and better productions now heralded on all sides, and in the freedom from distributor-dictation, is already crossing the threshold of the exchange door. I confidently feel that I can speak with some authority on what the immediate future will bring forth, because in this industry, as in every other, the causes of one year develop their effects in the next, and the forces that have taken root during the past twelve months indicate a vigorous growth in the period before us of the open market plan of operation. Every exhibiting condition, every 'box-office phase of the past year has revealed an intensely motivating demand on the part of large and small exhibitors for free and open selection of product. I am familiar with this process of exhibiting thought, and this fruition of exhibiting desire and demand, for, unlike the distributors who sit behind imposing desks in New York City and judge national conditions theoretically, or at best, from maps hanging on their walls, I have made it a consistent policy to mingle constantly with exhibitors, to journey over large territories and to familiarize myself by direct contact and assiduous study with exhibitors' problems and grievances ; and frankly, ninety per cent, of those grievances have been directed against the present systems of booking, which vary only in the degree of their inadequacy to the requirements of the times, and which yet are consistent only in their general ineffectiveness and inflexibility. "Can't Do Everything" Unquestionably, the majority of evils that beset the present distributing systems arise from a common cause — the practice which CINEMA CLUB Semi-Annual Novelty Dance Big Success SATURDAY evening, April 26, was a happy occasion for camera men and their host of friends when the semi-annual dance and Novelty Ball of the Cinema Camera Club was held at the Estee Motion Picture studio in New York City. The aggressive entertainment committee in charge was composed of Lyman Broening, George Coudert, A. L. Ansbacher, J. Cronjager, Lewis Dunmyre, Harry Keepers, Arthur Quinn, Burton Steene and Lawrence Williams. Messrs. Spitz and Luck gave generous cooperation. Harry Cherkoff's orchestra furnished music for a varied dancing program of twenty-four numbers and cameras registered many scenes which will be shown later. developed a few years ago resulting in producing-distributing combinations. Very few organizations of strength and scope are today free from this undermining influence ; and even those which are free are vitally affected by the methods of the others. As has innumerably been reiterated, an organization cannot do its full justice to the trade unless it concentrates upon one particular branch of the business ; and the humorous part of the sad situation is the fact that even those companies which are directly responsible for this deplorable condition, which, in fact, initiated it, have frequently made that statement. It is in the knowledge and recognition of the principle that complete success and genuine service to the trade could only be accomplished by a strict adherence to one definite sphere of effort that I have stood distinctly alone as a distributor, and am neither an exhibitor nor a producer. My plan of open-market distribution is similar to that of a real-estate agent who sells property ; in other words, the middle man. When I buy a picture I do not have to sell it to my own theatres, because I do not operate any theatres. If the trade would only stop deceiving itself, and admit, what it must already realize, that a person cannot buy and sell to himself and do justice to both sides. It is only natural to favor that end which repre-. sents the greatest personal profit ! Therefore, the open booking attempted by exhib itor-controlled bodies is an ineffectual arrangement at best, and at worst a base deceit, because there can be no successful competition on the part of opposing exhibitors, and the producer cannot resultantly secure all the revenue he is justly entitled to. Open booking cannot be handled adequately or successfully by a program exchange for the reason that when an exchange so constituted is assigned to distribute a " special," the efforts of the entire sales organization are concentrated upon that production and devoted almost wholly toward making a showing upon it, which distracts them from their regular and systematic efforts of promoting the program — and the program suffers; suffers not only currently, not only during the sale of the special, but for a long time thereafter, because the machinery has been radically changed in the interim, and it requires a reverse adjustment to accommodate the accustomed business of the organization. Not only does the exchange lose in efficiency during this period of transition from one definite policy to another, but the exhibitor loses in proportion through lost or impaired service. Another dilemma which results from this shifting of gears, so to speak (for after all an exchange is only a machine), is the embarrassment caused for both distributor and exhibitor in the very question of the special so handled. The exchange must favor the exhibitor who uses its program or the exhibitor will cancel it. Now, then, how can this be termed the successful open-market solution? Open booking can only be undertaken and successfully prosecuted on the plan that I have established, with, I may be pardoned in adding, satisfaction to the exhibitor and gratification to myself. I exploit only that kind of productions which can be individually distributed and exhibited. " Mickey " will gross $60,000 in California. Griffith's " Hearts of the World " receipts in the eleven Western States will approach $350,000 in net rentals. Should either of these pictures have been exploited under the only other plan now in existence in the industry — i. e., through the program exchange, these totals must necessarily have been lower for the reasons enumerated herein. Room for Both Exhibitors with their hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in buildings and equipment, cannot blind themselves to the fact that the program feature is the basis upon which their structure has stood. They must have a program. How else could they determine weeks in advance that they would have enough product to keep their theatres going? This conclusion, of course, is predicated upon the theory of one-week maximum runs, and two-day average runs throughout the country. The established program systems occupy in this connection a definite position with a secure foothold for the future. The World Film Company, to my mind, has settled its position for the future definitely by public announcements that it is the intention of the company to continue upon the program policy. I predict that other distributing organizations handling program quality of pictures, even though they attempt what they call an open-market condition, will resign themselves to the onlypractical way of handling program serv(Continued on next page)