Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1921)

2274 Motion Picture News Rental Tax Repeal Awaits Action by Senate Finance Committee Votes That 5% Excise Be Revoked; Senate Expected to Concur THE repeal of the 5% film rental tax is not yet definitely assured. Although the abolition of this wartime excise was advocated by the Senate Finance Committee by a vote of 5 to 4, its repeal must yet be ratified by the Senate as a whole. Officials of the National Association of the ^lotion Picture Industry are redoubling their efforts to insure favorable action when the measure reaches the floor of the Senate for final vote. Following the repeal vote by the Senate Finance Committee, Jack Connolly, Washington representative of the National Association, came to New York for a conference with President Brady and Chairman Rogers of the taxation committee, both of whom will visit \\'ashington again this week to secure further support for the repeal measure, which will mean a saving of between five and six millions of dollars a year for the motion picture industry. A large number of Senators have pledged their support to ^Messrs. Rogers and Brady and will stand staunchly for the proposed repeal if it comes to a fight on the floor of the Senate. Senator Smoot of Utah, who was largely responsible for the result in the Finance Committee, will doubtless champion the cause of the picture industry should serious opposition to the tax repeal develop when the Revenue Exceptional to Announce Release Plans Soon ALEXANDER BUYFUSS, president and general manager of Exceptional Pictures Corporation, which is releasing Martin Johnson's "Jungle Adventures," and Charles (Chic) Sale in " His Nibs," announces that contracts for the distribution of these two productions are now being consummated. They will be announced in the next issue of the " Motion Picture News." Bill comes up for passage — which it will during the next few days. Similar support is expected also from .Senators Calder of New York, Dillingham of Vermont. LaFollette of Wisconsin, and Sutherland of West Virginia, all of whom voted in the Senate Finance Committee for the abolition of the 5% film rental tax — and from a great number of other senators who have not as yet had the opportunity to record their vote on this question of such vital importance to the picture industry. The announcement by Senator Penrose, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, that he anticipates the adoption by the Republican majority of all amendments suggested by the Finance Committee, is generally regarded as an extremel\ hopeful indication for the rental tax repeal in spite of the fact that during the past few days there has developed an apparent hostility on the part of some Republican senators to certain recommendations of the Finance Committee. This was evidenced in the action on Senator Reed's amendment to repeal the tax on telegrams, radio and long distance phone calls which was defeated by a vote of 32 to 26. All the members of the Senate are being canvassed and acquainted with the full facts justifying the industry's appeal for relief from the burden of excessive taxation. Company executives are urging their Senators by letter and telegram to support the amendment to the Revenue Bill which revokes the 5% sales tax. One of the large distributing companies, at the request of President Brady and Chairman Rogers, has communicated with several hundred big exhibitors in various states requesting that they urge their senators to stand by the industry in its hour of need. Exchange managers and special representatives in many territories have invoked the aid of leading business men in other industries also to join with the picture interests in an appeal for fair play to the motion picture business bv removing a discriminatory excise that has been felt not only by producers, distributors and exhibitors, but by the public that patronizes the movies. Clean Pictures Foremost Demand, Says Woody Realart Executive Completes Ten Weeks* Tour of Nation; Admissions Not Being Cut, He Says ^^fTT^ HE one thing that struck me most I forcibly," said J. S. Woody, general-manager of Realart, who ju>t returned from a ten weeks' tour of the country, "was the definiteness with which the exhibitors spoke regarding their intentions to run nothing but absolutely clean pictures. This sentiment is not sectional ; it is universal. I cannot fail to see in this desire to show only clean producitons a well-defined campaign on the part of the exhibitors to eliminate censorship by stagnation. In other words, they figure, and rightly, that if pictures contain no censorable qualities there will be no necessity to maintain expensive censor boards. "That is the practical side of it. But there is another, too, which reflects to the exhibitors' credit. As more than one of them expressed themselves to me, they have no wish to run any pictures in their theatres which will antagonize the local reform influences or possibly ofifend their patrons. The day of the salacious, suggestive pictures is past ; clean, artistic productions are the only ones that can possibly survive. And those that seek to mas querade under the cloak of 'pointing a moral' will have short shrift. Producers will do well to read the handwriting on the wall. "There is little for me to say regarding the dissolution of the recent depression, as other film executives who have been abroad in the field have accurately reported conditions. No one will even pretend that such a depression did not exist. It did, but happily there has been a steady resumption of normal business with the return of the cooler fall weather. I found the exhibitors as a general rule fairly optimistic and in more than one instance, they have shown me that their theatres are doing a greater volume of business than they did a year ago. "In some sections, it is true, unemployment has had much to do with sluggish attendance, especially in the manufacturing districts, but everywhere I went factories and mills were reopening, which augers well for the coming season. "Exhibitors throughout the country show decided evidence of being conversant with the major affairs of the day, espe cially as they affect the motion picture in dustry. They keep abreast with legislative matters and through local bodies no doubt exercise considerable influence upon their political representatives. Ever\'where I went I heard deprecatory comments regarding the shortsightedness of Congress in its advocacy of a high tarift", but few exhibitors think that it will go through. Exhibitors are getting more and more awake to the fact that they have in their control a powerful medium for the molding of public opinion, the screen, and they will not be loath to use it should the necessity arise in the battle to keep the motion picture industiy free and untrammeled by political and notoriety-seeking malcontents. "Before leaving on my trip I heard some talk of exhibitors reducing their admission prices, but from personal observation I can truthfully say that there is absolutely no foundation for such a rumor, barring an obscure case here and there. The moving picture patrons want a big show for their mone} but they are willing to pay for it. The day of the nickelodeon is a thing of the past."