Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

496 Motion Picture News gratulate Mr. Hays. There are few bigger jobs to be done for this country and its public. It’s a hard job but a fine one— for an idealist. * * * Lest Mr. Hays think we overestimate the situation confronting the picture today we give extracts here from a letter just received from an exhibitor who knows the theatre and the public about as well as any man in this industry. He is the kind of man Mr. Hays ought to meet at once. He would tell Mr. Hays practically what he tells here: “ It fell to my lot to handle much of the fight against Censorship and Sunday closing in fan inland City) last fall. From this experience I realize how absolutely right you are in your editorial in the issue dated December 24th. “ It’s just the simple truth that we need publicity as defined by you, and need it in large and steady doses. We are out of touch with people, we are being lied about outrageously, and we are yet doing considerable lying to our own detriment. “ At a public hearing I heard two men— one a minister — speak against pictures. One stated that in all the history of this country there had never developed a greater evil than pictures as are now being shown! The minister, with the tremelo stop wide open, said that he was a friend of pictures, probably a better friend than the men who operated the theatres, yet if he were given his choice between the saloon at its worst and pictures as are being shown today, he would welcome the saloon. “ Of course it’s cheap bunk, so badly used that it could not affect even a committee of politicians. But the truth is that both these statements were actually applauded by a gallery. And when even a hand-picked gallery will applaud that sort of stuff, something is wrong — damnably wrong, if swearing is permitted. The reformer in this case overplayed his hand and was licked largely as a consequence— but that’s not the question. “We also ran into about this: ‘You say the National Board of Review is good. It’s located in New York, and presumably known there. But New York now has state censorship. May be they DO know the National Board of Review.’ We are trying to cure that by sending speakers from the Board through the South explaining the Board’s actual workings, but I understand that we are getting mighty little support from other exhibitors and distributors. Publicity is needed here.'' * * * The situation this exhibitor so clearly points out prevails to a more or less degree — generally more — in every city and section of this country. The galleries may be packed everywhere, but there’s hardly one, anywhere, that would not give some applause to such a radical utterance as the above. And as an indication of how ridiculously the picture is maligned and of the character of our opposition we refer Air. Hays to the letter of James A. Maddox of Columbus, Ohio, printed on page 500. \ And yet in the face of all this the writer gives it as his honest opinion (1) that a judicious, honest cam , paign of constructive publicity will sweep the public tide in favor of the picture, and (2) that there isn't a locality in the United States where it isn’t possible for the exhibitor and all of his local religious and social organizations to work hand in hand, sympathetically and successfully for all concerned. Mr. Maddox and a lot of other exhibitors are doing it. That wide gulf of misunderstanding has got to be bridged — that’s all. It takes a good engineer to build and maintain the bridge. But it can be done and it is being done. Adjustment — Sign of the Times Carl Laemmle’s announcement, last week, that Universal will cut rental prices so that the exhibitor may, , if possible, be protected against loss, has made considerable discussion within the trade. The problem is a several-sided one. Rental cost is one side, and a big one. But always there’s the matter of exhibitor effort through exploitation. One exhibitor will make money where the other loses, all things being equal except that one exhibitor knows how to sell the picture and the other doesn’t. Exploitation is the leaven of this business. Just the same the announcement is bold and sincere. Rentals must be adjusted. They are being adjusted. But the readjustment process can't be too thoroughly — if always intelligently — done. The exhibitor must be met half way these days; and a number of home offices in New York have got to forget old standards. The Universal announcement recognizes the inevitable fact that producer, distributor and exhibitor are business partners. The concern of one is the concern of the other. It will clear the air to have more such trade frankness. And another problem that needs more discussion is that of theatre admission prices. They, too, in many instances, have got to come down. JVM. A. JOHNSTON.