Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

February 25, 1922 1223 ORIGINAL FIRST NATIONAL FRANCHISE HOLDERS Top row (left to right) — J. B. Clark, Pittsburgh; Robert Bieber, Indianapolis; H. O. Schwalbe, Philadelphia; A. H. Blank, Des Moines; Moe Mark, New York; J. H. Kunsky, Detroit Large picture in centre — J. D. Williams, general manager, New York. At left of Mr. Williams — H. T. Nolan, Denver; N. H. Gordon, Boston; Frank Ferrandini, Richmond; Fred Dahnken, San Francisco; R. D. Craver, Charlotte, N. C. At right of Mr. Williams — W. P. Dewees, Vancouver, B. C. ; E. M. Mandelbaum, Cleveland; Jacob Fabian, Newark, N. J. ; Thomas Saxe, Milwaukee; E. V. Richards, New Orleans Bottom row— I. H. Rubin, Minneapolis; M. L. Finklestein, Minneapolis; Sol Lesser, Los Angeles; Harry Crandall, Washington; Col. Fred Levy, Louisville; Sam Katz, Chicago 5,000 Exhibitors to Celebrate First National Week Independent Screen Artists 9 Guild Will Participate in Big Campaign JN celebration of the anniversary of exhibitor co-operation, five thousand theatres in every part of the United States and Canada will participate in First National Week, February 18 to 25, according to the latest returns available at the Home Office of Associated First National Pictures on the eve of the big eight-day event. Allied with these thousands of exhibitors in the celebration of this anniversary is The Independent Screen Artists’ Guild, comprising all the principal independent stars and producers of the United States. Their productions will be available for all these theatres during this week, following the resolution adopted by the Guild at its formation in Los Angeles last December, to dedicate this week in February to the widest possible exhibition of their creations in the independent theatres of the North American continent. “ What the conditon of the exhibitor and independent producer would be today if there were not and never had been any such thing as First National is something worth thinking about,” said Moe Mark, president of the Mark Strand Company, one of the original franchise holders and member of the Executive Committee of Associated First National. “ But it is safe to say that hundreds of theatre owners would have been driven to the wall, and hundreds of others would have been practically serfs of distributing monopoly at the mercy of arbitrary and ruinous rental prices and playing any pictures they were able to get regardless of their quality or drawing power. “ Exhibitor and producer independence is today such a tremendous and inescapable fact that there may be a tendency to forget how gravely the producer’s and exhibitor’s freedom was actually imperilled in 1917. “ That was the year in which fifteen far-seeing exhibitors in self-defense rallied in response to the warning of First National and met the threat of producerdistributors tyranny with the announcement that they were prepared to encourage independent producers by guaranteeing them a profitable market for their product— asking in return only that the picture be the best that could be made, from the standpoint of box-office value. “ The exhibitor body was interested, but incredulous. It was the answer to the gravest of their worries and difficulties, but could it ever be successfully put into practice? Other groups and organizations had come to them before with plans that promised to be a panacea for their ills — but nothing had ever come of them. The fifteen exhibitors who had thrown down the gauntlet to the monopoly knew perfectly well the stupendous nature of the task ahead of them. It ( Continued on following page )