Movie Age (1927)

SEPTEMBER 10, 1927. PAGE 5 Chicago Strike Settled by Compromise Agreement Mayor Thompson’s Meeting With Unions and Exhibitors Results in Satisfactory Settlement of Dispute Laemmle Writes Motion Picture Articles for Saturday Evening Post In the August 27 issue of the Satur¬ day Evening Post there appeared the first of a series of articles by Carl Laemmle dealing with the motion pic¬ ture industry. It is titled “From the Inside” and deals with the business side of this industry. There are many people among the general public who may be able to tell the age, former husbands and present color of hair of every prominent wo¬ man on the screen, and can probably re¬ late in an awestruck voice the salary with which her press agent credits her, but who know nothing of the vast, high¬ ly complicated, business-like phase of this strange industry, known as distri¬ bution. It is with this that Laemmle deals in his first story. The whole industry will benefit by Laemmle’s work. The public will have a better understanding and appreciation of motion pictures when it learns to know more of how pictures are made and the complicated and difficult pro¬ cess of placing them before the eyes of the world. In succeeding articles Mr. Laemmle will take up production, advertising, publicity and exploitation, exhibition — in fact all the branches of the eighth largest industry in the United States. He will tell of the development of the picture theatre from the little store show, which was his first contact with this business, to the gorgeous cathed¬ rals of the motion picture of today. The motion picture business repre¬ sents a total investment of $1,500,000,000, says Mr. Laemmle. Of this amount $1,250,000,000 represents 15,000 theatres. Film exchanges and stu¬ dios represent $250,000,000. Of the 300,000 persons engaged in the industry only 50,000 are occupied in production. Fifty million persons attend the pic¬ ture theatres in America, Laemmle ex¬ plains. The American public paid $620,000,000 in admissions during 1926. During the days of the “store shows,” nickleodeons, and shooting gallery thea¬ tres, only a few thousand represented the daily attendance. Today 7,000,000 patrons attend the theatre daily. The seating capacity of the 20,500 theatres in America is 18,500,000. Seventy-five million dollars annually is the pay roll in the studios. For news¬ paper and magazine advertising, $15,000,000 a year is spent. Photographs, engravings, slides, booklets and other accessories come to $7,000,000. Minneapolis Pantages Theatre Now Features Screen Instead of Stage At the Pantages Theatre in Minne¬ apolis a change of policy has been ef¬ fected, consisting of eliminating all but one act of vaudeville and making the picture the feature of the program. Two record-breaking weeks were es¬ tablished when “What Price Glory” was shown as the picture with a single act of vaudeville. This program is shorter than that of most picture presentation houses. The first week under the new policy the Pantages did $15,000 and the second week was expected to reach about $10,000, which is greater than the average week for the usual combin¬ ation of complete vaudeville and pic¬ tures. No More Division Mgrs. For U. A. Under New Plan A1 Lichtman, general manager of dis¬ tribution for United Artists, has re¬ aligned the U. A. sales force so that all divisions have been merged into one big national selling unit. The position of divisional sales manager has been dis¬ continued entirely and all executives who held these posts have been appoint¬ ed to other duties. Paul N. Lazarus, hitherto western and southern division sales head, has been appointed to the newly-created post of sales promotion manager, one of his du¬ ties being to edit “United Action”, house organ to be issued in September. Creson E. Smith, Middle West sales manager, has been named assistant gen¬ eral sales manager, and Moxley A. Hill, Eastern sales head, takes over manage¬ ment of the new contract department. Little Press Note “In A Moment of Temptation”, “The Mojave Kid”, yielding to “South Sea Love” and together with “A Legion¬ naire in Paris” and “The Slingshot Kid” “Shanghaied” “The Ranger of the North” and aroused the indignation of “Jake the Plumber” who promises to be a “Harvester” of dollars for exhib¬ itors. Chicago picture theatres re-opened last Sunday after having been closed for nearly a week as a result of a lock¬ out by the exhibitors and a strike by the operators. The dark house situation came to a peaceful climax after representatives of of the various unions and exhibitors as¬ sociation met with Mayor Thompson. The mayor said he represented the pub¬ lic which wanted moving pictures over Sunday and Labor Day. Although the terms of the agreement were kept se¬ cret, the final settlement was a compro¬ mise. The stagehands’ contracts expired last week and they had joined forces with the operators. The dispute was report¬ ed settled. The Musicians Union con¬ tract expired the week before, but ne¬ gotiations for a new contract are under way. It was reported later that under the terms of the compromise the stage hands would receive an increase of be¬ tween 7 and 8 per cent, or three-fourths of what they asked. It also was report¬ ed that the operators would get a ful¬ fillment of existing contracts. Fifteen thousand persons were thrown out of work as a result of the strike and lockout. Theatrical investments of more than 75 million dollars were tied up, and more than 1 million dollars were lost in receipts by the 400 theatres that were closed. Auxiliary Department New M. P. T. O. Service To Advise Exhibitors President Woodhull and Business Manager O’Toole of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America have cre¬ ated a new division known as the The¬ atre Auxiliary Department which will serve exhibitors along any line pertain¬ ing to the handling of their theatres with the exception of exploitation and adver¬ tising which will be handled through the Exploitation Bureau now in process of development. The new department will be glad to tender advice to any exhibitor on such matters as building, remodeling, locat¬ ing or furnishing a theatre, giving in¬ formation regarding accessories, etc., whether the exhibitor is directly attach¬ ed to the national organization or not.