We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
OCTOBER,!, 1 9 2 7.
PAGE 5
EDITORIAL
Often has the statement been made that competition is the life of trade. Unquestion¬ ably clean competition is; but unclean com¬ petition acts as a boomerang that sometimes leaves a blot that is extremely hard to erase.
This comment is made on a situation that occurred in a two-theatre town just recently.
Fortunately not many instances of this kind occur, but the trick that was pulled by one exhibitor against his competitor was so base that we cannot refrain from lambasting it.
Here is the incident. One of these two exhibitors had booked a picture, which he ad¬ vertised extensively throughout the county. The picture was known to be a special and was considered to be a natural box-office hit. A shorter-length production with the very same title was secured from somewhere by this exhibitor’s competitior and, on the day that the newer production was to open, car¬ ried a large ad in the local paper announcing the showing of the “bootleg” picture, featur¬ ing this production over a picture, which was in itself a worthy attraction.
The result was that both theatres have suf¬ fered. The gain by the exhibitor who em¬ ployed these base tactics was slight compared with the loss in good-will that he is suffering now. He has killed the respect of his patrons and the people of his community for him and has destroyed their confidence in his future announcements by misleading them in his advertising and showing them an old and worn out production.
Strong competition is best met with good sportsmanship — clean, upstanding business tactics.
Joe Brandt, Trail Blazer, might well be the caption of the story telling of this independ¬ ent producer’s ambitious plans, which have taken him to Europe. Mr. Brandt and his as¬ sociates in the Columbia Pictures Corporation have made many progressive strides in the few years of this company’s existence and have blazed the independent trail to achieve proper recognition of quality product. With their distributing organization functioning suc¬ cessfully in the United States, Mr. Brandt is hopeful of effecting satisfactory distributing arrangements for his company’s product in all European countries and at the same time ce¬ menting the relationship between foreign and American producers and distributors.
The motion picture has long since attained international importance. The success of Mr. Brandt’s plans will mark another forward step for this executive and at the same time estab¬ lish a foothold in the foreign market fo other independent producers.
* * * *
Nicholas M. Schenck has been elected presi¬ dent of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This action was expected and Mr. Schenck’s appointment is well deserved. For the past three years he has been in active charge of the Loew enter¬ prises, during which time he kept himself in the background, but his work, most capably executed, speaks for itself. Mr. Schenck is one of the industry’s most capable executives. He has had a long and successful career in the entertainment and motion picture fields, and his official election as head of the large Loew theatrical and producing organizations is significant of the carrying forward of these interests to even greater success.