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4
-THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY
IT SHOWS WHICH WA Y
THE WIND IS BLOWING
(No. 144. Straight-fiom-the-Shoulder Talk by the President of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company.)
Under the heading "Split Reel Notes for Theatre Men," in a recent issue of "Motography," 1 found the following:
"A canvass of twenty-one exhibitors to find out whether their patrons preferred the all-feature program, the three-feature-aweek program or the mixed program resulted in a vote of seventeen to four for the mixed program. Four were in favor of the three-feature-a-week entertainment."
According to the most accurate figures obtainable there are almost eighteen thousand exhibitors in the country. While a nation-wide vote on the features vs. regular service question would be illuminating, this canvass, conducted by disinterested parties, is of tremendous importance as a straw that shows which way the wind is blowing.
A year ago the feature craze was so strong that the Universal was literally COMPELLED to release features. In spite of the warnings uttered by the farsighted men in the industry, the average exhibitor absolutely refused to believe that, so far as he was concerned, feature and failure went hand in hand.
Is the regular service coming back to its own?
You'd have your answer if you could listen to the comments made by the exhibitors who drop in to see me. Yes, and the letters written by the fans — upon whom this business depends for its existence— that find their way to my desk, would also give you your answer.
Both would speedily reveal why those seventeen exhibitors voted in favor of regular service. They would also reveal the reason that caused even the feature exhibitors to vote against running fivereelers more than three times a week.
The trek back to the regular service fold has already started. Each week finds an increasingly large number of exhibitors cancelling features and booking the diversified program that made money for them.
WHEN will you follow suit?
UNIVERSAL
1600 Broadway,
FILM MANUFACTURING COMPANY
"The Largest Film Manufacturing Concern in the Universe"
President.
CAIU. LARMMLE. Presulenl.