The Moving picture world (May 1920-June 1920)

1570 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD June 19, 1920 tion floor. But when the representatives of the various trade journals assembled outside the assembly hall and insisted that they be given a square deal— as they had given the movement for independence — they were admitted. No sooner had Chairman Lustig begun to read the list of his committees than interruptions and protests began. So insistent were some of the parliamentarians on their points that opposition to them reached the stage where A. N. Jackson, the husky leader of the California aggregation, led the convention in three "regular" cheers for Chairman Lustig. Praise for Governor Coolidge. At this juncture Mr. Lustig was called from the convention by a message from his home and turned the gavel over to his Cleveland colleague', Ben Sawyer. On motions by Leo Bracher of New York, the two divisions of the report of the Committee of Seventeen, relating to the answers of the producers to the committee and the outline of organization, were referred to committees on business relations and organization respectively. The convention then listened to Ernest H. Horstman of Massachusetts and on his motion appointed a committee representing five states to wire Governor Coolidge of Massachusetts, in Chicago, the sincere thanks of the exhibitors of America for his veto on the drastic Massachusetts censorship bill. It was following this motion that the real storm of the morning broke— the storm centering around the question of seating Marcus Loew in the convention. Liverly Fight Over Marcus Loew. The clouds began to loom up when Charles L. O'Reilly as chairman of the credentials committee reported that his committee recommended the seating of Mr. Loew in the New York delegation without voice or vote. Mr. O'Reilly pointed out that this was ^iiiruiMiuitiNuiiriinriii;i:iM:nnnMiipiHiJiniiiMinnitiMnniiuiiiiiiiLiiiiiiitt[itiiMiitMiitiiiiiiiiitiiiiitiiiitiiiiiiiiitiiiii^ I Joneses Were From Same Town, i But They Couldn't Be Doubled j JUST illustrating the kind of mes | sages that come to the director of i I reservations for a convention 1 I committee Sam Bullock told a World | I man of the near shock administered f I to him the week preceding the Cleve | I land convention. 1 I From a town in a certain state he | I received a request to reserve for A. | I Jones one single room with bath. | I Before he had an opportunity to re | I ply to Mr. Jones, there came an ap i I plication from the same town and the 1 I same state from B. Jones asking for | I the reservation of a single room and | I bath. 1 1 Single rooms being scarce Mr. Bui i I lock took it for granted the Joneses, | j living in the same town, possibly 1 I might be related or at least on terms f I of amity. Accordingly he sent this \ I word to A. Jones: | I "Can't give you a single room with | I bath, but have arranged to put you i I and B. Jones of your town in a double 1 I room with bath with twin beds. Hope I I this will be satisfactory." | j The reply was prompt and likewise [ 1 somewhat disconcerting to the man | I who is known sometimes for the pipe | I he keeps. The message ran like this: | I "Don't you do any such thing. It | I won't be satisfactory. My wife won't | I stand for it. Everybody knows that 1 I B. Jones is a most estimable person 1 I and also that she's one of the best | I little women exhibitors in this state." | riliNii)ltriiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirijiiiiriillMiiii[liiilinii1tiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiii!ijiii)i<iiiii>i^ done because it was the committee's sentiment that Mr. Loew was first of all an exhibitor, and that he had entered the producing field to protect his showman interests. The cry then came from A. N. Jackson that Mr. Loew be given both voice and vote. It was seconded by Maurice Coyinski of Chicago and Mr. Vincent of New York. "Mr. Loew is an exhibitor and a credit to the industry," said Mr. Choyinski. "Let us have him in here and have the benefit of his experience, his executive training, his skill in organization. Prejudices are not going to get us anywhere." "Here you are seven hundred strong," said Mr. Vincent. "Are you afraid of one man? Bring him in and let him as an exhibitor deliberate with us. He knows whether or not we as a body are strong enough to grant him protection in case he leaves the exhibiting field." Herring'ton Attacks Loew. Mr. O'Reilly's motion amended to give Mr. Loew both voice and vote was passed, but just as the rumble "Let's adjourn," was heard, a little Napoleon in the form of Fred Herrington of Pittsburgh, former national president, stepped upon the platform to unleash a string of war dogs all his own. "We exhibitors of Pennsylvania," said Mr. Herrington, "instituted a measure which was passed by both assembly and senate at Harrisburg, requiring producers who demanded deposites from exhibitors to put up like amounts as guarantees of their own good faith. "I was called to the convention in St. Louis last year as this bill was going to the governor. There I was denied a hearing on the floor. It was then that Mr. Loew in a great speech said that if this insidious deposit bill were passed in Pennsylvania it would put 95 per cent, of the producers out of business. "In the name of God," cried Mr. Herrington, "if Pennsylvania alone could put 95 per cent, of the producers out of the business, what could all the states do? Asks Why Attitude Is Changed. "Wfry admit to our councils our enemies? In New York City these men refused to see your committee. Last night they told a body of exhibitors who waited on them that they would do anything the independent exhibitors asked. "Why are they willing to sacrifice everything now when a week ago they refused to hear you? Because you've got them on the run." ^ _ ' At this dramatic juncture, "time" was called on Mr. Herrington. He left the platform, but was waved back amid wild cheering. Continuing he said : "You all recall the eleventh hour — the eleventh month — 1918, when Germany after having destroyed and desolated from Flanders to Galicia, fell on its knees before the oncoming allied armies and cried : 'Don't destroy me.' That situation might well be recalled today. Now is the time to stick together and press forward to the end." A motion by Sidney Samuelson of New Tersey to re-consider the motion seating Mr. Loew was tabled, the hour being near that when the speakers of the afternoon were due to be received. The session adjourned until 2 o'clock. WEDNESDAY— AFTERNOON SESSION. THE session opened with speeches by two distinguished visitors to the convention. Former Secretry of the Interior Franklin K. Lane and Senator James J. Walker of New York, men who have done much for the industry, the former in the chambers of the national government, the latter in the legislature of his state, brought to the convention messages which were the most inspiring of any it had heard. It was fitting that speeches from two such men should mark the day upon which a new and greater exhibitor organization should receive its official name— Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America. Coming to order at 2:45, the session prepared itself to receive its distinguished guests. In order to do this, a great number of exhibitors had been specially summoned from the witnessing of a special film showing the luncheon arranged by First National. When the ex-secretary and senator arrived. Chairman Lustig proceeded immediately to introduce Mr. Lane. Mr. Lane's Address "I am very proud indeed to meet you," Mr. Lane commenced, "and what I have to say is more along the lines of a business talk than a formal address. I have been meeting men in your industry, in your branch and in other branches for several months, and this meeting, which is much larger than any other that I have seen and which I am told is the largest meeting of men in this industry that has ever been held, is the culmination of an appeal that I have made to the motion picture industry. That appeal consists of a request that you appreciate yourselves at your true value. "You represent 18,000 exhibitors. You represent every city and town in the United States. You represent an art that has gone into its early fruition within twenty years. You represent an educational influence of a kind that had not been dreamed of when I was born. You represent a new method of drawing out of the young mind the possibilities that it has and of imposing upon the old mind the thought and sentiment and passion, hope and national ideas and international ideas as well. Use Your Imagination. "We don't today listen to the pulpit as we did, we do not today have our community around the little school house. You gentlemen are the possessors of that thing around which our modern life turns. "But unless you have the appreciation of your community, you are not going to last as an industry. In order to have their appreciation you have to put into your work the imagination that the dramatist has put into his art, that the man of the newspaper has put into his, or that the man of the pulpit put into his art in times past. "You have a wider field and a larger and more expanding opportunity to reach far more people. If your business, if you can call it that, is merely to succeed, it must succeed by treating the American people with the greatest respect. And what do we ask in the way of respect? We ask satisfaction for those qualities in us that we regard as superior. "We ask in every newspaper that there shall be items of thought as well as of news, that newspapers shall not be merely purveyors of scandal, but that they shall challenge our minds as well. Stir the Finer Qualities. "And you must be able to present pictures that arouse the finer qualities in ourselves, that make us feel that there are challenges which are noble in this country and in all countries. "There is no man in our western country that has not in himself lived a moving picture that could be put on the screen. I like to see any kind of contest. Not merely the contest between two men for a girl, but a contest between two men for a piece of land, two men for the right of a ship. "'Take out of your life, take out of our national life, any single item for challenge and you will find in it the basis of a moving picture. "Is not this the land in which dreams come true. Who are they in this country who will show the possibilities of Americanism and preach a philosophy that is not the philosophy of despair but of confidence?