The Moving picture world (November 1922-December 1922)

Movinir Picture WORLD Action is Coming IT had to happen. It wasn't possible for the picture calendar to roll around from September to December without something in the way of excitement, something portending storms. The formation of the A. B. C. and the rumblings incident to it gave the first intimation that this film year was not to differ from its predecessors. Now it turns out that the A. B. C. was only a "stolen march" on the part of a group of New York exhibitors; the telegraph wires from Chicago tell of the organization of the "Theatre Owners' Distributing Corporation," with national aspirations, and guided by the same hands that hold the reins on the M. P. T. O. A. "Things are beginning to happen." Moving Picture World is the only trade paper which has continued to present news items showing that the organization distribution plan discussed two years ago at Minneapolis and last summer at Washington had not passed into the land of limbo. Cooperative distribution is the rock upon which previous organization attempts have floundered; but it remains the goal towards which all exhibitor organizers aim. The sponsors of the "Theatre Owners' Distributing Corporation" are capable men; they have planned slowly and deliberately; it must naturally be surmised that they have chosen the moment of launching with the greatest care. They are men not given easily to many of the mistakes that have ruined the efforts of their predecessors. But they have many of the same obstacles to overcome. So the prospect is bright for those who believe that "action" within an industry makes for prosperitv, combats stagnation, and prevents the successful carrving out of the slow process of evolution that seems always to be headed towards benevolent monopoly. We are going to have plenty of action. Definite announcement by the Sydney Cohen group of the birth of the Theatre Owners' Distributing Corporation interjects a new element into the booking combination discussion that has been waxing so interesting. First news that the booking combination idea was spreading to other cities besides New York had many editorial writers fearing for the poor producer, who faced the prospect of being held up by the united buying power of the combinations. Then Hiram Abrams announced that he would encourage booking combinations wherever possible— and the discovery was made by those who should have known it in the first place that all distributors are not preeminently satisfied with conditions as they exist. There are others in the Hiram Abrams position, but their strength is not so impregnable that they can afford to talk. But the proposal of a distributing machine backed by the organized exhibitor presents competition— competition for the now existing independent distributor, the booking combination, and the more solidly intrenched producer-distributor. The booking combination doesn't seem to be "a dreaded monster" any longer. To the distributor it presents by far the lesser of the evils — if it is an evil. Detailed comment on the new Theatre Owners' Distributing Corporation must wait on more definite word concerning its plans and proposed method of operation than has yet come from Chicago. Detailed comment may not then be wise, if it turns out, as now appears, that the new machine is merely a business organization intended for competition with existing business organizations. For it is not the place of the trade paper to discuss the pros and cons, merits or alleged demerits, of competing business organizations in its field.