Moving Picture World (Sep 1916)

September 1(>. 1916 THE M( >\ ING I'U l I IRE \\( lUI.D 1805 Abuses of the Deposit System i\\ w Stbphi \ Busb THE present flagrant abuses of the advance deposit system cannot but result in loss to the firms that are guilty of them. 1 know oi instances of this abuse occurring in every part of the country. Many exchanges are m the habit of collecting advance deposits by C. 0. d. orders ou the exhibitor's daily show. 1 know of one case where an exhibitor was compelled to pay a large sum of money claimed to be due as an advance deposit. He either had to pay the c. o. d. or go without his show. It turned out afterwards that no such sum was due, that there had been an error on the part of some one in the exehange. An apology followed and the exhibitor was promised a feature without eharge to show the "good faith" of the exehange. The "free feature" came in due course of time loaded down with a c. o. d. for more than twice the ordinary cost of a feature. Exhibitors complain especially about the advance deposit exaction in the case of serials. It is a well-known fact that many serials have started off with a grand promise of success only to tail off into commonplace. As matters stand now the exhibitor must take an entire serial and pay for every episode away in advance. Such methods are not only harsh and oppressive on the exhibitor, but they will in the long run hurt the producer and the exchange resorting to them. Burdened by such handicaps the exhibitors can make no money and will have no money to spend. The exhibitors are absolutely dependent upon their public. Now it has happened more than once that a serial showed a rapid decline in quality after a most auspicious beginning. The public will resent this rapid decline in quality and stay away. Paralysis strikes the box office on the serial nights. It is not only unfair but decidedly stupid business policy to expect the exhibitor to keep on paying big prices for what his patrons have emphatically rejected. The complaints about abuses of the advance deposit system are too persistent and too numerous to be dismissed with the statement that "the fly-by-night exhibitor cannot be trusted." At this stage in the history of the motion picture "the fly-by-night exhibitors" are few and far between and altogether a negligible percentage of the great exhibiting body upon which this industry depends for its existence and its prosperity. When men who have been in the exhibiting business for years and who have always paid their bills promptly are bothered with sudden c. o. d.s. when owners of large theaters are having constant difficulty in getting back the full amounts of their deposits when they quit a certain group of producers there is something wrong with the producer and with the exchange rather than with the exhibitor. It is all very well to say that this is a cash lnisinesand that the patrons pay cash in the first instance. Tin fact is that the profit, if any there be. must be sought in the average and that many a night of all the cash taken in not a cent can lie set aside for the pavment of the films. It is the end of the week or the end of the month which tells the tale and it then haopens not infrequently that there has been no profit. Recentlv with the excessive heat and the infantile paralysis, profits have been dwindling at a rapid rate. The exhibitors do not want to use films without paying for their use, but they want to be free from exactions and extra handicaps such as advance payments for a month or more The exhibitor is tin foundation of this business and if he is what sniiii exchanges think him to be : an habitual defaulter in his payments, the motion picture industry could never have lasted as long as it did and its future would be altogether precarious. We are glad to sec that the organized exhibitors of the country are going to take up the question <>f these abu m good earnest. If the National League can put a stop to unjust and often unlawful exactions of this sort it will establish itself in the good graces of every man interested in the profession of exhibiting motion pictures to the public. The Reader's Revenge By W. Stephen Bush. THE Moving Picture World never was and m expects to be a subsidized publication. It oilers to its advertisers the largest circulation among exhibitors, it lends to every line of its advertising pages tinprestige and confidence which it has earned in the course of its long and useful career. Its co-operation is gladly given to any cause or to any individual when the welfare <f the entire industry seems to demand it, but we repeat that the MOVING PICTURE World is not a subsidized publication. A publicity sheet cannot live without subsidy. Now every form of subsidy is more or less of a bribe or to phrase it more charitably a fund for the promotion of extraneous interests. There is all the difference in the world between a subsidy and an advertisement though the distinction between the two terms is often lost sight of by myopic and callow press agents. The history of journalism from Gutenberg's day to the date of this issue of the Moving Picture World does not record a single case where an openly subsidized publication survived for any length of time. Hence the case of an openly subsidized publication is nowadays about as rare as a heat prostration in January. There still remains the more insidious and therefore more dangerous form of subsidy — the secret or the implied subsidy. We know that there are newspapers right in this city whose circulation and influence have fallen into pitiful decay just because of a suspicion in the public mind that they are either owned or subsidized by certain special interests inimical to the public welfare. Nomina sunt odiosa. Dangerous as is the taint of subsidy to the daily paper it is absolutely fatal to a trade publication. Here it implies prostitution in all the abhorrent meaning of the word. When the advertiser is sure of a flattering review just because he advertises and not because lie is honestly entitled to it his advertisement is such in name only: in fact it is the first part of a corrupt bargain : the foundation of a dishonest barter and exchange at the expense of the reader. Xo amount of sophistry can obscure this plain simple honest fact. The quick-witted readers, the successful men in the business will discover the fact quickly and without the aid of magnifying glasses. Eventually all the readers will find it out and the publicity sheet plucked of all it^ pretentious plumage by the pitiless hand of Truth will stand forth in all its nakedness. Then it is that the very men who paid for the prostitution with advertisements in disguise will gather around the pillory and jeer at the saddening spectacle. The publication which thus sells its soul has ceased to be of use to the men who debauched it and it is cast aside with words of scorn. The reader's vengeance is bound to come to every subsidized sheet. Tt means nothing less than a total loss. Some tunes it is les< swift than at other times hut it is as inevitable as Fate in the Greek tragedv.