Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1924)

Ph( The Romantic History of I the Motion Picture [ roMiM i i> i ROM PAOI 59 ] Brulatour was acutely aware of the situa tion. He saw the independent demand tori film rise from I a week I He made picas to Eastman at Rochester amll even dared invade the offices of the Motion] Picture Patents Company with a proposal iliatf they agree, tor a fee and consideration, to let the Independents buy Eastman film. The Patents company smiled back. ■■ Ml of the Independents will be in jail pretty soon, and then they won't need any] lilm " There won times when the legal aspects 01 the situation made it seem that this was right, or, if not right, certainly correct At a time in the early weeks of con when the legal joustings had given the Independent: ■ temporary respite and the pressure of th< raw >totk situation began to make an effect J Colonel Theodore Marceau, who operated al chain of important portrait studios in Newl York. Boston and other cities of the cast, became interested in the plight of the Indc-j pendents. Hi~ interest arose through his acquaintance with J. J. Murdoch., who will be] recalled as one of the early importers of Foreign. picture* through the International Film & Projecting Company, a factor in the development of the Independents. MVJtCEATJ was a considerable consumer of Eastman wares and felt a certain assurance in his acquaintanceship with George Eastman. "I can fix it." Marceau ventured to Murdock, who in turn went to Brulatour with the idea and a partnership suggestion. •'I've been talking that same thing to Mr. Eastman and if anybody gets it I ought to," brulatour responded, but he was willing to share profits with anybody who would get him Eastman stock to supply the clamoring Independents. Marceau went to Rochester, and failed. But his elTorts had perhaps an important part in paving the way. Brulatour renewed his attack and argument. "If you can let us have stock I will guarantee that the Independents will absorb a million feet a week," he urged upon Eastman. Eastman agreed that he would take it up with the Motion Picture Patents Company to sec what they might allow under their exclusive contract. There were other factors in the situation besides commercial pressure Rut the commercial reasons were enough. Here was a growing, eager market for more film. The situation was also opportune in that the screaming Independents had begun to direct attention to the monopolistic character of the Motion Picture Patents Company and J. J. Kennedy's brain-child, the General Film Company, which handled the licensed pictures to the trade. "Restraint of trade" was a phrase that began to roll trippingly off the tongues of the belligerent Independents. They were ready to use anything from a locust club to the Sherman act to get what they wanted. An ironclad and continued application of the terms of the exclusive contract for raw stock would have been politically and legally dangerous from many angles. Neither the Motion Picture Patents Company nor the Eastman Kodak Company could have gained from sitting on the film lid any longer. So, abruptly but unostentatiously one day in February of ion, George Eastman announced to Brulatour that terms could be arranged for supplying him with raw stock. The price was approximately five per cent over that paid by the licensed picture concerns of the Patents Company. Five per cent was nothing to the film hungry Independents. About March 1, 191 1. the lid went off. A new era of film history began. The