Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1924)

Photoplay Macv/im Ai>vkhtisin<; Sm nan • IS •.'.rapli Company handling licensed 6bn mi something cd a refutation of the trust charges of the war being waged in behalf <>t William Fox. There have been plenty of side door imitation of competition among motion pit ture i oni erns siiu e The Kinetograph Companj for • time played an interesting indaental part in the interior politics of the General Film Company . I>ut its >oU significance in the history of motion picture evolution is as the one and well mar only expression of that concern which n dized tin motion picture as art is well as merchandise. Zukor and His Famous Players The rising independent feature concerns wen expressing that same idea much more eliei lively. The movement was already under way by which the newcomers were to carry the institution of the screen forward. The functions of the General were ended when it brought into the motion picture industry some semblance of order and business efficiency. The greater attainments which make the motion picture a factor in the life of an intelligent race hail to have this foundation. Having established this business foundation, the significance of General began to wane, and in time, a few years, it withered like a plant that has ripened its seeds. Because of his successful survival of this period of change, our interest turns again to Adolph Zukor and his Famous Players project, the best and most conspicuous exemplification of the onward trend of the art of the motion picture in that day. With Sarah Bernhardt in "Queen Eliza1 eth" and James K. Hackett in "The Prisoner of Zenda " on the market, Famous Players was learning some interesting lessons in picture pioneering. The state's rights buyers of these pictures were beginning to murmur and talk of their failure to profit. It was admitted that the pictures were good, that the public wanted them, but as merely occasion productions they did not permit the building of a business. It became clear that if the feature picture business were to survive it must be with a flow of production which would insure the theaters an opportunity to maintain a policy and build a patronage on that policy. That could not be done on just a feature now and then. The Lack of Stars The motion picture industry is supported on continuous patronage. Straightway Famous Players was confronted with the same old problem that the other Independents before them had met. This was the problem of maintaining a program, essential to business, destructive to art. Business has to keep dates. Artists always break them. Al Lichtman, the salesman for Famous Players, came in from the round of the state's rights buyers of features, urging a schedule of fifty-two features a year. This was a sensational sort of an idea. The heads of Famous Players, Adolph Zukor, Edwin S. Porter, and the rest, went into long conferences. The financial problems involved were not so serious apparently as the problem of production. The state's rights men could be counted on for an advance of cash against a percentage. But, -aid Porter, it was not possible to get fifty-two -tars and fifty-two plays a year and get them made into pictures. "There is not that much available talent for the making of motion pictures in the world," Porter protested. He was very right. It must be borne in mind that the Famous Players group was sticking still very closely and literally to the idea of famous players in famous plays, from the stage. Out of the cogitations which the situation forced came from Porter — a planned schedule for some thirty pictures to be made in the following year. This outlined plan, as will pre-ently be seen, created a new race of stars. 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