Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1946)

February 2, 1946 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW 45 A. SCHNEIDER ice-President, Treasurer A. MONTAGUE Vice-President B. B. KAHANE Vice-President N. B. SPINGOLD Vice-President J. A. McCONVILLE Vice-President Founders Pay Tribute to Columbia's Manpower shorts, the CBC decided to make a feature picture. Such a venture would cost more money than CBC could lay its hands on at the moment, especially as the company wished to continue making its very acceptable shorts at the same time. The boys gathered together five additional partners, and produced a feature picture for $20,000. When completed, the picture looked so good that a major releasing organization offered to buy it outright for $65,000. $6,500 Bid Refused The answer was a decisive "NO !" by the Cohns, who figured that if the film was worth that much to another company, it was worth more to them in the states' rights market. On the strength of that initial venture, CBC sold five additional, though as yet unborn, features on the states' rights market. This really startled the quintette of new investors, which had planned to take a quick profit on the one feature and run. The Fretful Five finally balked at going along and withdrew their investments and their profits. At the time their departure left the Cohns in a predicament. They were faced with the task of having to raise new capital with which to produce their program of five feature pictures. It was a tough problem — but they figured it out. They figured it out well too : when the Cohns started production on their second feature they had just $5,000 in the bank. When they finished the picture, they still had $5,000 in the bank. This sounds like financial magic. As a matter of fact it was something far more practical. It was a combination of untiring effort, the treasur ing of every penny, the use of every device by which the expenditure of funds could be postponed or their turnover multiplied. But above all, it represented a willingness to devote unending time and energy toward making every dollar an active worker toward this goal. A new name now was needed that was more in keeping with the dignity of a company that was making and selling successful feature pictures. The partners felt that "CBC" sounded too much like "corned beef and cabbage." Various names were considered, and finally "Columbia" was chosen. Columbia Pictures Corporation came to life on the single stage studio on Gower Street in Hollywood that has since become a complete picture-making plant. New Angle for Star System By the middle twenties, the company unable to afford a contract list of top-stars, secured some of the most important names in the business on ©ne-picture deals. The familiar opinion that Columbia was responsible for Clark Gable's popularity at the box-office, is denied by Harry Cohn. He maintains that Columbia was just fortunate enough to have a script that fitted Gable perfectly — and that if Metro had owned the script of "It Happened One Night" the same result would have been accomplished. In 1926 Columbia opened its first four whollyowned film exchanges. Gradually these branches replaced the franchise holders in the company's sales organization. Foreign sales began to take on more and more importance, and Columbia kept in step with the times. Its first fling into the foreign market was in 1923 when it sold one picture to an Australian franchise holder. In 1946 Columbia International can point to 75 sales offices in countries throughout the world. Broadway runs for independent pictures were a rarity in the twenties, but Columbia began to break through. One of the company's more ambitious efforts, "Blood Ship," was booked into New York's Roxy Theatre— then the top showcase of the country — and the Cohns knew tliey had "arrived" in the big time. It was as a direct result of the switch from silent to talking pictures — which was made with dispatch — that Columbia ceased to be a privately owned company. The corporate structure of the lirm was reorganized, and shares in the company were listed on the Stock Exchange. In 1932 Joe Brandt decided to retire, and Harry Cohn became president of Columbia. Jack Cohn moved up from treasurer to vice-president. Columbia built its own film laboratory on the lot to permit studio supervision of all prints. The first studio to establish this costly method of print distribution, Columbia has unswervingly continued to adhere to it. When the great Radio City Music Hall opened its doors to a movie policy in 1933, the honor of being the first feature picture on the mammoth screen went to a Columbia picture. Columbia has blazed trails and started cycles. In 1928 the company released the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, and followed it up with the first of the famous Silly Symphonies. The year 1934 revealed "It Happened One Night," a resounding and now immortal hit, which inspired an entirely new type of romantic (Continued on Page 50) LOUIS ASTOR Circuit Sales Executive LOUIS WEINBERG Circuit Sales Executive MAURICE GRAB Sales Executive MORTIMER WORMSER Assistant Treasurer LEO JAFFEE Assistant Treasurer