The story of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (1919)

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G. W. Erdman Manager Cleveland Exchange Department Heads, Cleveland Exchange of the rental received from the Sioux City exhibitor; but he was enabled to give the show he had announced, and thus saved from serious loss. Again, a messenger was ^ntJrom New York to Chicago to carry a film in order not to disappoint a customer ^ ^s not possible to economize on messenger charges by sending a Western Umon boy for the margin of time was so narrow that if anything had gone wrong a boy might have failed. A man whose time was worth twenty dollars a day was chosen for the mission. The cost of the trip was $14642; but again the customer was served; and that is what the Department of Distribution is for. In recent months express service has been so unsatisfactory that the ramous Players-Lasky Corporation has been obliged to establish a special automobile delivery service between New York rm^^^^^^mi MHH^K|1 It \fflB and Philadelphia in order to make <-*. ' sure that customers shall be served on schedule time. This same express service obliged the corporation to send a messenger from Los Angeles to New York to make sure of the delivery of a print of "The Knickerbocker Buckaroo," an Artcraft picture starring Douglas Fairbanks in time for exhibition at the Rivoli Theater. Inevitable delays inherent in the pro- duction of motion pictures left so little time ?~ v " between the completion of the print at the labo- ratory and the date announced for the showing of the picture that it was not safe to depend upon ordinary transportation routine. In dwelling on the endless care taken to serve customers, the magnitude of the efforts involved has been left in the background. Lest the reader misapprehend the task of the Department of Distribution, the fact should here be stated that the average number of subjects shipped each week by the department is 23,920. The New York branch exchange alone ships 2100 subjects weekly; the Chicago branch exchange ships 2030 subjects weekly. Of course, an equal number of ship- ments is received, making a total of 47,840 items to be handled without error by the department. To make the matter still more complicated, seven new subjects of one to five or more reels are contributed each week by the Department of Pro- duction, with 30 to 89 prints from each, making an aggregate average new footage of 1,429,000 added weekly to the volume in circulation. As each subject is in active circulation from one to two years, and in less active circulation for an indefinite period, since a picture that has not been seen is the same as a book that has not been read, the detail devolving upon the Department of Distribution is staggering. As a further aid to appreciation of the operations of the Department of Distribution, the fact may be mentioned that the branch exchanges alone spent in the first quarter of 1919 $36,974 for traveling expenses, $16,000 for telephone and telegraph tolls, $44,000 for express charges, and $21,000 for postage. The two renovating plants in New York spent $27,000 in renewing worn films in order that the smallest audience in the most remote corner of the country might see just as good a picture as the first Broadway audience saw the night that picture was released. To these items must be added substantial sums devoted to the same purposes by the home office. If the aggregate seems large, the fact should be borne in mind J. W. Toone, Audit of Exchanges Home Office [34]