To prohibit and to prevent the trade practices known as "compulsory block-booking" and "blind selling" of motion-picture films in interstate and foreign commerce (1939)

Record Details:

Title:
To prohibit and to prevent the trade practices known as "compulsory block-booking" and "blind selling" of motion-picture films in interstate and foreign commerce
Date:
1939
Publisher:
Washington D.C. : United States. Government Printing Office
Volume:
To prohibit and to prevent the trade practices known as "compulsory block-booking" and "blind selling" of motion-picture films in interstate and foreign commerce (1939)
Leaf #:
0005
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures","Motion pictures -- Censorship","Motion pictures -- Moral and ethical aspects
Collection:
Government & Law
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Library of Congress, MBRS, Moving Image Section
Sponsor:
Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
December 28, 2023
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Calendar No. 573 76th Congress 1st Session SENATE Eeport No. 532 TO PROHIBIT AND TO PREVENT THE TRADE PRACTICES KNOWN AS "COMPULSORY BLOCK-BOOKING" AND "BLIND SELLING" OF MOTION-PICTURE FILMS IN INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE June 1 (legislative day, May 31), 1939. — Ordered to be printed The Committee on Interstate Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (S. 280) to prohibit and to prevent the trade practices known as "compulsory block-booking" and "blind selling" in the leasing of motion-picture films in interstate and foreign commerce, favorably report it to the Senate. The bill is identical with S. 153, which was passed by the Senate on May 17, 1938. It is the third bill to prohibit the compulsory blockbooking and blind selling of motion pictures that has been reported by this committee. The prolonged hearing on the bill is the third that this committee has held on proposed an tiblock-booking legislation.1 The primary purpose of the bill is to establish community freedom in the selection of motion-picture films. A secondary purpose is to relieve independent interests in the motion-picture industry — producers, distributors, and exhibitors — of monopolistic and burdensome trade practices. Compulsory block booking is the practice whereby each of the eight major producer-distributors (called the Big Eight) 2 leases to the exhibitors during each recurrent selling season its production of pic 1 70th Cong., Brookhart bill, S. 1667, full hearing; 72d Cong., Brookhart bill, S. 3770, reported without further hearing or written report; 74th Cong., Neely bill, full hearings and written report (Rept. 2378); 75th Cong., Neely bill, reported without further hearings (Rept. 1377); 76th Cong., the present bill, on which exhaustive hearings were held. 2 The so-called Big Eight are as follows: Paramount Pictures, Inc.; Loew's, Inc. (M. G. M.); RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.; Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.; Universal Pictures Co., Inc.; Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation; United Artists Corporation; Columbia Pictures Corporation. United Artists, strictly speaking, is only a distributor, but is controlled by the producers whose products it distributes. Independent distributors also seek to lease as many pictures as possible at one time but due to compulsory block booking by the Big Eight the amount of playing time open to them is not great and consequently they can practice block booking only to a limited extent. Mr. Neely, from the Committee on Interstate Commerce, submitted ^ the following REPOET [To accompany S. 280] GENERAL PURPOSES