Universal Weekly (1932-1936)

6 UNIVERSAL WEEKLY November 5 1932 Armistice Day Suggestions November llth for generations to come will be a day which will live in the memory of the American people. It is the anniversary of the Armistice which terminated the World War. It is a day which should be signalized in your theatre. It you have not already done so, you should take steps immediately to memorialize Armistice Day. Naturally, you have your own idea of how this can best be done. The suggestions we can make to you have to do largely with the film or films you run in your theatre on that day. Of course, the greatest film that you could run on that day, and, as a matter of fact, on any other day, is "All Quiet on the Western Front." By the judgment of hundreds of critics this picture is the best moving picture ever made. It would be impossible, by the expenditure of any amount of money, to make a picture more appropriate for Armistice Day showing than "All Quiet on the Western Front." Erich Maria Remarque, a German who served through the entire four years of the War in the German Army, wrote the book out of the fullness of his own tragic experience. As a book, it was one of the landmarks of book publishing. As a picture, it was even more outstanding and more graphic. The screen has far greater opportunity to speak to the soul than has the printed word. "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a soul-searching human document. It is quite probable that Carl Laemmie will withdraw this production entirely from circulation for a certain length of time and bring it back later. He has many times been advised to do so. Moving picture people, international statesmen, educators, humanitarians, have assured him that "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a picture for the ages. Naturally, he could make more money by withdrawing it and putting it out later with a great advertising campaign. Mr. Laemmie has not done this yet. This year you will have the opportunity of booking it. It is an oppoVtunity which you should embrace. Book "All Quiet on the Western Front" if you have the opportunity and it isn't already booked in your opposition house. There is a picture which has just completed its first runs, but which is current in all of the exchanges and has established a tremendous reputation for Itself as a builder of character and as a memorial to the American Legion. It is "Tom Brown of Culver." Not only in the United States has this picture met the most laudatory reception; in England, in Germany, in fact, all over the world, it has been an outstanding example of what a splendid moving picture can be. It will be a credit to your theatre to show "Tom Brown of Culver" on Armistice Day, whether you have already shown it or not. There is no reason why the Slim Summerville comedies dealing with the Marine Corps and with the Army wouldn't make an appropriate subject to balance your program and to give it an Armistice Day flavor. There is no reason in the world why Armistice Day should not reflect the joy which Humanity felt in fhe termination of the War as well as the terrible experiences which engulfed the world for four years. These comedies are among the best ever brought to the screen. Whether you have shown them or not, a Slim Summerville Marine Corps Comedy would be a splendid feature for an Armistice Day program. To Help Defeat Depression CARL LAEMMLE has just employed one hundred men to begin work immediately on two sound stages which will be constructed at Universal City at a total cost of $50,000, it was announced last week by studio officials. The stages will be the final unit in a $150,000 construction program started recently at the film plant. The motion picture producer ordered the additional construction to give more employment. ARMISTICE! Let us have an armistice in the picture business! Let us all make an honest effort to put an end to quarreling, suspicion and distrust. Heaven knows we must withstand enough attacks from outside our ranks without adding to our problems through constant internal discord. If producers, distributors or exhibitors are indulging in practices which are unfair to any other branch of the industry, let us find a peaceful way out instead of drawing outside criticism upon ourselves by tearing at one another's throats. The motion picture business, although in better shape than many others, is nevertheless facing a battle for existence. The constructive brainpower of every man who earns his living through pictures is needed to build it back into the greatness it once enjoyed. It can be done if we all pull together, but not in any other way. Speaking for Universal, I will agree to anything that is fair — fair to everybody concerned, because it it is not completely fair it will never bring peace. This goes for contracts or anything else which is causing friction. Fourteen years ago the world war was stopped by an armistice, but the world is still smarting from its old wounds. Recovery is slow. But it need not be so slow in the case of the picture business. Peace among ourselves is the first step toward recovery. Let's take it! — Carl Laemmie.