Variety (Jan 1936)

RAD 10 SCREEN STAGE .Vol. 121 No. 3 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1936 228 PAGES 25 YEARS AHEAD— AND WHAT? '(The following is reprinted from five years ago 6tfcause it is Variety's belief that it is the most remarkable editorial ever written for an amusement trade paper. It was written by Sime Silverman, founder of Variety, on the occasion of this paper's 25th anniver* number, Dec. 31, 1930). Within. the life of Variety, 25 years, the show business of America has performed a comjplete somersault. So instead of talking about 25 years or of; what has occurred since then, which everyone knows more or less, it may be better for the show business df today to look forward 25 years. That will be something which events have brought out the show business of 25 years ago failed to do. iThen or at any time thereafter, up to now. Of course. Variety is naturally appreciative that it has lived for 25 years, and it hopes it may for 25 more, and more. It hasn't much to say. for itself. Hobbling along during those 25 years, it's still trying to go a.lorig in the best and only way it knows. That is to print the truth about the show business it represents, as it finds it. For no other reaison than, as has been said before, a trade paper can't fool its trade, which knows more about that trade than any trade paper possibly could. Therefore, to print the truth as it is found, located or gathered, appears to be the best, if not obvious to jail, policy." And it's much easier without 'politics.' ! In the 25 yearsto come, contemporary showmen must avoid the stage errors of the 25 years behind. .Those errors have been plentiful. They have been the cause of the decline of eyery branch in the show business excepting pictures, and pictures, on top now, should be the most assiduous in avoiding grave mistakes of the future. Perhaps vaudeville and the legit will come back. IThe legit will have a f utiire when the picture business assiimes charge of it. Otherwise the legit will linger on the Broadways of say five big American cities, and then but feebly, unless legit's greatest detriment, its ruination in fact, is eliminated. That will likely happen if pictures takies over the legit. Vaudeville will have its chance when there are more managerial believers in vaudeville. The picture arid vaudeville hook-up in chains is all wrong for vaudeville. The weight lies with pictures, because the controllers of the chains are firstly pic1;Ui#meh, who. don't know vaudeville and have no faiti in it. Burlesque is nega,tive and immaterial. Buff the same reasons exist for its present conditionV. as with the others which have been shellshoqiked. Tfie two greatest errors committed by the stage have been the abuse of its producers and their own. power. If the picture business will remember that brief statenient covering a great deal, it may save itself the headaches those errors cost so many others of the stage. This abuse started with Klaw & Erianger. It made the Shuberts possible and impossible. Stair & Havlin tried it and passed out. Keith and Orpheum vaudeville did it, per E. F. Albee, and passed .out. The Columbia Amusement Co. (burlesque) did it and passed out. Producers as employed here do not contemplate merely the men who stage the show or pictures. Producers as a term, pmbr^ices everyone concerned in the making of a sliow or a film, THe producers were abused and driven away from the stage, from K. & E. to the Shuberts, from the Shuberts to their own independency or back to K. &. E,, or from Stair Havlin to oblivion. While the producers of vaudeville were given the needles by the Albee crowd even as those producers wefe feeding vaudeville with its life blood.. And they are starve4 out. Abuse from power for 25 years developed from the K. & E. days until it became so common in the latter years it. almost was accepted as a part of stage operation. Of the two, the picture heads should avoid the abuse of power for, when that starts, the abuse of producers follows. Another highly important matter the stage leaders of the past overlooked, although the entire show business to date has overlooked it, was good will. They neither cultivated good will with the public iior in their own org^inizations. They never had it with either. And it was important— it is important, most important. Past events have proven how valuable it would have been to K. & E., the Shuberts and Albee, who couldn't get it when they wanted and needed it. Because jg^ood will cannot be purchased, only cultivated and in good faith. There was never one man of the stage big enough to dictate what the public mu^t take. To be remembered by the picture men. For the public may not take. No one rilan in pictures is big enough to disregard talent. Those of the stage who thought they were all lived tp regfret it. It's talent that makes pictures, from the -^riter to the director and the actors— all the essential talent of the studios. That talent must be conserved and preserved, if the picture business is to be preservedi The picture business cannot afford to commit the faults of the stage, for it knows the faults of the stage, and thereby has the beist guide for its business future by simply avoiding them. If the picture business is so new that it has bragged over its profit last year, without knowing what it is going to be this year, that should be the lesson for that. Nor should the picture man be obsessed with the erroneous belief the general public depends upon him for entertainment. This country thrived before pictures. In short, if the picture man will run his busfness for the next 25 years without abusing it or the people in it, he will probably find an enduring prosperous business under him, for then his people will work with him. instead of against him ; he will have located the best talent and held it; he will have found the foundation for success— team work and good will. With that good will also fostered with the public, now, tomorrow, every day, week and year. Arid all of this goes exactly the same for theatre operation. Perhaps if at home the leaders of the film industry will hang in their bedroom the following card, seeing it night and morning, they never will go wrong in the operation of their organizations : REMEMBER! Klaw & Erianger. The Shuberts. E. F. Albee. ~ ' By Sid Silverman Since which time, five years, radio has grown in ,ainportance.,.and in its relation ta show biisiness,.-to the point Where it may be said "to have stepped into the niche formerly held by vaudeville. And with a fair share of vaudeville's assets and liabilities. For"' j^radio is now feeding its people into Broadway shows (mostly musicals) and pictures, after which they generally .return to the air at more money* Vaudeville found out about that. It also is just as hard for an act to break into radio as it was to get a 'showing' in vaude five, 10, 15, or 30 years ago. When acts with air ambition look for those who have ah *ih' with the bookers, those who keep track recognize a familiar ghost, As for the chiseling and kick-backs, vaudeville knew about that too. Qf course, radio has no cut weeks', and vaudeville did not exhaust material and people so. quickly, but the line of demarcation between the air and vaudeville is not so wide despite that radio is really only 15 years old. How old was vaude? Not old enough to have succumbed to age. Vaudeville was murdered. And with vaudeville no longer the spawning ground for talent, where will pictures and the theatre find new faces and personalities? Who can say radio Will not be the answer? Radio has become significant in show business .mostly because it is the common denominator. It has opened the field so that no longer does a performer restrict himself to one branch of the business. They all want a crack at the air and if they get over the end seems much further away. Radio has become the stream down which most actors must sail to the real big money whether the journey be short or long. The salaries on the air for the . successful are terrific. The publicity is tremendous — ^and fast. Too fast. For radio's circulation is such that it breaks a.s quickly as.it makes. Hence, the performer who clicks over* the air is like the man who comes into a million dollars and goes crazy trying to take care of it. Boiling down to the fact that radio is the financial joy and mental despair of its performers. It's a wise actor who can gauge hi_S-radio limit, but who can blame those who stay on too long? In vaudeville they couldn't resist the applause. In radio they simply cannot resist the money. But radio has that matter of circulation as both a benediction and a curse. It; devours material at a staggering rate, and that's its own problem. The other factor is that radio Will always be limited by the clock. Even the networks can't get more than 24 hours into a day. Meanwhile, radio men are slowly coming around to the realization that they're in show business. It will be better for radio and its listeners as that idea spreads. On the other phases of show business the history of the past five years needs no recounting. It's been tough sledding and it now looks as if there's a chance to get put of the woods. Pictures, having gone through a series of refinancing and reorganization, was the first to feel the upbeat. Pictures has also found out that if product isn't good bu.«5iness can be awf ully bad. Yet the fact that a picture with merit can go out and roll up a solid gross is, and should be, enough. The legitimate theatre is having its best season in five or six years both in and out of New York, night clubs making an effort for and deserving business are getting it, while the outdoor men (circus and carnivals) concluded a satisfactory season last autumn. The public wants to be entertained and is willing to pay for its amusement. How well show business rises to that demand will be reflected on the only thermometer this same show business recognizes, the boxofilce. For itself the fact that this is Variety's 30th birthday is about saying the most in the least number of words. This is the first anniversary number' in four years -which has had agreen cover.. Simply because VAKiF/ry dirln't beh'cve the three previous anniversary issues of .suriicient size to warrant binding. So perhaps this anniversary edition is indicative of show business at tlie moment. It could be better, and a whole lot worse*