Variety (Jul 1948)

Wednesday, July 28, 1948 A Closeup on D. W. Griffith By Gi;ORGE E. PHAIR Hollywood, July 27. He invented the fadeout. He invented the flashback. David Wark Griffith lived enough to realize that a fadeout IS something more than a technical term on a motion picture lot.: He is no longer on earth to witness the flashback of his career; nor the closeups of his bygone triumphs, nor the misty photography of the days when Griffith and film art were synonymous. He lived long enough to become a myth in the rush of modern invention, reinembered only by the elders who had seen the transition of motion pictures from the nickelodeons of yesterday to the de- luxers of today. For 15 years Griffith had not made a picture in Hollywood although his name had appeared in the newspapers now and again in an advisory capacity, or as a partner in a future film production project, or as the author of a still-to-be written document of the film industry. But none of the studios gave him a job. , He was not broke, in the ordinary sense of the word, during the last years of his life, although he was no longer the affluent spender he had been in halcyon days. Almost any evening he could be found in'the Hollywood-Knickerbocker hotel, which Is not by any means a log cabin, breaking out now and then with a $50 bill and inviting the boys to listen while he recounted tales of the good old days when Hollywood was Hollywood. He was always going to make that one last film, a picture that would revolutionize the industry, even more than "The Birth of a Nation" did. He had a lot of startling ideas, he told the boys, : but the studio executives had grown too prosperous and conser- "vative to risk a detour frota the old and profitable formula. A little while and there would be a new formula and a newer and wiser Griffith who wouldn't be taken for a ride by a lot of busi^ nessmen who knew more about boxofl'ice than they did about drama. He was talking about the new picture the night before he .died; There was talk about Hollywood that Griffith had been accept- ing charity in his later years but that rumor was scotched after his death by his attorney. The estate, according to the; lawyer, is somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000, exclusive of mc m picture properties. . There was a handsome funeral, with the mortal remains of- David Wark Griffith lying in state and newsreel cameramen taking shots of mourning fihn executives who knew him when, but not lately. PICTITRES 17 D. W. GRIFFITH, FILM PIONEER, DEAD AT 73 Hollywood, July 27. David Wark Griffith, 73, pioneer motion picture producer, who died July 23 in Temple Hospital after a cerebral hemorrhage in the Knickerbocker Hotel, where he had been living for several years, had been comparatively inactive in the film business since 1933 when he sold his holdings in United Ar- tists, of which he was one of the founders. , Griffith was an outstanding name in the early days of the film industry *^hich he entered about the turn of the century after a none too successful career on the stage. Beginning as a scenario writer on the silent film, "La Tosea." in 1907, he reverted to act- ing the next year in a number of one-reelers including "Ostler Joe" and "When Knighthood was in Flower." His career took an upward turn the following year when H. M. Marvin hired him as an assistant dii'ector. Moving up to full direc- torship, his dramatic talent foun* an outlet in such innovations as the flashback, the. closeup, the fadeout, mist photography and dther techniques which have out- lived him. Outstanding among the Griffith productions was "The Birth of a Nation," filmed in 1915. It cost $110,000, a size&We sum in those davs, and eventually it grossed more than $10,000;000; a notable record even today. A year later he startled the film industry by gambling $1,600,000 on "Intoler- ance" The picture failed to slarlie the public and returned oiilv about $1,750,000. With Mary Pickford, Charles Cliapliu and the late Douglas Faw- banks, and the late Hiram Abrams as business head, Griffith organ- ized United Artists in 1919. His fir'st production under that banner was "The Love Flower." It was followed by "Way Down Ea.st," "Dream Street," "Orphans of the Storm" "One Exciting Night, "America," "The White Rose," "Isn't Life Wonderful," "Sally of the Sawdust" and "Broken Blos- soms." At that time dissension arose among th(> UA partners and Griffith broke away for three years, during O^llch he rtlade "That Royle Giri" and "The Sorrows ot Satan" for Paramount. Returnmg to the UA fold, he produced a re- make of his earlier picture. Battle of the Soxes/' His "Ladies of the Pavement" was filmed in 1929. and his "Abraham Lincoln, an all- talking picture, in 1930. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized GrU- fill 's services in 1935 With a life rnenibe?ship and a special award i, >• " islineuished creative achieye- mentfand^ invaluable and lastmg Sibutions to the progress of the film industry/' U's Accent Continued from page i ish theatre. before it comes over here, then we'll advertise that fast, since our a f lience for British pic- tures in this: country has basically the same taste as the English audi- ence." New system won't mean, Berg- man emphasized, that the Hank product is to. be slotted into art houses. Audience for it is large enough to rate it dates in the top showcase theatres. He declared, moreover, that the revised ad policy also doesn't mean the smaller sit- uations are to be sloughed off in any campaign. He noted how ad- vance publicity on the forthcoming "Hamlet" has already infiltrated into the smaller towns and de- clared, his department would try to evoke the same word-of-mouth advertising on all Rank product. , U's job in plugging its British releases, he said, will be consid- erably easier since the Rank public- ity staffers now know what kind of exploitation material is needed to'sell the films in this country and so have improved their material along those lines. Bergman is slated to fly to the Coast, Aug. 6, to talk over ad- publicity plans on forthcoming 'U product with studio execs. U sales veepee William Scully, mean- while, who's been huddling with Rank execs in London for the last three weeks, sailed for the U. S. aboard the America, Friday (23), and is scheduled to arrive today (Wed.), Also aboard are studio production chief Bill Goetz and his wife, Edith; and Robert Goldstein, eastern studio rep. Hal Home Getting His . Sing-a-Tina Marketed Hal Home, former pub-ad chief for 20th-Fox and Disney, now con- centrating on promotion of the Sing-a-Tina. a kazoo-like instru- ment on which he holds the patents and which he has developed. JItck Goldstein, recently of RKO and formerly publicity , aide to Home at 20th. is handling out-of-town promotion and has worked out a large-scale campaign-^including a tieup with the public schools^in Boston, where the plastic 'instru- ment will get its national preem. Device, in three sizes, will sell for 15c 35c and $1. Horne derives a royalty from each sale, having licensed the actual manufacture to la plastics outfit in New Jersey. Sales Drives Continued from pagi 5 September. RKO is currently in the midst of the annual Ned De- IJinet drive; Both Paramount and Warners are expected to tee olf their annual drives in September and 20th-Fox, which- has just con- cluded a special drive honoring the first anniversary in. his job of sales chief Andy W. Sniith, Jr., is ex- pected to conduct the annual Spyros Skouras campaign in the late fall , > That leaves only Metro among the majors, with no drive sched- uled. To date, M-G has shunned the sales systems, preferring in- stead to sell its product on a straight quality basis. Last Metro sales drive was conducted in 1944 which, according to company offi- cials, was legitimate since it hon- ored the 20th anni of the com- pany. With all other distribs hav- ing drives in the works now, Metro believes it, too, may be forced to call one this fall if only to protect its own position by bucking the other companies for bookings. ^ ^ Down Trend Began In '47, Conmierce Dept. Discloses Washington, July 27. The peak of picture biz was reached in 1946 and the down- ward trend, now becoming so noticeable, began in 1947. Figures just released by the U. S. Depart- ment of Commerce disclose that, contrary to general belief, the trend was down rather , than lip, last year, although 1947 still stands as the second best in the history of pictures. The Commerce statistics, cover- ing the field from boxoffice and net profits to number of em- ployees, prove once more that films are the nation's favorite rec- reation, doing a business almost equal to that of the remainder of the recreation aiid amusement field combined.. Here is the story in dollars: ' In 1947, industry corporate prof- its after Federal and State taxes, was a smash $161,000,000 slipping from the record-breaking $202,- 000,000 of 1946, but still far ahead of such other halcyon years as 1945, $104,000,000; and 1944, $102,- 000,000. To give an idea how sub- stantial the figures are, it should be recalled that industry corporate profits in boom 192d amounted to only $52,000,000, In other fields of amusement and recreation, the -profits after all taxes in 1947 were $62,000,000, an alltime record and better thaw the previous high of $60,000,000, earned in 1946. Motion picture corporate prof- its before taxes hit $269,000,000 in 1947, down substantially from the $336,000,000 before taxes in 1946. The 1945 figure was $255,000,000. Department of Commerce re- ports that the motion picture box-: office take last year was $1,380,- 000,000. This was second only to the 1946 peak of $1,427,000,000, but ahead of the $1,259,000,000 for 1945 and the $1,175,000,000 of 1944. The$e four are the only $1,000,000,000 years the industry has had at the boxoffice. In th» picture industry, wages and salaries reached their peak in 1947. The industry paid out $683,- 000,000 last year to an average of 251,000 fulltime employees in production, distribution and ex- hibition. A year earlier, with an average of 254,000 full and part- time employees, the total was $680,000,000; The average earning of the motion picture worker last year was $3,022—contrasted with $2,969 in 1946 and $2,567. in 19451: Johnston Appraises State of Fib | Biz on Foreign and Domestic Fronts U's Clarification Universal, in a-special press release slanted at newspaper financial editors, emphasized yesterday (Tues.) that plans to shutter its studios were made "many months ago" and had "nothing whatever to do with current British film quota restrictions." Pact that the U release quoted both U board chairman J. Cheever Cowdin and prexy Nate J. Blumberg. and was issued by J.. Walter Thompson and not U's ad-pub department, is believed' to point up the emphasis placed by the com- pany on making certain the "public knows the official rea- sons for closing down the studios. Referring to a statement re- portetdly made in Hollywood Monday (26) by Motion Pic- ture Assn. of America, prez Eric Johnston linking the . shutdown with the British quota, Cowdin and Blumberg declared Johnston was "either. misquoted or misinformed." U toppers termed the shut- dovm, scheduled to start Fri- day (30), a "general vabation period" and emphasized that U now has a 19-picture back- log, biggest in its history. Hughes' Exp0rt$ Continued' from 'page '4 was named as a result of the riislg- nation last week of prexy N. Peter Rathvon, who had been serving as production topper since Dore Schary resigned early this month. In that period more than 700 em- ployees, of whom about 150 were on a ■ regular weekly salary basis, were fired. Creighton Perlin, another exec in the Hughes industrial empire, was named in the original an- nouncement as, a member of the studio exec group; His name was withdrawn, Iiowever, within half an hour and that of Tevlin sutn stituted. Pic Divvies Off 3 Million in '48 Washington, July 27i Motion picture film dividends, while still strong for the first half Of ' 1948, were nevertheless more than $3,000,000 under the first half of 1947, the peak'year. A generally downward trend has been apparent during the first half of the year, with some companies omitting dividends and others pay- ing less. U. S. Department of Com- merce reports that the slip is more marked in films than in other in- dustries wholSe figures are kept by the Department,^ For business as a whole, dividends in the second quarter of 1948 were up 10% over the previous year. In pictures, the second-quarter melon this year to- taled $11,605,000, as against $13,- 645,000 for the same quarter of 1947, Despite the slump, howe^r, 1948 continues to be the second best year for payments to picture indus- try stockholders. For the first half of 1946, the dividends totaled $17,- 108,000. June payments this year were a fine $7,478,000, but nevertheless off from* the June, 1947, figure of $7,959,000. Commerce estimates the pub- licly reported dividends which it collects amount to about 60% of all dividends paid out by inctti^- rated businesses. Budget Cuts Conttniied from page 3 usually been a closely-guarded se- cret. It has been learned, however, that Metro's domestic film rentals during 1947 totaled approximately $60,000,000 of a total operating, revenue of some $176,342,000. With a group of big-grossers already released this year, the company's rentals have maintained their steady pace, despite the slight box- office dip. ;-".That theatre recepits have fallen ,*i^..hag long been recognized in the Iri'ditstify. Most company officials, Sdwever; bplii^ve the slump, esti- mated at betweea 10-12% national- ly, vvlU be overcome during the next several months' on the basis of the top lineup of product being released by all companies. * With the new economy wave now in force at most studios, following close on the heels of the one ef- fected last fall, it's now believed that production costs can definitely be brought down. When pictures made under the reduced cost struc- ture are released, consequently, and if sales and theatre depart- ments hold their own, company officials can see their profit state- ment going in no other (Urection than up. Hollywood, Jiily. 27. Serious shrinkage of foreign, markets; high cost of living domes-> tically; serious competition from new forms of entertainment, such as television, night dog races, night baseball, etc., are blamed by Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Ass'n of America, for the serious condition in which the illm Industry finds itself today. Most serious to the business is the for^ eign situation, he declared. Johnston pointed out here yes- terday (Monday) that 1946 foreign income was $120,000,000, while earnings for the entire industry, for that year, after taxes, were only $144,000,000. In 1947, the for- eign coin shrank. to $90,000,000, and the Industry's entire eartiings, after taxes, only totaled $96,000>» 000. Johnston estimates thtit In 1948 the entire foreign revenue won't pass $70,000,000. Next year, he said, would be the low point, with overseas revenue down to $50,000,000 to $60,000,000. f Additionally said Johnston, his previous estimate of $7,000,000 as the figure British pix would do in the U. S. has to be revised. He said there might be no net earn- ings whatever, consequently noth-* . ing to be added to $17,000,000 whfich the American producers can take out of Britain. Under the -re- cent agreement, they get $17,000,- 000. plus an amount equal to the net earnings of British pictures in Anierica, ■The biggest problem facing-thie industry as regards' the foreign mar- ket, however, is the conversion of foreign currency into dollars. U, S. pix are being shown in every country of the world, with excep- tion of Yugosilavia and Russia, andl foreign audiences are larger than ever—even behind the "Iron Cur- tain." The current Berlin situation is holding up State Oept, action on the MPAA's request for a protest over British quota. Pro):ests def- initely will be made, Johnston promised, but he doesn't know when. . . ■ ■ , ■ Johnston refused to make J. Arthur Rank the "villian" on the British front, since all British pro- ducers feel the quota a good thing. However, he feels the British will find the quota a second and more* serious mistake than the original tax bite. He sees another serious mistake looming for British production In announcement that the .Labor gov- ernment would subsidize produc- tion. H» says banks won't back Britishers any longer, and the Government will soon gain control of what goes into , pix. Plan is to keep up strong export program to all eountries, even those from which no revenue is returned. He believes the pix biz should let those funds keep piling up. On the home front, the MPAA prexy stated pix industry, which had been geared to world market, must get back to domestic opera- tion fast. Multi-million dollar pic- tures are out. Johnston struck an optimistic note regarding current production lag, unemployment. Feels certain situation would im- prove with production picking up late fall after return to U. S. of Jack Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck, Herbert J. Yates and other indus- try toppers. Regarding bid of other countries for recognition, said it was impossible for any country furnish within next few years the know-how of picmakhig it took Hollywood two generations to learn. Jerry Wald Contbiucid from paee 3 agent. Lew Wasserman of MCA, on the correct tack to pursue in han- dling this matter. His contract runs to 1952. The studio's denial of his authority to interview talent for pictures on liis production schedule is regarded by Wald as "Degrad- ing." Wald recently produced "Key Largo," "Johnny Belinda," "One Sunday Afternoon" "John Loves Mary," "Adventures of Don Juan," has "Happy Times," "Flamingo Road," and "Task Force" ready for production and is readying "8omethbig% Got *ro ', Give," "Ladies And Gentlemen," "Calam- ity Jane," "Serenade," among others.