Variety (July 1919)

■<;wp:- m - ■:■-■ -■■■ ■ *■;, *s ■ ' E S ./ '• m 49 EXHIBITORS ASK FOR PUNITIVE MEASURES AGAINST PRODUCERS Delegation at Washington ^o Get Law Passed Prohibiting Deceptive Advertisements. Many Incidents Cited Where Prominent Manufacturers Have Not Lived Up to Announcements Trade' Papers and to In- dividual Exhibitors. m c. Urging that carloads of good insert paper and wells of fine colored inks are being wasted by manufacturers in ir- responsible statements of plans that are deliberately misleading, a new pool of big and little moving picture exhibi- tors syndicated for defense against the fast growing offensives of pro- ducers, last Tuesday, sent a.delegation to Washington to get the lawmakers to make national the punitive bills now operative in certain states, notably New Jersey, against deceptive adver- tisements. Mid-summer is the period when the^, producers start tapping the ink re- torts and stage play files for their opu- lent promises, and this season the tor- rid wash of the manufacturers is splashing the shacks of the exhibitors' nor'-east-west-and-south with more glittering verbal periphery the exhibi- tors aver than any producer but a Yogi man could redeem even to. an 'eenth part. ... . A thumbing over of the picture men's trade lexicons from week to week dur- ing the past month would give one the "paraghorric phantasmaghorrics," as £ one of the kicking exhibitors express- ed it, between what the producers said they are going to do, and what the exhib. from past performances knew the producer never would and never could do. But these advertisements the exhib. says are trade stimulators, and _ followed up, as they are sharply by canvassers for contracts or deposit moneys, they are in themselves false pretenders, as are those responsible foi them, in the judgment of the pool of exhibs. now taking reprisal action. • : The trade announcements are abrading the cuticles of the exhibs. _, this season as they have not done be- fore because the picture ■ leaser finds himself at this time in a boiling caldron being fast reduced to a digestible'con- sistency for the cannibals that he calls "the producers. What with the new open market "we win and you lose" slogan of the manufacturer with its manifold opportunities to literally take the theatre away from the exhibitor, as a last week statement of N. H. Gordon, : for the First Natinonal frankly ac- knowledges—the 1st N. being one of the open market philantropists—the man who has the worries of making his films meet his theatre payrolls, is get- ting rabid, and just now is figuring v night and day as to the ways and means he must adopt to save himself from the certain ruin which the 1st National's statement unreservedly says he faces. ' The exhib. finds bne of the causes of his losses in his purchases of pic- tures in the past has been influenced bv the auto-eulogistic advertisements. ' The exhib. acknowledges that if he , knew plays, star and box-office draught values as well as manufacturers are supposed to know them he wouldn't - have to rely upon the information.dis- ; - seminated by the heads of these con- cerns. But relying upon the manufac- turers' co-operation, promised to see I that he makes but a minimum of mis- takes, the exhibitor in the past has bought in without too intrusive close- up looks at his purchases only to dis- | cover in the end that both the an- E nouncement propaganda and the sales- \,- men absurdly deceived him. Checking up the advertising money spent by manufacturers for self laud- atory acclamation of their productions,, intended to sway the purchases of ex- hibitors, in published and posted mat- ter during the past year,-the particular pool of exhibitors who propose to pen- alize misstatements in the future suc- ceeded in compiling a gross expendi- ture on the part of all producers in America alone during the last year of more than $2,000,000. The exhibitors, both in the pool re- ferred to, and in other groups of mal- contents with conditions as- they are, think the business of which they're a part deserves more stabilizing, and think an honest get-together confer- ence between the heads of the big pro- ducing companies and the representa- tives of the fast forming pools of ex- hibitors could easily find a serviceable way of spending at least a part of this $2,000,000 so that the cause of the industry, the manufacturers' as well as the exhibitors' ends, would be material- ly benefited. The pool seeking national lines of re- strictions against misstatements ar- raign practically all the leading com- panies now sharp shooting at the ex- hibitor through published and highway proclamations. Starting with the surprise they got when William Fox, for instance, didn't include among his Sunshine Comedies, flashed in his last week's trade-sheet aplurge the serio comib scream- though never intended to "be so—"A"" Woman There Was," with the immortal Theda, the exhibs. want to know for sure just how many of the 14 "Great Authors" promised by Fox in his red ink inserts are going to come through. The'exhibs. recall many such flam- boyant announcements by manufactur- ers that never materialized, and cite one of Fox's not long ago when Rupert Hughes, Frederick Arnold Kum- mer, Larry Evans, George Bronson Howard, and George Scarborough, were spot-lighted, but never appeared, save to an inconsequential degree. The same exhibs. point to the great publicity flubclub of the Goldwyn over the capture of Elizabeth Jordan at a fabulous salary as scenario editor, with Elizabeth's swift entry and as speedy exit, after the lycopodium of Eliza- beth had died out of the advertising torch. The theatre men also recall art flare in the publicity skies of the Goldwyn when Max Marcin was prom- ised—promised—but not delivered, and give innumerable other instances sup- porting their contention that the time has come for a halt, and more con- servative statements. The recalcitrant bunch now at the Capitol, through their representatives point to the 14 "Great Authors" that Fox includes in his last ad and ask what makes the individuals of the group great unless it be the adjective that rides them into a double page col- ored display; save in the instances of David Belasco, whose half-century old "Le Belle Russe" is the basis for his inclusion in the gallery; Henry Wads- worth Longfellow, whose "Evangeline" poem long since dropped out of the copyright protection list; Zane Grey, whose bolt has already been shot by Fox in pictures produced last season, or Henry Blossom, whose play, "Check- . ers," the only one announced by Fox, is an echo of a remote past. The doubt- PA. BOND BILL VETOED. Harrisburg, July 23. ....' The Soffel bill, which would have provided that picture distributors must file bonds or make deposits of money or give other securities to the State Board of Motion Picture Censors for. the protection of exhibitors with whom they dealt, has been vetoed by Gover- nor William C. Sproul, of Pennsylvania.. The bill was aimed at the alleged practice of distributors who forced ex- hib ito rs to make heavy pre-payments on .films, but it also provided for the licensing of distributors by the board, and it conferred on the board the power to revoke licenses of distrib- utors and their certificates of approval of films if they did not furnish the bonds, money or securities. The Governor points out four rea- sons why the bill should not be a law in Pennsylvania in his veto message, contending that there is no more rea- son why exhibitors should.be protected by th& State from loss on contracts than other business men; that the ex- hibitor would be protected, but there is hot reciprocal protection for the dis- tributor, that there is no provision for the collection of damages and that the bill is unconstitutional. .,, FIRST NATIONAL MEETS. , During .the first, part of the week there was a general calling together of the executive factors of the First National Exhibitors' Circuit The in- formation was that the meeting had been called to consider a number of special productions offered during the last few weeks. * In reality the meeting was more or less of a hurriedly called affair to take under consideration the present status of the Charles Chaplin contract which the company holds,..calling for, five additional pictures by the comedian. The original. Chaplin contract calls for eight pictures. Three have been delivered. The last one was a flop. The first National heads are in the air whether or not the comedian intends slipping them five similar productions to fill out his contjact wjth them and then do a terrific comeback with his first Big Four released production. One report was to the effect Chaplin had finished his five features called for and intended presenting them to the First National in bulk, which would call for an. extremely big pay- ment. RAIN BRINGS DOUCH, ^ AH of the ;Broadway picture hous'e managements are in high glee over the damp weather that hovered over New York after July IS. It has made the box'officesi of all of. the film theatres .; ; * along the main stem show returns tha% were t** "beyond expectations at thiiTrf time of the year. The Rivoli, Rialto and the Strand have had two weeks m business that has* been sip to the mid-season mark and the New York and the Broadway,have broken records. Gf course the New York is a dodge away from the storms and showers, while the Broadway has been dragging them in on the strength of the girls. Incidentally the run of the Bath- ing Girls and the Mack Sennett com- edy, "Yankee Doodle in Berlin," has been extended for four weeks, but not without its drawback for the Broad* wayites that want to see the real, or almost real thing in Sennett diving dames. Ever since the film, opened the; big street boobs have been falling for a couple of "larries" that have been ; "stuck in".with the real goods. Right now Broadway Is about to have a real "larry" put over on.it, just the same as those in the "sticks" have been look- 1 ing at a lot of girls advertised ,as, the Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties and thinking them the real thing, ■-, : The bunch that is how at the Broad- way', including Bothwell Browne, is to be moved to the Ziegfeld Theatre, Chicago, in time.to open there Sun- day and in the meantime the big alley / is to have a gang of "larries" flipped over on them, ■■ Sol Lesser could not get an exten- sion of time from the Chicago bunch.,.; --j'.\> r .;:V<..--.'. -•yd -"'""if ' YORK IN PICTURES. Sergeant Alvin York, of Tennessee, the man who made the greatest record in the European war for a single ex- ploit, making the greatest single cap- ture of German prisoners, and who is the most decorated American to* par- ticipate in the struggle, has been con- tracted for a picture engagement by Ernie Young and. Ray Hodgdon. York received more publicity upon his return to America than any other member of any division to journey across, but his inability to make a per- sonal stage appearance on the stage suggested the picture idea to the Young-Hodgdon combination. The con- tract calls for a percentage arrange- ment, the agents not guaranteeing any- thing. ^—• ing Thomases want to know who E. Lloyd Sheldon is, classed with others in the imposing genius summary. The kickers point to the admission in the Fox ad oriflamme that the Fox concern is now "the greatest film or- ganization in the world;" and to the published statement in the same sheet of the head Fox mouthpiece that "two million.dollars have been appropriated for the coming Fox exploitation cam- paign,'reaching around the world and addressed to the motion picture-going public," and a lot of other statements that the protesting exhibs. classify in their petition to Congress as "flap- doodle." DR. SUDGEN GOES TO AFRICA. Dr. Sudgen, who has had a wonder- ful success in photographing.Alaskan scenery for the Prizma Company, has sailed for Africa for that organization./ He expects to be gone about two years, traveling into the interior of the Dark- est Continent. HORKHEIMER PRODUCING. H. M. Horkheimer returns to picture producing next week after an absence of a year and a half from the field. He • has organized N H. M. Horkheimer Pro- ductions. Inc. (capital $500,000), with main officesJn New York and studios on the Coast. ( .-1, Included- in Horkheimer's immediate plans is the production of a 15-episode serial, "The Purple Seven," an eight- reel feature of anti-Bolshevik nature. "The Brotherhood of Destruction" and "The Woman in the Light," a six-reel mystery drama written 1 by Earl Carroll. Horkheimer has made no marketing arrangements as yet. ■":.:>fflBteS - v i \ Matter of Letter* in Name. '■ S. L. Pictures, Inc., started injunc- tion proceedings in the Supreme Court Monday, through its attorney,'Harry Kosch, seeking to restrain the S. L. K. Serial Corporation from using the let- ters "S. L." as part of its corporate name. S. L. Pictures sets up the claim that Helen Holmes signed with S. L. K. Serial Corporation in the belief mem- bers of the S. L. Pictures concern were interested in the former company. • : " : .:x^« wmz /.EaJ Norworth't IS Weeks Before Camera. Jack Norworth will wind up his vaudeville engagements at Morrison's, Rockaway, Aug. 4, starting on the new picture serial he has contracted to ap- pear in for Theodore Wharton Aug. 11. Norworth's picture engagement will embrace IS weeks. It will cause the postponement of his proposed new revue. ♦ ■Wl ...... •■:'.:■*}. Benny Zeldman's Successor. Ted Reed has been appointed to suc- ceed Benny Zeidman as publicity man- ager for the Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation. ■v'f " : :