The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INF M A TON
BURE AU
FREDERIC J. HASHN. Director.
Washington, d C
RECONSTRUCTING THE MOVIES
III. What the Distributors Say.
Washlngton, d c

New YORK, N. Y. March Zz.-Ihe
struggle between the new United Ar
lists corporation, with Mr.. McAdoo as
| its counseI on the one hand, and the
may turn out to be one of the most
dramatic features the motion picture
industry has ever produced.
| In this drama you may imagine the
public, the movie fan-that is. your
| self-as a rich and desirable young
thing, who is the object of much plot
| ting and endeavor, and who hasn't
| brains enough to take care of herself
] The exhibitor or theater owner might
| be cast as a jealous and finicky maid
en- aunt of this heroine. who feels that
/ she knows just what the dear girl
! wants in the way of a sutton and is
| determined that she shall have it. The
old-line distributing organizations
| would naturally come into the cast as
a wealthy and powerful gentleman
who is seeking to gain the hand of
| the girl by getting the maiden aunt in
! his power, while this new McAdoo
corporation is the dashing young Io-
| thario who seeks to win the hand of
the wealthy damsel by a bold stroke.
and who denounces his wealthy cid
rival for a CRATER and monopolist.
| The said wealthy old rival has a
| skeptical attitude toward the preten-
| sions of the young Lothario, to say the
| least. Representatives of the distrib-
! uting organizations, such as Para
mount-Artcraft, which distributed the
! pictures of Pickford, Fairbanks and
| Griffith before they Joined the Nc
Adoo revolution, wish it clearly under
stood that they are not at all disturbed
by this new development in the r-oIie
| business. They have lost three of
! their best stars-true. But stars come
and go, and the movies go on forever.
| They will show you some of their pic
| ture lists of few years ago which
| contain the names of screen-folk that
were famous then, but are COM
pletely forgotten now as their grand
fathers.
| 1t is not denied that this new cor
poration will make some good pictures
and have them shown. But that it
can carry out its announced intention
| of forming a worldwide organization,
and of supplying all the needs of all
the theaters, that it can gather all the
principal stars into it's organization,
and win the public away from all
other aspirants- they say it can
do anything of the kind.
| Toward the charges made against
the present conduct of the film-dis-
-tributing business, they are more than
skeptical, they are resentful. These
charges are in substance that the big
distributors have sought to gain a
public; that they have neglected the
stars in their advertising and have
sought to make the theaters, and SO
the sixty millions who go to them
take whatever they (the distributors)
wish to offer.
The distributors do not deny that
they have played up the names OF
their own corporations in their adver-
Using. This, they say, was necessary
to their survival and good business
Neither do they deny that in releasing
the star pictures they have pooled
them with other pictures, so that the
exhibitor has had to take several non
i star productions in order to get one
star production. This is necessary
they say, because the star demands sc
much money. for the privilege OF dis
tributing his or her pictures that the
distributor must release other produc-
tionS with them in order to make
profit without forcing the price the
public would have to pay to see the
star pictures. These distributors say
that the real objectF of the stars in
forming their own distributing organ
ization is to make the public pay
more to see their pictures than it pays
to see other pictures.
Under the present system, If the
movie theater to which you &C
charges fifteen cents admission fol
one picture, it charges fifteen cents
for all. 1t costs you no more to see
Mary Pickford than it does to see
!, some picture made by people you
never heard of. One of the principa
objects of the present distributing
system is to preserve this uniform
. charge for admission. They believe
that the public demands it and thai
i it is necessary to the prosperity OF
the whole motion picture industry
And they predict that when this new
, star corporation gets going, you viii
have to pay, say, twenty-fiv cents
to see a Pickford picture in house
that usually charges fifteen cents.
, The big distributors also wish t.
refute the charge that the motion
picture industry, or at least their par
of it, is wasteful and badly organized
II They admit that many tons of film
, are wasted in making pictures tina
the public doesn't like. But this, they
say, is a necessary condition of every
business that appeals to the desire fol
: entertainment. Millions of dollars are
, also wasted in producing plays tina
: the public won't go to, and books tina
the public won't read. Hitting tina
f elusive and ever changing mark, the
public taste, is never easy. Tht
amusement business in all its branche!
is essentially a speculation.
BY way of answering the charge
f that the movie business is badly or
ganiZed and chaotic, one representa-
tive of big producer led the inveSti
gator all over the Fifth Avenue es
; adjustment from which that par
, ticular organization serves some ter
thousand moving picture theaters il
all parts of the United States.
This particular distributor claims t.
do about thirty per cent of all TIL
motion picture business in the coun
S try. His gross receipts are nearl.
half a million a week. His offices ar
a roomy and sumptuous place, mad
all of glass. richly carpted and decor
l ated. The bookkeeping departing en-
i alone covers about half an acre, AM
is equipped with every mechanical de
vice that has been invented to aid tn
human brain. You can punch but
! ton on some kind of machine and
s brings forth the exact figures as t
how much business was done by tn
: Palace Moving Picture Theater il
e Joplin. No. on January %. In it
s art department several painters ar
r hard at work making the great col