The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BURE AU
FREDERIC =. HASKIN. Director.
Washington, D. C
RECONSTRUCTING THE MOVIES.
IL Mr.. PRICE. IL tiIm RefOrmer.

poratiUn which has attracted SO much
attention by obtaining the services of
William Gibbs McAdoo as chief coun-
sci, and the formation of which has
caused so much discussion of condi-
tions, business and artistic. in the
great moving picture industryA
AS explained in a former article
Mr.. McAdoo has been retained by this
new corporation in merely advisory
ca pacity and chiefly for the sake OF
the confidence which his name will in
spire in the public, and possibly on
Wall street. The executive head OF the
Piokford Chaplin Griffith Fairbanks
enterprise is Mr.. Oscar a. Price. He
is to be the leader in putting into eff
feet the large plans of these United
Artists
Mr.. Price is we'll known as the as
sistant director of railroads. He frank
ly states that he has not yet completed
his plans in connection with the new
movie enterprise. He says that he has
"a single-track mind" and the track
upon which his mind is now running
is d railroad track. When his duties
as assistant director terminate on the
fifteenth of this month, he will take
up the matter of recOnstruc1nS the
motion picture INDUSTRY, and not be-
fore.
Mr. Price is an executive of varied
experience. He used to run weekly
paper. a saWmill and several other
businesses in West Virginia, his ma
tive state Later he came to Wash
ington, and was auditor of the interior
department. Then Mr.. McAdoo dis
covered him, set him the difficult
task of Strengthening out the fiscal
affairs of the bureau of engraving and
printing. made him publicity director
of the first and second liberty loans,
and finally appointed him assistant di-
rector of railroads. 1t was natural
that Mr.. Price should follow his chief
out of the government and into the
movies, as president of the United
Artists corporation.
Altho he has not yet studied his
new job in deail, Mr., Price has clear,
if general, ideas as 90 what he is go
ing to do for the movies For one
thing, he is going to make them more
moral" He is against all pictures
that could possibly be considered suS-
gestive, or unfit in any way for the
American family trade He is espe
cially against those pictures which
show risque scenes under a guise of
propaganda. He thinks that a smutty
story posing as a sermon in the $50
cial evil" or an exposure of the perils
which beset beautiful manicure girls
in New York. is a smutty story just
the same. He further takes the view
that the movies should be, and to
some extent are, a fine moral influ-
ence. He believes that the morals of
|
by the beautiful and inspiring screen
conduct of Mary Pickford, and that
the agile and manly image of Douglas
Fairbanks in eighteen thousand thea
tiers affords high inspiration to grow
ing boys. Charlie Chaplin, he admits
! has less of this ethical value. but in
the opinion of Mr.. Price, Charlie is not
| vulgar.
No artists. therefore. who exalt the
fleshpots. need apply for admission to
this new enterprise; but on the other
hand those who belong Enthusiastically
in the clean and wholesome class will
be welcomed.
Mr., Price also believes that the mo-
ton picture industry has given too
much time and attention to drama
and not enough to educational and
news features. A publicity man and
publisher himself, he is especially i'm
pressed by the great possibilities that
are in the news pictorial. He looks
forward to the day when the public
will see in pictures the news of the
world almost as fast as it happens
But the United Artists Corporation
! has not been formed primarily for
the purpose of moral and artistic re-
| form Its underlying motives are of
a business and financial nature. The
four famous stars who have formed
the corporation are dissatisfied with
the way their pictures are being dis
tilDuleu ana tney are gong TO 90 the
distributing themselves. Incidentally,
/ they invite other stars to join in their
/ effort, with a view to making the
elimination of the moving picture
middleman permanent and general.
1t must be understood that at pres
! ent the tendency of the motion pic
ture industry is to make the produc-
| ton, the distribution and the exhibit
ton of motion pictures each a sepa-
rate business. Thus Mary Pickford.
1nuI ln- 1JrrtNs n E,sf
| fifth all have studios and make their
own pictures, but these are distribut-
| ed to the theaters by the Paramount
| Aircraft Corporation. of which
! Adolph Zukor is the head. Charlie
Chaplin is also an independent pro-
Queer, distributing his films thru an
other agency
| The ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS company
which is the biggest single organiza-
ton in moviedom, and the nearest
| thing in it to a monopoly, also pro-
duces pictures. but it is largely a dis
| tributing concern. According to Mr.
| Price the newly united stars object to
| the way in which this corporation is
| handling their products, chiefly on
| two counts. In the first place, he saws,
pictures are released to the exhibitors
not singly, but in groups. Thus the
! distributing agent will pool a Pickford
/ picture with four or five other. and
| generally inferior pictures. and in or
J dS1 " SCI liIc IlChIOIu feature the
| hibitor has to buy them all. This.
| according to Mr.. Price and his asso-
\ ciates, is most distasteful to the ex-
! hibitor, and tends to make him refuse
/ the star picture because he does not
| want the others.
I , In the second place, according to
! Mr. Price, the Paramount Artcra #
I corporation plays up its own name at
| the expense of the names of the stars
! Thus this corporation has recently
I conducted great national magazine
! advertising campaign which had for
! its sole object to estab lish in the
| minds of the public the idea that
| Paramount Aircraft pictures are su-
/ perior, but which seldom mentioned
| the names of any of the stars which
| have given the corporation its fame,
/ Since publicity is the breath of life to
movie star. this method of advertis-
ing is most distasteful to the leading