The Washington herald., 1921-01-18
Film Output
Cut In Half
Big Producers CWtail
Yield to Insure
Stability.
BY RAYMOND C. CARROLL.

NEW YORK, Jan. ia tour Of
various flm-producing headquarters
today disclosed the knowledge that
there has been quietly introduced
and carried out 30 per cent curtaiI-
mPnt OF outlay. For every dollar
the producers put into pictures
last year they will spend sixty
cents in the. coming year. Instead
of there being turned out herd and
in Los Angeles from sixteen to
twenty features for weekly release.
the producers have decided that
half that number is more than
ample to supply the demand and
give satisfaction.
We shall concentrate our efforts
this year upon making bigger and
better pictures. but fewer of them. d"
said a leading producer.
The facts are: In the season
1890, $l25. 100000 was paid by
exhibitors who conducted movie
houses for the pictures they dis
played in their theatcrs That rep
resents their gross outlay for pic
ture rentals or lease hire Of film
features. For the Same period the
cost of the raw stock to the pro-
duCers was more than $4,000, 600.
Hence the net loss to the producers
as whole was upward of SIS
0O0,O an item that had to be
wiped off by readjustments which
would justify the producers con-
tinuing in business.
Three Grades of Producers.
Roughly there arc three grades
of producers, namely. the ten lead
ing concerns, a large flock OF in
dependents. andS less than half a
dozen foreign importing concerns.
The independents were the prinCi-
pal losers. they chiefly consisting
Of fiedgling entrants to the fiIm
business with the backing of veal
thy friends and who as producers
would turn out one or two pictures
and then blow up" With the
large concerns the difficulty was
found to be the ma. fracture of too
many pictures.
However, the retrenchment has
fallen heavily upon the $4,000 en-
ployes of the industry. both here
where the majority OF the indoor
pictures are made, and in Los
Angeles, where most of the out
door scenes arc photographed.
Forty thousand alone in Southern
California got their living from
the screen studios. These en-
ployes include actors, actresses,
mechanics, photographers, electri-
clans, carpenters, painters, clerks,
statesmen and directors. Broadway
is full Of film folk out Of work and
in Los Angeles the situation is
even worse for under the warm
glow of the permanent sun the
Hollywooders had fancied the bo-
nanza days would last forever.
The producers tell me that they
have merely cut expenses to a bone
basis, and add that with fewer pic
lures on the market there will be
less pricecUtting. All the leading
concerns deny that there is any like
lihood of the establishment Of a
central clearing house for pictures.
What a producer gets from an ex-
nibitor depends upon the COmpeJl-
tion the latter faces, his ability to
pay, his location and the population
from which he draws his patronage.
a reflection of the st-pruning
was the slight advance of the film
stocks in Wall street.
Strange Vocation.
Paul H. Terry is New York ar
tist who Joined the army when
America entered the war. Like
others who felt the thrill of the
great adventure, his former occu-
patton seemed a tame life to resume
after he was demobilized. He has
picked a far more exciting avoca-
ton. wild animal importer" One
of his recent incoming animal aliens
is Koko, an orange IA years
old and three feet high. The beast
Is full OF play and gives Terry a
tussle whenever let out of its cage.
Another eX-service man who has
shifted occupations since coming
home is Paul, once the champion
! oyster opener at the Hotel Plaza,
He is driving a night-cruising taxi
cab