Evening star., 1925-11-08
RONALD COLMAN Iivol1
The Moving Picture
By Robert Z. Sher7vood.

! When you pay fifty cents-more or
! less-at the box Office window in front
/ Of a movie theater you don't know
what becomes of that sum; further
more. you don't much care. You are
! interested primarily in what is to be-
! come of yourself-Whether you Will be
! thrilled, amused. stimulated, enter
| tained or just bored to death.
The inner workings of the movie
! political machine are not, and should
| not be. subject of any great concern
| to the average citizen. He wants to
! see results, and those results are
! judged by the pictures that flash
across the screen.
Nevertheless. the sordid commercial
aspect of the movie business has been
| evoking so much front page comment
| Of late. and there have been so many
startling changes in the lineup, that
| the subject is worthy OF attention.
The situation, as briefly as possible.
| is this:
| The big producing companies, of
! which Famous Players, First National
and Metro-Goldwyn are the biggest.
are battling with each other for con-
troll Of the movie theaters, and have
gained so much power in this respect
that the independent producer finds
| himself deprived Of the usual channels
of distribution.
Famous Players has been called "a
| combination in restraint of trade"
and Is now being subjected to a Fed
| eral investigation.
Originally movie producing COM
| panieS were just that. They made pic
lures and sold them, on their individ-
ual merits. to theater owners, who
| in turn, sold them to the public. This
| is the economic basis on which almost
all our industries are founded-the
| eternal triangle Of manufacturer, re-
| taller and buyer.
The First National Corporation
started as an association Of exhibitors
| who banded together for their own
protection to found a company which
| should be dedicated solely to the dis
| tribution of pictures. Various inde-
| pendent producers realized the sound
ness of this plan, and agreed to fur
| nish the pictures.
| Adolph Zukor of Famous Players
saw that First National was gaining
in power, and effecting a direct liai-
| son between the producer and the ex
| hibitors, and so Mr.. Zukor started out
! to build or purchase a chain of thea
ters which would be under his con-
| troll and therefore committed to his
| own pictures.
At the same time another tremen-
| dous force appeared in the person of
| Marcus Loew. who operated some
| hundreds Of vaudeville theaters
throughout the country. Together
with his vaudeville bills. Mr.. Loew
started to show movies and thus open
| ed up vast new field for distribu-
! ton.
Finally Mr.. Loew bought the almost
i
| sequently the totally defunct Goldwyn
Corporation, consolidating them into
a huge and vitally powerful producing
! unit. With his already enormous
| string of theaters, he had a combina-
| ton that was formidable in the ex-
| treme.
Thus, Mr.. Zukor, Mr.. Loew and
Richard A. Rowland of First National
| emerged as the towering financial
figures Of the movie industry, and the
| three of them have warred with con.
siderable ferocity for the top position.
| Whenever First National acquired a
| new theater in an important city,
| Famous Players and Metro -Goldwyn
would feel compelled to do likewise
and SO on. With the result that the
other producing ompanies-Universal
| Fox. United Artists, Warner Bros,
| +. B. O. and the rest-have met with
| their pictures before the public.
I 1t seems just now that Famous
| Players is to emerge triumphant in
, the struggle for supremacy.
Recently Mr.. Zukor announced that
| he had formed business alliance
| with Balaban & Katz. the most pow
| erful exhibitors in the Middle West,
| Inv
sumo control of all the Famous Play
| ers theaters. 1t SO happens that
Balaban & katz were among the
| founders Of First National and are
| now about its most influential stock
| holders.
| Following this announcement, Mr.
| Rowland resigned his post at First
National, and 1t Is now freely rumor-
ed that this company will be absorbed
| by Famous Players.
Which would leave Metro Goldwyn
the only serious rival in the field
| and in this connection it might be
noted that Adolph Zukor's daughter
| is married to Marcus Loew's son.
OF course, all these upheavals will
not cause any serious hearta ches in
the rank and file of the general public,
unless it so happens that the quality
of the pictures decreases or the price
| of the seats goes up.
Just at present there is no indi-
cation that either of these calamities
will eventuate.
Copyright. 1925.)
Sailors Wives" Warner Fabian's
story is being adapted for screen
production by First National.