Evening star., 1932-05-01
The
Motion Picture
Album
BY ROBERT E. SHERWOOD.

THIS is the last appearance of
this column which has been
running for almost 10 years.
l. Perhaps the verb running" is
a trif1e inaccurate. There may
have been occasional sprintS, but there
have also been periods Of limping, stag
gering and even marking time. 1t IS
conventional in a swan song of this
nature to indulge in sentimental re-
view of the past, to point out the
miracles of progress that have been ac-
complished in the dead decade, to evoke
bitter-sweet memories Of all the great
pictures and all the terrible pictures
that these glazing eyes have beheld
However, 1 prefer to devote this ulti-
mate column to review of tie future.
1t is, in my opinion, foregone con-
clusion that the movie business will
have to undergo drastic reorganization
and that it will emerge from the pro-
cess considerably shrunken from its
former bloated size The costs of pro-
duction will be cut to ribbons, there will
be fewer and smaller theaters and
fewer but better pictures. This will
happen regardless of economic condi-
tions throughout the world outside Hol-
lywood.
The fact is that there has been
radical change in the circumstances of
life which formerly gave the cinema its
stupendous financial power Look back
to 1924, when that power began to ebb.
What was happening then? The cX-
pansion of the radio and automobile
Industries was revising materially the
publics methods of occupying its hours
of leisure The movie was no longer
the sole alternative to a dull evening at
home.
This change will inevitably continue,
and with a return Of prosperity it will
increase in acuteneSs.
The film moguls have doggedly re-
fused to acknowledge this. and have
paid heavily for their stubborn adher-
ence to the extravagant principles of the
vanished past. They have persisted in
the belief that their industry will return
to the magnificent scale of 10 years
ago, when they had the entertainment
field all to themselves.
They're doomed to be awakened rude
ly from this happy dream. The alarm
rate.
Tor the old-time film magnates and
for the more luxurious of the stars
and directors TIE future is extremely
gloomy. But for those members of the
audience who have genuine love for the
movies and confidence in its infinite
potentialities, the future is proportion
ately bright
They can know that Hollywood is now
endowed with a vast wealth of talent
and that the imminent reorganization
will give this talent far greater op-
portunity to assert itself The most
orninous obstacle in the path of the
cinema's progress as an art has always
been its universal popularity
| OF course, there is the probability
that television will open up an entirely
new channel of distribution-by broad
casting motion pictures into homes.
Television will undoubtedly ruin most
Of the theaters, but it will be a new
source Of revenue for the producers. I
believe that they will meet this situa-
/ ton by making two distinct types Of
| PICTURESQUE wholesale type for broad
casting and another infinitely superior
| type for showing in the small theaters
that remain.
| The relationship of television to the
movies will be very much like the pres
ent relationship Of the movies to the
old-fashioned stage.