Evening star., 1953-08-02


wearily onto sofa. his eyes blood
shot and his hands shaking.
"Now." he said YEARLY, "if we can
only get past the White House"
The man was Robert w. Coyne,
a sparkplug of a fantastic grass
roots" lobby that persuaded Con-
gress to vote to kill the 20 per cent
tax on movie tickets.
The Government imposed an
emergency" tax on admission
tickets during the First World War.
Ever since. the tax, with some ups
and downs, has remained.
This month, while the Eisenhower
administration was searching for
every dollar of tax revenue, a bill
to exempt motion picture theaters
from the tax suddenly began to
move.
The House took only two hours to
pass the bill. The Senate took As
minutes.
Behind the swift action was an
18-month lobbying job that made
some professionals gasp.
Handling the drive was the Coun-
Gil of Motion Picture Organizations,
a group representing producers, dis
tributors, exhibitors and workers in
the movie industry.
How Lobby Worked
Co-chairmen were two exhibitors:
Col Harry Cole of Dallas, Tex, and
Pat MCGEE of Denver. Mr.. Coyne
was special counsel. d.
From 1941 to 1946, Mr.. Coyne
worked in the Treasury here pro-
noting the sale of war bonds. He
learned how to take a huckstering
campaign to the graSS-rootS.
That's what he did for the movie
business. A committee of motion pic
ture people was formed for each
congressional district and each
State.
Mr.. Coyne, working in New York
with a small staff, compiled in
dustry-wide statistics and fed them
to local committees. His story was
impressive: Since 1946, 5000 motion
picture theaters have closed and
theater profits have dropped 29.7
per cent; theaters now are closing
at the rate of 5 or 10 day, and
the television monster grows bigger
daily, threatening to devour the
movies, popcorn concessions and all.
Before last November's elections,
local committee called on each
congressional candidate with the
single plea: Exempt the movies from
the 20 per cent admissions tax.
The lobbyists were hometown
movie folks, mostly exhibitors. They
told the congressional candidates
about the national problem But
they also told about the Bijou down
on the corner-perhaps the theater
that the candidate himself attended.
It's Going to Close
Its going to close unless this tax
comes Off" the owner would say.
The emotional impact was great,
Mr.. Coyne figures. A theater can
make you recall so many movie born
emotions that almost any one feels
sad when house goes dark. The
candidates were won over.
You can't ask a Congressman to
put his campaign promises in writ
ing. So the exhibitors did the next
best thing. They wrote each poll
tician thanking him for his promise
to try to kill the tax.
The emphasis was on Representa-
tives but Senators, too, were visited:
At no time did a professional lob
byist show his head. Only con-
stituents called on Congressman.
House passage of the bill by a
voice vote came sooner than the
lobby headquarters expected. And
the Senate prepared to act before
the lobbyists had done all the sell
ing" they wanted to do.
So movie people from faraway
States rushed here like a rescue COL
umn of the United States calvary.
The lobby paid the expenses. But it
meant that, once again, only con-
StituentS called on the legislators.
When Senate debate" began, 1t
was almost a farce.
Chairman Millikin of the Senate
Finance Committee, who was in
charge Of the bill, didn't even get
chance to explain it. The first is
minutes brought Interruptions from