Resume and Outlook
By Joseph Dannenberg ("Danny") Editor Wid'a Daily
Never probably in the entire history of the mo¬
tion picture industry was a period stressed with
such difficulties as that which developed during the
year ending August 30th, 1921.
The business depression, the result of the re¬
turn to normal conditions following the war pe¬
riod, finally hit this industry. And with this came
a blow from which even the strongest of organ¬
izations recovered only after serious financial
stress. This applied to every branch of the in¬
dustry.
This was particularly true with exhibitors whose
expansion had been so rapid and whose finances
were spread so thin that it was with grave diffi¬
culty that some of them weathered the storm. In
addition to this, general business conditions re¬
sulted in depression in various sections which at
times reduced business to 40 and 50 per cent of
normal, and it caused many houses to shut down
completely from the early" part of the summer
until almost the beginning of this new season.
With the advent of the new season, although
business responded in some sections, it became ap¬
parent almost from the start that ordinary rou¬
tine made program pictures were scheduled to a
disappointing gross. This because so many large,
important, or spectacular productions were offered
in the early part of the season that to feed the
demands with unusual pictures became almost an
impossibility. The much discussed "fewer and
better pictures" failed again to materialize to an
extent at least sufficient to justify. So much so
has this been proven at this very early period
of the new season that many exhibitors were
planning the inauguration of unusual moves with
which -to attract their failing public. As a result,
a number of stars not actually working made
personal appearances and are scheduled to make
more in an effort to bring back a cheerful box
office condition. Victor Herbert and other well
known composers and artists. were also pressed
into service in the desire to attain the same result.
One of the outstanding developments of the
year was the arrival in this country of several
notable foreign productions. Of these "Passion,"
"Deception," "Judgment" and "Theodora" were
the most conspicuous. There came also a flood of
foreign made productions, the great percentage of
which were utterly unfit to interest an American
audience. At times it looked as though the "for¬
eign invasion" might prove important, but this
rapidly faded away. In connection with the for¬
eign situation, it is of interest to note that Fa¬
mous Players extended its activities to make pro¬
ductions in England, Germany and France. In
Germany, Adolph Zukor formed a strong organ¬
ization, taking away from the U. F. A. a number
of its most important officials and directors, in¬
cluding Pola Negri and Ernst Lubitsch. Albert
A. Kaufman was given charge of the German pro¬
ductions. Samuel Goldwyn engineered an inter¬
esting deal with Italian producers and Carl
Laemmle of Universal made an extended trip for
the purpose of investigating whether or not Uni¬
versal should go into the production field, espe¬
cially in Germany. As a result of this it is quite
likely that several productions will be made by
Universal abroad. William Fox is also active in
the foreign field and will make productions in
Italy and England during the current year.
It would take a prophet and a seer as well to
anticipate the happenings of the coming year in
the motion picture industry. It is a fact that pro¬
duction costs have been greatly reduced since
this time a year ago. It is also a fact that more
business-like methods are to be found in practi¬
cally every important organization. But at this
writing general conditions are far from what they
should be, so far as the exhibition field is con¬
cerned. A number of important exchange men and
exhibitors are inclined to the view that before busi¬
ness resumes the healthy condition of 1916-1919,
that lower admissions must come. As an offset,
there are a number who believe that this cannot
be done because of overhead costs and incidentally
argue that reduced admissions in themselves will
not be sufficient. An authority in the trade pointed
out to the writer that it was his belief that the
public had been fed upon too many big and im¬
portant pictures to ever allow them to be satis¬
fied with the average run of production and in that
manner the public had been spoiled; spoiled at
least for the average picture entertainment which
the usual* company makes. He strengthened his
argument by discussing the huge sum taken in at
the box office by the large and important pictures,
such as "Way Down East," "Over the Hill," etc.
The tightening of finance, both East and West.
had its effect in a measure upon independent pro¬
ductions. There were consequently less important
productions placed on the market than was to have
been expected from the indications of a year ago.
Many important changes occurred- in various
organizations during the year, most notable of
which was the control of Pathe Exchange secured
by Paul Brunei and his associates. The control
of this company had hitherto been held by the
French parent organization. "Al" Lichtman re¬
signed as director of sales of Famous Players and
was succeeded by Sidney R. Kent. Later he be¬
came general manager and director of sales of
Associated Producers, and when that corporation
merged with Associated First National Pictures,
he remained in charge of the sales of Associated
product.
Felix Feist resigned as sales manager of Gold¬
wyn and was succeeded by A. S. Aronson. Feist
joined the Joseph M. Schenck organization and
was placed in entire charge of sales. F. B. War¬
ren, upon leaving Associated Producers, subse¬
quently formed the F. B. Warren Corporation, a
distributing organization of which F. C. ("Wid")
Gunning is treasurer and active head. Upon this
occasion Wid retired completely from this publi¬
cation.
Arthur S. Friend resigned from Famous Players
to become interested in several independent pro¬
ducing organizations, and Charles R. Rogers, upon
leaving Select, became sales manager of Robert¬
son-Cole. George B. Van Cleve became general
manager and subsequently resigned that post with
Cosmopolitan. Arthur S. Kane added to his activi¬
ties by reorganizing Associated Exhibitors and tak¬
ing an mportant place in that organization. The
Stoll Film Company of England started a distrib¬
uting organization in the United States and sub¬
sequently closed it.
The year was also marked by the first produc¬
tions of Hugo Ballin and by the appearance of
Rudyard Kipling's work on the screen, "Without
Benefit of Clergy." Charlie Chaplin established
a new high cash record of obtaining $800,000 from
Associated First National for "The Kid." "Pas¬
sion," shown at the Capitol, established the high
record of $100,000 during the first two weeks of
its showing.
Kessel and Baumann, partners for many years
in various enterprises, came to a parting of the
ways, and New York State was afflicted with a
Board of Censors. The year also marked the un¬
timely end of George Loane Tucker, producer of
"The Miracle Man." He died in June, to the
regret of every lover of good pictures. The lab¬
oratory men in and around New York finally
straightened out their difficulties with George East¬
man of the Eastman Kodak Company and Jules
E. Brulatour, and while there was talk of the
National Booking Company being revived, noth¬
ing definite happened. Richard A. Rowland re¬
signed from the. presidency of Metro, to become
effective around January 1st, The proposed Mo¬
tion Picture Day, suggested by Charles C. Petti-
john, resulted in nothing. One of the memorable
events of the year, especially in New York, was
the holding of the first film golf tournament in
the history of the industry, under the auspices of
WID'S DAILY. And to make life cheerful, Sen¬
ator Myers of Montana filed a bill seeking an in¬
vestigation of this industry because of its activity
in politics.
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