t

Newsreel Is
Missed When You Drop It
Eric Johnston Says Elimination of News Can Be a Factor in Patronage Slump
By ERIC JOHNSTON
President, Motion Picture Ass'n
WASHINGTON- Wf hiul somo people over
to the house the other iilKht and after some
talk 1)11 the state of the iiuMon, the conversalloii
veered—as I expected II would to the
motion picture business.
"You people are turning out some pretty
good pictures." one of my guests observed.
"But you continue to clutter up your shows
With second features. And you're making a
mistake by cutting out the newsreels."
1 went along with my giiest on the double
bills and explained in some detail why a lot
of exhibitors felt they needed them.
USED IN 83% OF TIIF.ATRKS
Then we turned to the newsreel— the newsreel
my guest couldn't find. I pointed out
quickly that 83 per cent of the theatres in
the country recognize the value of newsreels,
show the newsreels and wouldn't do without
them.
I wanted to know more of this man's reitlon
to the newsreel—and his reaction to
ng it.
My friend lives in a suburban, one-theare
community. He and his wife patronize
e theatre whenever a good picture comes
long—and that, in recent months, has
iveraged about once every three or four weeks.
Last summer the theatre dropped the news-
Is. Since then, my guest and his wife stew
'er its absence whenever they go to that
leatre. They miss it. They think they're
ig cheated. They want it back.
They still go to the movie house to catch
e better films, he -said, "but some of our
fthusiasm was chipped off when they tossed
lUt the newsreel."
An hour later, after the guests left, I found
lyself plunk in the middle of a flash-back to
le newsreel conversation.
I wondered how many other movie fans
round the country felt cheated when they
iscovered the newsreel was dumped. The
'urvey made on fan preferences for the
ewsreel on movie programs showed nine out
f every ten fans liked them and wanted them.
lAY BE A DETERRENT
I
wondered how many thousands of potenal
moviegoers wavering over a nocturnal deision
to go to the movies, are dissuaded by
Mine newsreel that i.sn't there. The newsreel
• the shortest item on a theatre bill and the
ast expensive, but it's long on value and
nportance. It's weighty enough to tip the
ales of decision one way or the other for a
it of people.
I wondered what impels an exhibitor, in
lese days of the vanishing SRO sign, to
.link that the newsreel is expendable. But
•HI hu don't woo movie fans by taking away
)mething that 90 per cent of them like and
ant.
I thought of the pale reasons some of the
Khibitors give for abolishing the newsreels.
M"We have to cut down expenses. So we'll
lit out the newsreel. The fans won't miss it."
iThat's penny - wise - and - pound - foolish
^inking. You eliminate the newsreel and you
^^Ko eliminate customers who'll settle for their
^^Bwsreel needs and eventually all of their
t)XOFFICE December 27, 1952
ERIC JOHNSTON
visual ent-ertainment needs on another medium.
But they still prefer the movie newsreel.
And they want it. If you don't believe
they do. make this simple test. Pa.ss out questionnaires
all of next week at your theatre
and ask them. The odds are ten-to-one you'll
restore the newsreel in a hurry.
"Why book the newsreel when people get it
on television—and faster?"
TV CAN'T MATCH QUALITY
Surely TV gets the news faster. But what
kind of news? There's a whale of a lot of difference
between the news that comes through
on the cathode tube and the news that's presented
on your large-size screen. And it's
much more than just the size and the clarity
of the image. You consistently get top-notch
production quality and expert editorial treatment
in the movie newsreel which the TV
people, with rare exceptions, can't possibly
provide.
Take a close look at the make-up and quality
of news presentation that comes through
on your TV set for a few nights. Then stack
it up against your movie newsreel. The contrast,
if you haven't discovered it by now, is
startling. And your fans—your TV set-owning
fan.s—know it.
The argument that the theatre's news is
old hat by the time it reaches the screen is
pretty flimsy. TV newscasts are no competition
to movie newsreels. No more than daily
newspapers are competition for weeklies like
Time magazine and Newsweek. The fact that
the newspapers report the news hot off the
wire hasn't made a dent in the enormous circulations
and readership of the new-s weeklies.
Nor have the daily TV newscasts dented the
popularity and preference for the theatrical
newsreel.
In the quiet of the night, I wondered how
many exhibitors ever really considered the
broader plus-values of newsreels—that to untold
millions they bring knowledge and information
and pleasure: that they stimulate
interest in the day-to-day events that make
up the liLstory ol uur tunc, thai they perform
a prlccle.s.s .service to the people of our
nation through their support of humanitarian,
civic and charitable cause.s; that they rank
second to none as a medium for acqualntlnt;
peoples the world over with the Ideals and
concepts of democracy.
Big talk? Sure It's big talk—but It actuaUy
understates what the newsreel means to the
Industry, to the nation and to our government.
WILL SEEK REEL ELSEWHERE
Movie funs may not holler or scream when
the newsreel Ls yanked. They don't sign
petitions to have it restored. Many of them
will Just .seek out houses that do show newsreels.
Others, sooner or later, will adjust
them.selves to catching the news m their living
room.
There used to be a time when fans accepted
what you offered them—when the exhibitor
could afford to .say "like It or lump It." Those
days are gone. The cinematic fare you serve
is less tempting, less zestful without the sidedish.
If the big problem today is to hold and build
our audiences, then good programming
balanced programming— is one of the .solutions.
Programs are not at their best, programs
cannot be balanced, without the newsreel.
I slipped into my pajamas and snapped off
the light. Before dozing off I recalled the
w'ords of a Times Square exhibitor who
brought newsreels back to his theatre after
experimenting for a year without them.
"Take away the newsreel from a movie
program." he said, "and you commit larceny
on your fans and a disservice to your community."
Feldmon Is Distribution
Chairman for the MPAA
NEW YORK—C. J. Feldman, general sales
manager of Universal Pictures, has been
named chairman of the distributors' committee
of the Motion Picture Ass'n. He succeeds
A. W. Schwalberg, president of Paramount
Film Distributing Corp.
Schwalberg was host at a dinner honoring
the sales executives of the companies.
Those present, in addition to Schwalberg
and Feldman, were: Al Lichtman. William C.
Gehring. Charles M. Reagan, Maurice Goldstein.
William J. Heineman, Bernard G.
Kranze, George F. Dembow. Ralph D. Hetzel.
Ned E. Depinet. Robert Mochrie, Martin
Quigley, John J. O'Connor. E. K. (Ted)
O'Shea and Monroe Goodman.
Three-Dimension Feature
To Be Made by Warners
HOLLYWOOD — Report,-; that Warner
Bros, was preparing to jump aboard the
three-dimension bandwagon were confirmed
with disclosure that the company has inked
a commitment with M. L. Gunzburg's Natural
Vision Corp. for the making of a threedimension
feature, to be photographed in
WarnerColor. A mid-January start is planned
for the as-yet-untitled project.
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