From Exhibitors Trade Review, October 18, 1919, 17–21.
The presentation of a motion picture by the exhibitor is as important and as vital to the success of that picture as is the careful and painstaking efforts of the director by whom it is produced. The exhibitor today must be an artist. This is particularly true of the exhibitors of the larger cities of the country, for upon his judgment depends hundreds of exhibitors who cannot spare the time nor money viewing trade showings at the exchanges.
But David W. Griffith, director of such remarkable picture plays as The Birth of a Nation, The Fall of Babylon, Hearts of the World, Broken Blossoms, and others, who arrived in New York from Los Angeles on October 6, did not terminate his statement on the importance of the exhibitor to the motion picture industry with the foregoing paragraph.
On the contrary, Mr. Griffith has further praise— praise that places the exhibitor on equal footing with the producer.
This “master man of the films” was interviewed by a representative of Exhibitor’s Trade Review— and confined his remarks, as much as possible, to the industry as viewed from the exhibitor’s angle. Mr. Griffith’s opinion of the theatre man is so laudatory that it would make the modest exhibitor blush for the want of words with which to return the compliment.
But lest we ramble on forgetting Mr. Griffith’s mission be it understood that he is in New York preparing the way for taking over the studio erected for him at Mamaroneck, which he will open on October 20, though the new structure, said to be the most elaborate in the East, will be ready for occupancy October 15. However, Mr. Griffith is an industrious individual and according to his own admission, “is playing when working hardest.” Therefore, it was with no wonder that the writer received his announcement that for a time he will confine his efforts to turning out short picture plays for the First National.
But the exhibitor— that’s the fellow who interested Mr. Griffith. Anyway, that was the trend of his remarks. With Mr. Griffith any individual connected or concerned with motion pictures is either an artist or a failure. And when Mr. Griffith used the word “artist” he meant the exhibitor, as well as the star, producer, director, and cameraman.
“The word exhibitor,” he said, “is improper. What will I say— it— it, well, it’s a bad word. The man who shows the picture today should be called a co-artist. He is a co-artist and with the producer is starred, because a picture needs an artist to properly present it. And proper presentation of a picture by an artist (I mean exhibitor) should be on a par with the artist producing the picture.”
Mr. Griffith added, “Directors today realize that pictures must be realistic; that they must concern the everyday life of those who see the pictures. Take Broken Blossoms, for instance. It portrays life as it is and paves the way for better plays. Not until we place the motion pictures on equal standing with music and art can we sit back and console ourselves with having done something big.
“It is a fact that motion pictures constitute an art— an institution as necessary to the everyday life of Americans as art, literature, and the press. Today the efforts of the conscientious director are not toward breaking box office records but to giving the public an artistic presentation. We all, some time or other, scramble for the mighty dollar; but there are times when we forget the greenbacks and labor for an ideal.
“In all my pictures I try to inject art and turn out the best pictures possible. I work as hard and as energetically with the shorter subjects as I do with the big feature productions in which thousands of people are handled.
“The exhibitor? Yes, your publication is the exhibitor’s bible. I have been working with the exhibitor for many years. You have probably been told that the exhibitor isn’t an appreciative fellow. On the contrary, I have found him a very appreciative gentleman. The exhibitor and producer should be thankful for the ever-increasing number of better theaters— all our effort’s towards the highest and the best.
“In the showing of a picture the exhibitor is as important to the success of that picture as is the careful and painstaking director by whom it is produced. I always bear the exhibitor in mind when I make a picture. That is one reason why I select my own musical scores for the pictures. I do this because the exhibitor is too busy to look around for appropriate music consistent with the theme of the picture.
“Advertising means a great deal, and I am glad to say that the leading exhibitors of the country are paying as much attention to their newspaper displays as they are to lobby displays.
“We’ve got away from the battlefields and have gone to a more important scene— the battleground to reach the human heart. That is what the exhibitor wants today— pictures that reach the heart. That is what I am striving at.
“In Broken Blossoms I confined my efforts to so presenting scenes that they will touch the heart.
“The new type of co-artist exhibitor would naturally call attention first to the scene settings of this picture, then the theme, the realistic characters, and the music— for music is as important to pictures like Broken Blossoms as to the Winter Garden or Ziegfeld shows. The exhibitor cannot pay too much attention to the music. The music must be consistent with the theme— consistent with the ever changing scenic settings and atmosphere.
“In other words, there is no greater artist in motion pictures than the man exhibiting the pictures.
“There are various ways of entertaining the public. There are times when these means and vehicles of entertainment have, through necessity or an unforeseen change, to be altered. Today the public is entertained only when it is made to take a picture play seriously; only when it is real and when he feels the thrills of certain occurrences.
“The days of invention have gone, never to return— for the screen play, anyway. Today the public demands the real thing, or pretty close to it.
“The public has had altogether too much war stuff, and that class of pictures will meet with a cold reception. The public today wants pictures that take questions— domestic questions— questions confronting them or with which they are forced to contend as a small part of this great wheel we call civilization— into consideration. It wants to see these questions, tangled, wrangled, and finally answered. But the working out of these questions must be natural; there must be no superfluous characters; there must be no exaggeration or leanings toward the impossible— it must be true, and presented in such a manner that it will make the ‘fan’ believe that he is seeing the real thing.
“The exhibitor who makes a study of his patrons is usually the most successful of his lot. The exhibitor who gives his patrons what he likes or what he can get for a cut price is usually the fellow you will find kicking and snarling at the business. The public is the big factor in show business. It’s the public you must satisfy. And it’s the exhibitors’ job, as showman, to give his public what it wants.
“The motion picture public today constitutes all classes— something that is not true of any other American vocation, industry, or institution. But this is all the more reason why the exhibitor should make a special and careful study of his patrons. The exhibitor, you see, is a very important factor in the industry, for the very good reason that the motion picture producers and directors have to depend upon him for information as to the wants of the market, for he is the fellow nearest to the public.
“There should be a closer cooperation between exhibitor and producer. They should work together, for the failure or success of both depends upon their cooperative efforts. An incompetent, uninformed exhibitor can kill a good picture by poor handling. Many an exhibitor has ‘made’ poor pictures go for producers by intelligent and artistic handling.
“So you see the exhibitor is as important to the industry as either producer, director, or star. He can either ‘do’ or undo a picture. The fact is that the welfare and future of the industry is in the hands of the exhibitor.
“I have conferred with exhibitors. I have also studied the motion picture public, and my deductions led me to believe that what it wants today is pictures that tell a story that will make it think.
“To illustrate what I mean I will give you an example. A young woman and man see a murder or robbery committed in the street. They are thrilled; whether through fear or something else, the fact remains they are thrilled. And yet, when the same thing has happened on the screen, no one seems to mind it. What I am aiming at is to make these screen incidents so real they will give the same impression when they appear in the pictures that they would were they being enacted on the public street in real life.”