"NO MONOPOLY"'

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3028, 15 March 1917, Page 7

"NO MONOPOLY"'

IN THE MOVING PICTUIiIi BUSINESS.

"Tho picture business is very fascinating,' aays- Mr. Alec Lorimore, of the l'amous Players Lnsky Corporation, "because of the vastnoss of the operations, the suddeness of its development the big opportunities, and tho constant changes that are always taking place, but when people' think that it is all over money, it moans that tlioy only hear ono sido of tho argument—see it from the Movia magazine view that gives one tho impression that there are 40,000 millionaires working at the game in Los Angeles, instead of that number of hard-working people, a small proj>ortion of whom make really big money."

"Lots of money has been made in pictures,' but there has been heaps of money lost —lost, by' tlioso who were attempting to grab the most. It is established now in Amcrica that there can be 110 monopoly in the picture business. Combines or trusts have found out too often to their cost, working at either the producing or the theatre end' of' the business. One of the biggest attempts to create an absolute monopoly! in the business was made about ago, when a. bid was made to tie up every theatro by getting control of the patents of ail the principal parts of tho reproducing machine. The combine figured that 110 man in the States would he allowed to turn a crank without their permission, but they were beaten m the courts, which held that it was an unfair trust,, inimical to trade. Besides losing 300,000 dollars in costs, flip Court cancelled the patents, and to-day anyone can run a.cinema show that has a machine and a length of celluloid ribbon.' Big producing firms have attempted to corner that end of tho business. They have bought out their rivals and paid to keep them idle, but tho next day or week they found other concerns springing up like mushrooms. So it is with the picturo theatro business. Timo after, time combines have tried to collar the theatres and tio them up to further their own ends, and often ghastly failures have occurred, for tho simple reason that there is 110 law to prevent other people building theatres. One popular .method is to buy out their rivals by guaranteeing tho shareholders 8 or 10 per cent, on their money, but as theatre after theatro is erected'and bought in they are supplied from the same film agency, and the samoness of the picture plan does the show no good, so others deaiiug with rival makers start up and get tho business, and, in turn, have to be dealt with b,y tho combine, until tho latter's liabilities becomo too uurdenspmo to carry, and there is a snap somewhere. J.t is only a matter of tirno, and this sort of thing cauuot bo. avoided, because snch a tiling as an absolute monoply in pietuies or picture theatres cannot be established. In Our oaso, we are going to sell to all comers in Now Zealand. "We may even have to faco a loss for a time in doing so, but the Famous Players Lasky and tho Arteraft Pictures are too. good to bo neglected in this or any other country, and I feel snro that tho paramount service in New Zealand is going to he a popular one."