With Americans Spending $750 Million a Year on Movies, Is Industry on Brink of Collapse? Dec. 28, 1921

American People Indulge Heavily in Picture Shows. . . Spent $750 Million in Past 11 Months, Senate Finance Committee Is Told

Washington, Dec. 27--The American people spent from $750 million to $1 billion a year to see motion picture shows, the senate finance committee was told today in the course of arguments for and against a high tariff on foreign made pictures. The investment in the industry totals about $250 million and employment is given to abut 250,000 persons.

Paul M. Turner of New York, speaking for the Actors’ Equity association, testified that the idea that everybody connected with the industry made “big money” was erroneous; that 96 per cent of those engaged in making films received only “a living wage.”

Mr. Turner and John Emerson, an independent producer of New York, speaking for himself and for D.W. Griffith, urged a duty on imported films of 50 to 60 per cent ad valorem in place of the 30 per cent in the Fordney bill. They said the industry was in bad shape with many studios and a large number of the 18,000 motion picture theaters over the country closed.

Declaring that only a high tariff stood between the industry and extermination, Mr. Turner declared that at this time 54 German-made pictures were being exhibited in this country and that four or five of these had yielded the exhibitors $2,500,000. American producers can not compete with the Germans, he said, adding that pictures which cost from $200,000 to $300,000 to produce in this country could be made in Germany for from $10,000 to $12,000.

Saul E. Rogers of New York, speaking for the National Association of Motion Picture industry, opposed the duty in the Fordney bill, urging that the present rate of 3 cents a foot be retained. He declared that only a few foreign films and those depicting great spectacles had been successful in this country.

An attack on the Eastman Kodak company featured the hearings, Mr. Rogers, William A. de Ford of New York counsel for the International Film Service company, In., Frederic R. Coudert of New York, counsel for Pathe Exchange, Inc., and other witnesses charged that this company through a monopoly of the “raw” film product would be able to control the motion picture industry if imports were shut out. They consequently opposed the 20 per cent ad valorem duty on “raw” films proposed in the Fordney bill.

From the front page of the Wilmington Morning Star, Dec. 28, 1921. The advertisements for picture shows are from that day's newspaper.