With the movie makersStearns, Myron M. (Myron Morris)
General
With the movie makers
Stearns, Myron M. (Myron Morris)
Motion pictures -- Juvenile literature
As an example, take “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”; any
one who enjoyed that whimsical yarn of a Yankee in armor as much as I
did will be entirely willing—yes, anxious—to see it again, if it is
shown once more, half a dozen years from now.
Never be afraid to go to see a really good film twice; never be afraid
to go to see a really good film after it is old or out of date. That
will help things along. For the quicker poor photoplays die, the better
off we are, and the longer good ones live, the better off we are, too.
Next, to get to another change that will come to the movies very
shortly. That is the coming in of a more far-sighted dollar.
Far-sighted dollar? Exactly. At present the dollars invested in movies
are mostly very shortsighted. At the very best, we can say they
are—well, “smart.” They don’t look ahead. They take no particular
pride in their work. They are not ashamed if they fail to give value
received—100 cents of satisfaction for every 100 cents.
Speaking of dollars in this way is entirely correct. For a dollar
is an inert thing, that takes on life and movement and power and
individuality in accordance with the ideas and ideals and personality
of the man who spends or invests it. The selfish dollar is the coin of
the purely commercial business man who merely tries to get as much as
he can while giving as little as he can. The intelligent dollar is the
dollar of a really intelligent investor, who expends it wisely, and
fairly, and in such a way that it will bring him both a sure and an
honorable return.
In motion pictures, the average investor, up to the present time, has
been either a “sucker” who simply lost his money, or a speculator who
took a blind chance, or a “wise guy” who knew the picture business and
merely played it for what he could get out of it, with little or no
regard for the other fellow, or the public, or American prestige, or
anything else that didn’t directly affect his own pocketbook. Of course
there are exceptions—but after all there are not so very many of them.
The dollar of the average American movie producer to-day is still a
rather unintelligent dollar.
Up to this time, intelligent dollars have been a little ashamed to go
into motion-picture investments, because with so many unintelligent
dollars around they were afraid they would be classified the same
way. A publisher, for instance, who has had wide magazine experience
and who now runs more than one New York magazine, was recently
urged to go into a motion-picture investment “for the good of the
movies.” He refused, because, he said, he had never stooped to that
kind of investment. To him, the movie dollars seemed so selfish, so
short-sighted, so unintelligent, that he refused to let his own dollars
associate with them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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