The Times (01/Jul/1919) - American Film Invasion
(c) The Times (01/Jul/1919)
- keywords: Famous Players-Lasky
AMERICAN FILM INVASION.
BRITISH EXHIBITORS' COMPLAINT.
Mr. A.E. Newbould, M.P., President of the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association, in a letter to the Press says that some of the newspaper comments on the resolutions carried at the annual conference of the cinematograph trade at Glasgow convey the erroneous impression that the British exhibitor is opposed to the screening of American film productions in this country.
The British exhibitor, in fact, welcomes them, while at the same time he looks forward to the time when the all-powerful film will attract British brains and British capital in combination for the production of all-British films, which shall be at any rate equal in quality to those at present supplied by America.
"I would like to emphasize" he adds, "that the present dispute between the British film exhibitor and Famous Players-Lasky group is confined to two issues only, namely:
"(1) The British exhibitor takes the greatest exception to the Famous Players-Lasky group allying themselves with Picture Playhouses (Ltd.), a company recently formed with a nominal capital of £1,000,000 for the purpose of promoting subsidiary companies throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and erecting cinematograph theatres in opposition to the present exhibitors, who have for many years been customers of the Famous Players-Lasky Company.
"(2) While the British exhibitor welcomes the American film, he realizes that it is necessary for him to retain the control of what shall or shall not be shown to British audiences, and is therefore opposed, for obvious reasons, to a large circuit of theatres distributed throughout this country being either owned or directed by an American producing and renting company."
