Radio into Talkies

(See front cover)

P:In Paris last week, artistic Frenchmen worried over a report that members of the Comedie Franc,aise were to make talking cinemas for U. S. producers. French cinema exhibitors worried more over the news that all representatives of U. S. producer-members (Paramount-Famous-Lasky, Warner Bros., Fox, United Artists, Universal, Radio-Keith-Orpheum, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) of the Cinema Syndicate de France were resigning in protest over the new French law, effective in September, limiting the importation of foreign-produced films to four for each French film exported.

P:In Hungary, cinemaddicts learned that they would have no talking cinema before next May.

P:In Australia, it was being insisted that U. S. talking cinema producers should give Raycophone, Australian talking mechanism fair play in competition with U. S.-made talking mechanisms.

P:In England, cinema producers, long on expenses and short on production, blamed U. S. talkies for all unhappiness.

P:Hollywood buzzed and bubbled over the Equity (actors' union) attempt to keep actors from signing film contracts that violated Equity rules and Warner Bros, announced a forthcoming super-talkie, titled Show of Shows, featuring John Barrymore and Al Jolson together for the first time on any stage.

Thus Talking Cinema, youngest world industry, thrived lustily, showed symptoms of forcing its parent, Silent Cinema, and its grandparent. Legitimate Drama, back into the sparser portions of the entertainment field.

Springing directly from the Silent Cinema, the Talking Cinema is controlled mainly by strong Silent Cinemen. Great film names, with sound and without, are Fox Film Corp., Paramount-Famous-Lasky Corp., Warner Bros., United Artists. Yet one potent Talking Cinema company backs its speaking present with no silent past. This company is opulent, many-branched Radio Corp. of America. In Photophone it has its own talking mechanism. In RKO Productions, Inc., it has its own production and distribution company. In General Electric and Westinghouse Electric it has tremendous laboratory resources. During 1929-30 there will be made 30 full-length and 52 short Radio pictures, all of which will talk, many of which will also sing. In these pictures will appear Richard Dix, Rudy Vallee, Rod La Rocque, Owen Moore, Bebe Daniels, Betty Compson. Writers will include Ben Hecht, Charles McArthur, Eugene Walter, Vina Delmar. Thus among great film companies must be ranked Radio Corp., and to the list of cinema tycoons must be added the name of short, stocky David Sarnoff, Radio Corp.'s Vice President and General Manager. Inasmuch as Radio Corp. has in the past conducted many a merger, and since, like all young industries, Talking Cinema is much in the merger state, many have been the rumors that Radio Corp. will soon absorb one or another of its competitors. All such rumors Mr. Sarnoff, just back from Europe, last week denied. He was particularly emphatic in denying published reports that he had made a hurried trip to Chicago where, last fortnight, a Radio-Keith-Orpheum convention was in progress and a rumor was rampant that RKO was trying to buy out Paramount-Famous-Lasky.

The transition of Radio Corp. from a communications company to an entertainment company is a story in several chapters. In 1919, when Radio Corp. was formed, it was organized solely for the purpose of transmitting wireless messages. At that time Great Britain, long dominant in cable communication, was also the outstanding leader in wireless. World's greatest wireless company was British Marconi (Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd.) which controlled American Marconi (Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America), leading U. S. wireless concern. British Marconi was attempting to buy from General Electric Co. exclusive rights in the Alexanderson high-frequency alternator, which first made long-distance radio communication possible. From the Inter-Allied Conference on Radio at Paris to Manhattan went Admiral William Hannum Grubb Bullard, U. S. N.,* talked with General Electric's Owen D. Young, pointed out that control of the Alexanderson alternator would solidify Great Britain's position as wireless dictator. Mr. Young promptly terminated negotiations with British Marconi, though in so doing he sacrificed a $5,000,000 order and his only visible customer.

He resolved to organize a potent U. S. wireless company which would enable U. S. wireless to compete on equal terms with British wireless, and be a customer for the Alexanderson alternator. General Electric bought out the British Marconi company's interest in American Marconi, organized Radio Corp. of America to take over the business of American Marconi, which thereupon became defunct. Associated with General Electric were American Telephone & Telegraph, United Fruit Co., and Westinghouse Electric, of which only Westinghouse remains an important factor. Thus U. S. wireless became strong and vigorous, developed a three-second trans-Atlantic service, carried many a code message for many an efficient corporation.

First step in Radio Corp.'s change from communications to entertainment came with the development of music and voice broadcasting. Endowed with many a vital patent (it has licensed 25 set-makers to manufacture under its patents), Radio Corp. grew with radio, found that Station-to-Home transmission was far more profitable a business than Shore-to-Shore or Ship-to-Shore transmission. In 1921 Radio Corp.'s entertainment business totaled some $1,500,000, or about 36% of the company's total business. In 1922, entertainment totaled same $11,250,000, or about 80% of total business. Last year Radio Corp.'s gross sales were approximately $87,000,000, and its $6,000,000 income in patent royalties was slightly larger than its total income from communications.

From radio the expansion into the phonograph business was logical inasmuch as the old-style phonograph, failing to compete with radio sets, went, in for electric reproduction and also for combination radio-phonographs. Radio Corp. entered the phonograph field by supplying Brunswick-Balke-Collender and later Victor Talking Machine with the radio and the electric drive for their combination machines. Last winter Radio and Victor directors agreed on Radio's absorption of Victor. Radio-Victor Corp. is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Radio Corp.

Entrance into the theatrical field resulted partly from the invention of Photophone, the talking cinema mechanism perfected by Westinghouse and General Electric engineers, and partly from Radio Corp.'s realization of the potential profits in electrical entertainment on the largest possible scale. R. C. A. Photophone, Inc. was incorporated in 1927, functioned for the sale and distribution of Photophones. In January 1928, the Keith-Albee and Orpheum theatre circuits merged, the combination also acquiring control of F. B. O. Pictures Corp., cinema producer and distributor. In October 1928, the Keith-Albee-Orpheum combination sold control to Radio Corp. and Radio-Keith-Orpheum, a holding company, was formed. KAO lost money in 1928. The RKO management, with David Sarnoff as Board Chairman, showed an operating profit of $181,373 for the first quarter of 1929.

Ramifications of Radio Corp. in entertainment are best shown by noting what Radio Corp. can (and doubtless will) do to "plug" (exploit) its entertainers. Example: Rudy Vallee, singer and orchestra leader, will soon be seen and heard in a Radio talkie. He can make Radio-Victor records of the featured songs. He can broadcast them over National Broadcasting Co.'s chain of 53 stations (N. B. C. is 50% owned by Radio Corp.). He can appear at RKO theatres. Cinema, radio, phonograph, vaudeville--Radio Corp. is very much in them all.

As to the communications business, only the White Act keeps Radio Corp. from turning its entire message service over to International Telephone & Telegraph. In March, R. C. A. Communications, Inc. was tentatively sold to the Behn Brothers for 100 million dollars but the White Act, prohibiting cable and wireless mergers, must be amended or rescinded before I. T. & T. can take over R. C. A. C.

Board Chairman of Radio Corp. is Owen D. Young. President of Radio Corp. is Major General James Guthrie Harbord. Active manager, busy nerve-centre of so much merging and intricacy, is David Sarnoff, Vice President and General Manager. Born in Uzlian, Minsk, Russia, on a cold winter's day in 1891, Mr. Sarnoff arrived in the U. S. in 1900. He delivered meat, sold newspapers, sang in a choir. His parents hoped he would become a rabbi. At the age of nine he had been studying the Talmud for three years. In 1906 Sarnoff Sr. died. In the same year young David got a $5 job as messenger boy with Commercial Cable Co. He saved $2, bought a telegraph instrument, soon was a junior telegraph operator with the old American Marconi.

He was wireless operator at John Wanamaker's in 1912. When the Titanic sank, he stayed on the job for 72 hours getting the record of the disaster, the list of survivors. When Radio Corp. absorbed American Marconi, Mr. Sarnoff, the Commercial Manager, retained his position. He became General Manager in 1921, Vice President in 1922. Now he is a world figure. While his great and good friend, Owen D. Young, was formulating the famed Young Plan in Paris, he, conscientiously in the background, gave potent aid.

When Marie of Rumania made her famed U. S. tour (1926), Her Majesty was scheduled to appear over the National Broadcasting Co.'s chain. She was to give one of her many endorsements. Temperamental, she at first attempted to call off her appearance, then arrived at the studio a half-hour before her time, indignantly departed when informed that she could not immediately go on the air. Radio men, including Mr. Sarnoff, followed her to Manhattan's Ambassador, argued earnestly, then acidly. When it was pointed out that Her Majesty was accustomed to having her will accepted as law, Mr. Sarnoff replied: "From our standpoint, Her Majesty is merely a paid entertainer."

With Emerson's* famed precept about the world's beating a path to the door, however remote, of the best mouse-trap maker, Mr. Sarnoff does not agree. Having seen and exploited many an invention, he says: "While the sylvan mouse-trap maker is waiting for customers and his energetic competitor is out on the main road, a third man will come along with a virulent poison which is death on mice and there will be no longer any demand for mouse-traps." Pointing to the manner in which phonograph makers adapted their products to the radio, he says: "The pre-radio phonograph is absolutely dead. . . . The modern phonograph industry is alive and flourishing. . . . They [the phonograph makers] did not try to sell mousetraps when mousetraps were out of date."

The first feature Radio picture, Street Girl, with Betty Compson, was given a private showing in Manhattan last week. Meanwhile, Rio Rita, the Ziegfeld musical comedy, was made into cinemusic in Radio's Hollywood studio. Radio has $50,000,000 to put into pictures this year.

Other Radio pictures scheduled for this year include Side Street with Owen Moore; The Delightful Rogue with Rod La Rocque; and Hal's Married with Olive Borden. Musical specials will include Hit the Deck, by Vincent Youmans, and Vagabond Lover with Rudy Vallee and band.

*Not to be confused with Maj.-Gen. Robert Lee Bullard, U. S. A., retired cigaret endorser.

*Of course, as everyone knows, Emerson did not mention mousetraps in his essay; but the idea that the man who made the best product would attract the most customers was his. It was the Chicago Tribune, which first used mouse-trap in parodying the Emerson thought.