Double Trouble

Cinema theatres that show double features make more money than single-feature theatres. To the motion picture industry that fact is clear indication that double features are what the public wants. But anybody who has ever eaten too much candy knows that what the public wants and what it ought to get may be two different things. Last week in two important cinema centres the double feature was getting a thorough going over, to determine 1) whether the public really prefers the double bill, and 2) whether its eyes are not bigger than its stomach.

Manhattan. A few weeks before Christmas, Cue, a Manhattan magazine devoted almost entirely to cinema & theatre news, polled its 19,000 subscribers, found they stood 9-to-1 against the double bill. Last fortnight Cue decided to broaden the scope of its inquiry, queried 150,000 residents of Greater New York, New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester and Connecticut. Last week first results of Cue's new poll were in. Fran Darien. Conn, down through the towns and villages flanking Long Island Sound, and in sections of New York City, the double feature was taking a decisive beating, ranging from 19-to-1 in Darien to 2-to-1 in The Bronx. Only reversals: heavy pro votes in Montclair (N. J.) Academy, East Orange (N. J.) and Rye (N. Y.) high schools.

Chicago. Fortnight ago a babbling, excited delegation of mothers and teachers, representing 260 units of the Parent-Teacher Association. 50.000 families. 150,000 children, cornered beaming, bespectacled Dr. Herman N. Bundesen. Board of Health president, in his City Hall office, asked his help in combatting double features. "We feel.'' said their spokesman, "that they are detrimental to the health of our children, due to the many hours spent inside the theatre, depriving them of their rightful amount of outdoor exercise and rest, and resulting in fatigue, eyestrain and overwrought nerves. . . . Two-and-a-half hours is long enough for any child to remain in a movie." When the delegation left, they had assurance that just such an ordinance as they desired was under consideration. Last week, with the wordy blessing of Producer Samuel Goldwyn tagged on the P.T. A. petition, Chicago's city council set February 24 as the tentative date for hearings on an anti-double bill ordinance.

Sizing up the situation. Film Daily's Chester B. Bahn put his finger on the real danger of Chicago's proposed action, hinted that the industry ought to purge itself lest "a municipality . . . tomorrow . . . may similarly attack the alternative feature & shorts program, and the day after by legislation decree the length of a feature itself." Motion Picture Herald's Martin Quigley, Johnny-one-note of the trade press, was plaintively sarcastic: "This industry is going to be fixed up fine," wrote he, "when all the experts get through --making it safe for babies, supplying adult education on the screen and carrying the messages of the assorted propagandists. After all those functions are served the subject of entertainment can be considered." In Chicago independent theatres had a different answer. They promptly abandoned double bills, began showing triple features.

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