(The matter referred to is as follows:)

Date:

Theater:

ability. Town: Ocheyedan.

RKO Radio Features, Inc., Notice of avail

NOTICE TO EXHIBITOR.—In accordance with the provisions of the play-date clause of your contract we are hereby notifying you of the availability of the photoplays as listed on this notice. Please book in order of availability.

Chairman PLOESER. Do you have anything else?

Mr. MONJAR. There is one other matter that I would like to bring up and that is the sales practice I have met with several times with Twentieth Century Fox, another company. This company operates out of Omaha.

At one time I ran a picture from Twentieth Century Fox that had an exceptionally good gross although I paid an exceptional amount of money for it. In fact, I paid about seven times as much for it as for any other picture I have run in my town. However, I had other contracts sent with them at that time. One of these pictures happened to be a technicolor called Mother Wore Tights. I had the picture for a flat rental. I agreed to pay a certain price for that and that is all they were to get for the running of the film. I could have given percentage reports on a picture on which I had done. approximately four times more business than I had done on another picture. But here is one chance I had to make some money. Three days before I run Mother Wore Tights I received my approved contract and on it they had penciled in, obviously with a different pen, the percentage terms and by "percentage terms" I mean 40 percent of the total number of admissions I sold at my box office, over and

above the guaranteed amount I had promised to pay before. I would not pay it. I called them up and said I did not intend to pay it.

They said, "Now, if we send the checker up there"-the checker is an individual that sometimes they send up there and he checks the number of people that comes into the theater so he can turn that over to the film company-"if we send a checker up there, you won't throw him out, will you?"

I said, "What do you think?" They did not send a checker. They did not press the issue. When I refused to do it, they would not press it because they were wrong.

Chairman PLOESER. Did they give you the picture?

Mr. MONJAR. Absolutely. I told them that they had better not pull that. I made certain insinuations that I would take action. They sent the picture. They did not send a checker and they did not send a checker and they did not get any percentage.

However, at the same time, they have other contracts that they had never sent me. They could have approved those and sent them at the same time. Fourteen days before I was to run You Were Meant For Me I got another contract, percentage penciled in.

Mr. BALLINGER. What company?

Mr. MONJAR. Twentieth Century.

Mr. BALLINGER. You had already advertised the picture?

Mr. MONJAR. Yes. That is the reason I would be at a loss to try to pull it because I had advertised it. I was depending on that advertising to make my living for me. So on this picture You Were Meant For Me they had these additional percentage terms penciled in. I turned the matter over to the Allied Independent Theaters and one of their representatives here in Omaha went in and talked to the manager of Twentieth Century Fox.

Chairman PLOESER. Did it ever occur to you that you men have the greatest weapon in America, your own screen? Why don't you tell this story on your screen to your patrons?

Mr. MONJAR. We have threatened to.

Chairman PLOESER. I would do it; do not threaten.

Mr. MONJAR. The person that attends your theater has a warped idea of what the show business is. They forget about the 20-percent Federal admission tax and things like that. They think every cent you make is yours. They think you are a rich man because you are running a theater and you may be struggling more than the barber next door.

Chairman PLOESER. I have been selling all my life and I found it does not hurt you a bit with your customers to tell them the truth of your business.

it.

Mr. MONJAR. Do they believe it?

Chairman PLOESER. If you tell them often enough they will believe

Mr. BALLINGER. I have a question to ask. We have had testimony to the effect a great deal of the trouble in your industry arises out of the fact that the producers of motion-picture films are also owners of theaters.

Mr. MONJAR. That is true; absolutely.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you think your situation would be improved and that you could get a fair square deal if there were a divorcement of these two activities?

Mr. MONJAR. It would help relieve the situation somewhat.

Their

I have one other matter if I may have the privilege of speaking on that right now. That is concerning this clearance business. For instance, in my county the county seat is 14 miles from my town. town is about three to four times larger than mine, therefore the theater in that town is able to pay more money for a picture and make a profit than I am. Yet we charge the same admission price. We are 14 miles apart. The film companies list us as being noncompetitive, but when I want to book the picture and write to the film company and ask for a specific date to run the pcture, a lot of times I will get a letter back stating, "We are unable to set this picture as Sibley, Iowa, has not booked it." In other words, we cannot book it until he has. I must play behind him because he pays more money for the picture. There will be a percentage of my people that will go to see his show. However, on the average, my people have to wait long after Sibley has seen it before they can see it in my town. I do not believe that is a fair practice.

That is all I have.

Chairman PLOESER. We thank you.

(Witness excused.)

TESTIMONY OF JOHN PRESTON

(The witness was duly sworn and testified as follows:) Mr. BALLINGER. Give your full name.

Mr. PRESTON. John Preston.

Mr. BALLINGER. What is your business and where?

Mr. PRESTON. Coronado Theater, Humphrey, Nebr.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you have a statement you want to make to the committee?

Mr. PRESTON. I will make mine brief. I think that that court decision that we have been hearing about all morning is the greatest thing that has happened to this business since its inception. The United States Supreme Court handed down a decree to the film companies and set out what was legal practice and what was not legal practice. It was very explicit and very plain. I am not very broad, myself, but even I can understand what they said.

They said that the sale of a motion picture or any one motion picture was not contingent upon the sale of another motion picture. Anybody can understand that. So the consequence is that the motionpicture producers have got a barrage of lawyers from here to Humphrey-I do not have any. I am in a little town of 900. I sell motion pictures, I sell insurance, and I sell popcorn. That is how I make my living. So I cannot retain lawyers to find loopholes in the law.

I was under the impression when the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision that was the law. If the United States Supreme Court tells me to do something, I am going to do it quick, and I expect other people to do it also. I expect Paramount, Fox, and Metro to do it.

Now, I eliminate pictures for two reasons. One of them is by experience I know they will not do business and the second is moral reasons. I live in a town where the church objects to certain pictures. I am not going to insult those people. I am going to eliminate them. What has happened? They call the salesmen into a big room and

they say, "You abide by that Supreme Court decision." Then they take the salesmen into another room and they say, "Do not come back with any bad deals or we will fire you."

You know what will happen to a motion-picture salesman if he goes out on the road and comes in with five single pictures. He is working for his living, he wants to live, too, he has got to satisfy me and that producer. He cannot come in and say, "I sold five single pictures this week." They will get rid of him in a hurry. So I feel sorry for him. That is the reason I cannot sign an affidavit. I am soft-hearted, I suppose. He says, "You cannot expect me to go in with a deal like this." I know he cannot and most of the time we give it to

him.

Chairman PLOESER. Have they followed that practice with you? Mr. PRESTON. That is a repetition of what the other gentleman said.

Chairman PLOESER. Do you have something else?

Mr. PRESTON. No; unless you have some questions.
Chairman PLOESER. We thank you.

(Witness excused.)

TESTIMONY OF LEONARD J. LEISE

(The witness was duly sworn and testified as follows:)

Mr. BALLINGER. State your name.

Mr. LEISE. Leonard J. Leise.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you own a theater?

Mr. LEISE. I have a theater in the small town of Randolph, Nebr., population 1,090.

Mr. BALLINGER. What is the name of the theater?

Mr. LEISE. The Rand.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you wish to make any comments to the committee?

Mr. LEISE. It is relative to the Government decree that we can eliminate pictures that we know we do not want. We had a case in my particular station in April where a Fox salesman presented nine pictures to me. I wanted to cut out two of them because I knew that they would not do business because similar pictures have not done it before. Both of them proved to be duds. I went in the hole. They made a small adjustment, but it still did not compensate for the time I spent there that evening or 3 days. He forced me to take all nine of them or none at all when I said I wanted to cut out two. He said, "You are crazy; these are good pictures; they will do good business; you should take them, and you have to take those two in order to get the rest of them."

Chairman PLOESER. That is since the Supreme Court decision?
Mr. LEISE. That was about the middle of April.

Chairman PLOESER. What was the date of the decision?

Mr. LEISE. It was since the Supreme Court decision. Both pictures

I had objected to run

Chairman PLOESER. Who was the salesman who told you that?

Mr. LEISE. Hymie Novitski.

Chairman PLOESER. He was selling for whom?

Mr. LEISE. Twenty Century Fox.

Chairman PLOESER. Anything further?