From Our Own Correspondent
New YORK
Block booking, or selling an assorted collection of pictures, including good, bad and indifferent ones, is a Hollywood practice which has aroused the opposition of the Legion of Decency and other advocates of a clean and boiler cinema. Producers have been in the custom of offering " blocks " for sale to theatre owners, allowing the owners no choice of pictures. One of the worst effects of this practice is the double feature, which usually combines one good with one poor picture, or two poor pictures.
There is considerable disappointment over the demise of the Senate bill which would have outlawed these practices.
That the little theatre operators are annoyed over this and other grievances was disclosed recently when several small theatre owners in New York City inserted an advertisement in a Hollywood paper protesting against being forced to buy poor pictures simply because these pictures featured a " star."
The resultant controversy rocked the Hollywood teapot for a while. The tempest is now gone with the wind,