Cinema Difficulties

Heralded by the revelation at a Federal inquiry into the Famous Players-Lasky Corp. that its President, Adolph Zukor, no longer held any stock in his name, the shares crashed twelve points on the Stock Exchange. Brokers are now the largest holders of the stock, since the directors of the company have quite generally "unloaded." There have been 225,000 shares of common stock, and about 90,000 of preferred, issued so far by the company; the largest block, 62,000 shares, is now held by a brokerage concern.

Simultaneously, the company sought a $3,500,000 mortgage on real estate holdings in Los Angeles to provide working capital.

A subsequent statement by the company announced that further production of pictures would be halted, after a few " feature films " now in process of production had been completed, and valued at $15,000,000. The treasurer declared that no particular change in earnings was expected, nor any new policy relating to dividends. The halting of production for several months will enable the company to avoid carrying over large inventories in new film.

The reason for the shut-down was stated to be the abnormal present costs of production, due to excessive salaries paid to " film stars" and directors. According to Marcus Loew, head of Metro Pictures Corporation and of the Loew Theatre Circuit, this step is only a beginning of a general deflation of the cinema business; he added: " The cost of making pictures has got away from us."