The Case Against the 20% Federal Admissions Tax on Motion Picture Theatres (1953) User Reviews

A film prepared for presentation as testimony before a Congressional committee.

[Dick-42 · 8/10 · 16 June 2000]

Early in 1953, the "art theater" in the north end of Columbus, Ohio, as movie houses specializing in British and other import films were known at the time, announced that it would no longer charge admission, thus avoiding payment of the admissions tax. They hoped to attract enough customers to keep them in business on sales of popcorn and sodas. I don't know how this worked out because my family moved from Columbus before we had an opportunity to try out the new plan.

The movie is deliciously amateurish in its presentation, all the "witnesses" being theater operators or local business people affected by theater closings, not actors. Even the principal narrator is a representative of an exhibitors' trade association.

The statistics are shocking, but gloss over the effects of the infant television industry -- which is mentioned without much emphasis -- and other social changes occurring in the nation at the time, blaming all the problems on the abominable tax.

It's a really well done little propaganda piece, and especially interesting in the present era of the huge multi-screen movie complexes that have sprung up in shopping malls and as free-standing installations in the last 30 years or so. Virtually all the neighborhood houses and a large portion of the downtown theaters are gone, but we now have more "screens" than ever. (And less that's worth watching -- but that's another subject.)

An Interesting if Overlong Curio

[Michael_Elliott · 15 September 2009]

Case Against the 20% Federal Admissions Tax on Motion Picture Theatres, The (1953)

** (out of 4)

The Motion Picture Industry of America produced this document, which was originally meant to be shown to a Congressional committee who were debating on whether or not to lower the 20% tax on admissions. The film tells us about the thousands of theaters being forced to close throughout the country and how this also effects other businesses around them. We also learn that theater owners, due to the bad economy, are losing a lot of money because people just aren't coming to the movies anymore. We even get to hear about how TV is keeping folks away. I had heard some pretty negative things about this 23-minute short but I somewhat enjoyed what we got here. There are several big problems including several people talking about their problems yet reading off of cue cards. This might not be a problem but it's clear a few people are having to read them just to say their name and the name of the theater? The film beats the subject into the ground but that's to be expected. One good thing about this film is how we get to view some old theaters and how they looked back in the day. Seeing the old posters and advertisement was fun and makes the film worth viewing at least once.

Our Home

[tedg · 21 July 2005]

I've a special interest in films about films. They come in all varieties, but this is a special case, a film made by the film industry about itself. This is actually made for Congress to plead for the removal of a federal tax. The tax, a heavy 20% was imposed when the movie industry was a monopolistic money machine.

But by the fifties, TeeVee was killing the notion of a night at the movies. It didn't help that the product was crap. So the industry plead to have the tax removed. It portrays the embattled small theater operator as the mainstay of the community: as church, civic center, supporter of the march of dimes, progenitor of all downtown businesses.

This was effective. The very same presentation is now being adapted to save another questionable enterprise "family" farms. This movie was cited in the initial planning for that campaign so the story goes.

So it is interesting in a historical sense, a piece of propaganda using postwar techniques that have since become a fundamental part of the American political process.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.