Leaders All — Richard A. Rowland, Picker of Winners (1924) 🇺🇸
Leaders All — Richard A. Rowland
Because from his youth he has studied at first hand the problems of the theatre; because he has faced and solved difficulties of making and distributing pictures not only across his desk but in the field and on the lot; because he is a practical advocate of selecting a screen story and then giving it an adequate setting; because with a keenly developed sense of humor he never loses his sense of proportion; because his frankness and democratic ways bind tightly the loyalty of his associates.
A picturesque figure in the motion picture industry since its year 1, it may be said that at last after twenty-nine years Richard A. Rowland is hitting his real stride. The general manager of First National has been an important part of all the principal divisions of the business, beginning in his youth when upon the death of his father and following graduation from high school he took over the management of the Pittsburgh Calcium and Light Company.
He has been through the motion picture mill — the supply store, the exchange, the theatre, the office of chief executive of a great producing and distributing company, and now as general manager of First National, with his attention concentrated on production.
It has been an interesting career, one that has him filled with action and that action of a productive character. Unconsciously, perhaps, he has been preparing the stage for his present work, that of making pictures — pictures that catch the fancy of the multitude, pictures that simultaneously entertain the public and stir it.
In the comparatively short time Mr. Rowland has been at the head of First National’s production forces he has achieved a success that has captured the attention of the trade at large.
If it be possible to determine what particular factor in his mental equipment it is that has most surely contributed to creating the string of box office successes recently released by the company, to set apart one element from the others, undoubtedly it will be his ability to sense screen story values.
As an example of the Rowland regime and what it is doing for the patrons of the photoplay the intimates of the producer point to “The Sea Hawk,” which will go out to the public early in June. They declare that the Sabatini [Rafael Sabatini] story, which in book form had been available for motion picture production since its publication fifteen years ago, will as a great screen subject mark the peak attained by the producer up to this time.
Mr. Rowland was born in Pittsburgh in 1880. He was educated in the schools of that city. The death of his father blocked all plans for a college course, and caused the early advent of the high school graduate into the conduct of the business left by his father.
His contact with the film business in those days, shortly after 1895, was in supplying oxygen and hydrogen gas for the projection machines employed in the showing of fifty-foot strips of film in church and other similar entertainment. This form of amusement was amplified by phonograph records.
It was about 1905 when all over there sprang up the nickelodeons, the store shows in other words. With these came the demand for film. The Pittsburgh Calcium and Light Company branched out and in 1906 changed the name of the company to Pittsburgh Calcium, Light and Film Company.
About a year after Mr. Rowland entered the film business he was joined by James B. Clark, an association which in exchanges and since 1912 in theatres has been maintained without interruption to the present day, the chain of Rowland & Clark houses now numbering more than a dozen.
With several offices in the home city it was not long before there were exchanges in nine cities, extending as far west as Omaha.
In 1910 these were bought by the General Film Company. Following the sale Mr. Rowland became interested in the agency in Pittsburgh for Universal and for Mutual. These exchanges were sold to their respective companies about 1914.
When Paramount was formed Rowland & Clark organized exchanges in the territories of Pittsburgh, Chicago and Detroit.
Mr. Rowland became president of Metro on its organization, in 1915, from which position he retired when the company was purchased by Marcus Loew. He came to First National in 1922. One of Mr. Rowland’s largest achievements was the purchase of “The Four Horsemen.” He had not read the book — and knowing it was a war story he did not dare to — but he knew over a million copies had been sold.
He received from the Metro studio a wire that was absolutely in conformity with expert opinions: “Don’t buy Four Horsemen. You can’t make a picture of it.” He wired back: “I have bought it and we are going to make a picture of it.” The rest is history.
In his present position Mr. Rowland finds full opportunity for putting into practice the theories he long has entertained regarding the making of pictures, theories which when in control of Metro he subordinated largely to the views of his production staff. He has been quoted as saying he believes there is no excuse for a bad picture.
As remarkable as has been the recent success of the pictures produced under the guidance of Mr. Rowland it cannot be said there is anything meteoric about it. It has been simply the capitalizing of the experience of more than a score of years of active participation in the various departments of the industry.
In other words, he has finished his course at the training table and is now hitting his stride.
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Collection: Exhibitors Trade Review, 31 May 1924
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