At dinner one night, the conversation turned to the old days and I was asked if I thought I could parlay my $400 original loan to start my film business into a worldwide motion picture company today. That set me to thinking.
With the current state of government intervention in small businesses, I still think with enough drive and a good product, a person could do it with 16-hour work days and the desire. However, it would be much more difficult these days because of the massive amount of government paperwork involved. Since I personally narrated my film in every state north of Denver and east of San Diego to Portland, Maine, it would’ve taken an extra bookkeeper just to fill out paperwork for the government. Today, I might be charged income tax in many of those states where I appeared.
When I showed my first film in the fall of 1950, there was still a 10 percent entertainment tax on any ticket that cost more than $1, so for the first three or four years, $1 was all ski clubs could charge for tickets because of the extra paperwork.
For the first 20 years of filming, the only problem I had with the government was with the local forest rangers. Some of them wanted me to pay a daily rate of between $200 and $300 to take movies on government property that was under lease to the ski resort.
In the early days, I used to stay at a friends’ houses, in dorms somewhere or in the really early days of filming, I slept in my 1950 Chevy, panel delivery truck behind the trees in the parking lot. As a result of staying under the radar, I usually got my filming job done in a day or two and was on the road to the next resort before Smokey the Bear even knew I was filming on what he thought was his land.
The profit margins in those early days were slim, but since I continued to keep a daytime job as a carpenter framing houses I could live hand-to-mouth. Working on my film business at night was all done on overtime. The financial ends usually came together by the end of the personal appearance lecture season.
At least 10 percent of my shows with the latest film were done on a last-minute notice when I was filming a ski resort. The revenue came from passing the hat. The income ranged from a low of $8 and a national ski patrol pin for a show in Port Angeles, Wash., in 1950 to a high end in places such as the Golden Horn in Aspen or in the employees cafeteria in the basement of the Lodge in Vail the first year they were open.
Looking back over those first 12 rough and tumble years before I hired an accountant, it is slightly remarkable that I didn’t get busted by the federal or local governments.
The company that owns my original film company today sells the admission tickets for as much as $28.50, though the film is the same length and width as the ones I first made 65 years ago. In today’s market, I’m sure they have control over all of these things that I didn’t have to pay any attention to with a much larger staff, hence the higher ticket prices.
There are several college courses I should have taken and never did. Such as a basic bookkeeping course because I knew I would never make enough money to have to keep track of it. Nor did I take a single business course because I thought I would never have a business to run. The third course I never took was any one that had anything to do with the filmmaking.
It was not until 1946 when I got mustered out of the Navy that I first owned an 8mm motion picture camera and started taking surfing movies at Malibu. At that time, I sometimes had to cut a hole in the wire fence just to get to the ocean and, quite often, I would be the only one there.
Fortunately, the films that I produced were of sufficient quality and quantity that I could raise my three children, put them through college and send them on their way to their chosen professions.
Of course, mine is not the only business that started out in the same manner with not much sleep, or capital, but really liking what you are doing. I don’t think it really matters whether you like to bake cookies, repair automobile engines, mow lawns or make movies, you just have to work harder to make your product better than the guy down the street. Then, when people have a choice of your product or your competitor’s product, they will choose yours because it is better, more dependable and they know that your heart is in part of the purchase price.
Everyone making the same product is subject to the same government intervention.
If you want to start up your own business, keep in mind that everyone that does this regardless of the product, will have the same government overhead that you have to pay. Be sure to keep that in mind and set the money aside to protect your business.
Good luck on whatever new business venture you undertake, and be sure to set your alarm clock for very early every morning.
Warren Miller is history’s most prolific and enduring ski filmmaker. Visit warrenmiller.net or visit his Facebook page at facebook.com/warrenmiller.
