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jaura Pember...?
They say her
shimmering gowns and shining jewels ...her glittering social whirl of Mayfair and Monza hide a tormenting terror locked
Actually Filmed In The Playgrounds Of The International Jet Set!
THRU
LETTERS
Sees 'Silver Lining' in TV Clouds
As an exhibitor in the late ’40s, I learned first-hand the troubles which can beset a theatre owner, even in relatively good times. Later, as a broker, I learned from other exhibitors how to appreciate the various factors which bring about the success or failure of a theatre. If the following words give encouragement to those smaller exhibitors who feel that they are at the edge of the cliff, then my purpose here shall have been accomplished.
Surely, the recent release of many more post-1948 features to television has wrinkled many an exhibitor’s brow. But, isn’t each mass-release of features to television actually bringing the industry nearer and nearer to a final normalization of distribution?
The backlog of features yet unreleased to television is becoming smaller and smaller. One or two more mass sales to television will reduce the backlog effectively to zero. What then? I see several good results :
1. Producers, with no backlog remaining, will have to devise a stable and equitable method of serving theatres and television. The distribution of product will become orderly. The voice of the exhibitor will be more effective, because all product will be current and subject to here-and-now negotiation.
2. When the backlog has been expanded, television’s access to product will be reduced to that mere trickle of feature film available for current presentation. Hence the price of films offered to television may logically increase manyfold. The wholesale presentation of theatre -quality features on television may be expected to diminish greatly, due to this cost increase.
3. When the backlog has disappeared, television will suffer from an unprecedented shortage of theatre-quality entertainment. It must be remembered that the average metropolitan TV station needs 18 hours of new material each day to fill its schedules. This is 126 hours per week. The average metropolitan theatre, on the other hand, needs perhaps three hours of fresh material weekly. Put in another way, the television station must have almost 42 times as much material each week as a theatre in the same city must have. The condition gives the theatre a preponderant mathematical advantage in the matter of filling product needs. The theatre can succeed on quality, selectivity. Television faces the never-ending struggle to fill those 126 hours each and every week.
Let the deed be done! Let the backlog be sold, expended ! For, only when this has been accomplished, can the distribution of motion pictures be truly stabilized. When that day arrives, when the backlog is no more, the competition of television will be put in its true perspective.
RALPH J. ERWIN
Business Analyst,
Tulsa, Okla.
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