Motion Picture Herald (Sep-Oct 1940)

; • , ? , am mm mm mm Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment I Guid NOW PLAYING AT THE COURT SQUARE THEATRE, ENDS SAT. A KING OF BUCCANEERS! AN UNTAMED BEAUTY! OnTheStageOfTheNewtonTheatrelnPersonOneDayWed.July24 Igttlt Gtl 4ni C<i <ad Csml»n*Ij(Hi I. M Mjtkowiti NOW! gene; GLENN "JAKE" ond "LENA" NO ADVANCE IN PRICES 1 ' Complete Theatre Programmes On Inside Pages CANCELLED HECKS WITHOUT CHAEGt 1940 REFRIGERATOR Cray Department Store MT01RI V m „ M I — J 1 i = .. 1 1 !J k * 1 1 jj: 1. :■!•■:. mwin 'iiuM,*!! JAMES CACNEY ANN SHERIDAN CITY FOR CONQUEST" KabfK MONTGOMKHY HAUNTED HONEYMOON BOYS & GIRLS ATTENTSON l/NG'S HEART BflOHGS TO MARTT .*i7mininTra]DirLTiiEi«t8i*iTnnra i Typical pages of the weekly "Theatrical and Shoppers Guide." At upper left is a characteristic front page; at upper left, an inside page with merchants' advertising; and at bottom, a twopage spread of theatre advertisements of the type carried in exactly the same position in every issue. The theatre company has access to any local news columns used by the weekly newspaper in whose plant the "Guide" is printed. The "Guide" now usually shows a good profit. the little Saturday-show venture in Hampton (long since discontinued), Mr. Sloan and his colleaques built the St. Cloud theatre in Washington, a town of 4,400 population. Three years later, in 1935, they took over operation of the Clinton Point in Clinton, which has a population of only 900. The Clinton Point had been built by Hugh Kent, who also erected the rusticstyle Barn theatre in Frenchtown, which the St. Cloud circuit began to operate last year. The Washington theatre in Wash ington was leased in 1935. Followed the Belvidere, built in Belvidere, a town of 2,200, in 1937 ; the Sussex in Sussex, which has a population of 1,400, taken over in 1938; the Court Square in Newton, population 6,000, built in 1939; the Barn in Frenchtown, population 1,200; Roy's theatre in Blairstown, population 500, also acquired in 1939; the Branchville in Branchville, population 500, and the Newton in Newton, both taken over this year. The Branchville is operated only Saturday PICTURE S — t h e Towns and Theatres on next two pages nights; all the rest, however, operate daily, with the Washington and Court Square presenting daily matinees, and most of the others operating continuously from 2 :30 p.m. on holidays. Evening adult admission price is usually 36c plus 4c tax ; at the Court Square it is 40c plus tax. Except for sections which, because of lakes or river resorts, attract a large summer population, these towns and their drawing areas are populated by people typical of rural life — the families of small town shop keepers and professional men, artisans and odd-job workers, and farmers. The latter produce mostly milk and dairy products, although chickens and eggs are important products of Hunterdon County. There are hosiery, textile, porcelain and woodworking factories in Washington, while Belvidere is the home of the Hercules powder plant at which occurred the explosion, fatal to many workers, that recently startled the nation. By and large, however, this section, to which the St. Cloud circuit has made motion picture entertainment of a better sort immediately available, is typically rural, with incomes predominantly in the lower brackets. Promotional Tabloid The intensive cultivation of the available population for the support of these theatres, some of which have seating capacities larger than the population of the towns they are in, is carried on principally by means of a "newspaper" which, if not absolutely unique as a medium of theatre exploitation, is at any rate notable with respect to both effectiveness and economy. This publication is got up in the manner of a tabloid-style newspaper. Called the "Theatrical and Shopping Guide," it carries general advertising as well as the advertisements and editorial publicity of the theatres. It is published in three editions, one for each area that has been found to constitute, on the basis of distances and trading customs, more or less a division of the total territory served by the circuit. Each edition, which emphasizes in its picture exploitation the theatres of its own division, provides a valuable advertising medium also for the merchants of that division, thus this "newspaper," containing eight pages or more, is in truth a "theatrical and shopping guide." Every family receives it free ; in the towns where the theatres are located, it is delivered to the homes by boys ; to residents elsewhere, ( Turn to page 23 ) ] Where the circuit Mr. Sloan's first in ft start "there Ham»r