Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1929)

1236 .1/ (i t i o n I' i c ture N e w Equipment Sales Prove Theatre Men Have Been "Good Sports" in Backing Sound Walter E. Green, Head Of National Theatre Supply, Says Showmen Have Gone All The Way In Revamping Theatres For Talkies THEATRE men have given a mo t convincing demonstration that the) can be "good sports and stand ready to give tangible support to movements that promise improvement in screen art and entertainment." said Walter E. Green. President of National Theatre Supply Co.. in an interview with a News representative in which he discussed the present status of the theatre equipment business. Thus far, 1929 has registered as the peak year in both gross and net business done by National, he said. However, he added, the equipment necessities of new sound installations alone do not account for the large amount of new supplies the theatres have bought this vear. The showmen, he said, "have gone all the way in supporting sound. They have installed new machinery and have not stopped there, but have put in new furnishings, new up-to-date seats, newdrapes and stage rigging." The influence of this on theatre attendance, greatly increased at the more important houses where sound pictures are presented, should be taken into consideration of the box office value of sound as figured in terms of enhanced returns at the picture house, he said. The head of the National company pointed out that sound, just like everything else, had to be sold to the public. and the theatre men evidentlv gave sound everything with which "to make good.'1 This, he said, was reflected in the large volume of equipment business done in [929 despite an appreciable temporary let-down in new theatre building in the middle part of the year. The month of August, when new theatre operations at the lowest ebb for the year, proved to be the banner month of the banner year registered by the equipment distributors. This phase of the sound development 1 one that has received very little attention in the trade discussions of various factors connected with the mushroom growth of talkie popularity. Main commentors have advanced numerous reasons for the solid popular establishment of sound within a comparatively short time, usually connecting the growth of this new form of entertainment with synchronized sound and vision; in the unique character of a -tar ; the clever exploitation by producers and distributors. Those, naturally, are fundamental, but showmanship on the part of theatre owners and operators, particularly in their willingness to conform everything to 'he atmosphere of "newness" produced by the talkies, even at a large added expense to them, makes logical claim to rank as an important contribution to the development. Sound itself as a new attraction and a factor increasing the enjoyment of motion picture entertainment was given the spotlight in the theatre exploitation just as it has been in the trade. Under other conditions, the theatre frequently has found justification in public reaction to special campaigns of an institutional character when some new equipment was put into the .theatre. But everything new that has gone into the playhouses — carpets, seats, new projection apparatus — much of it not necessary to the installation of sound, but, according to Mr. Green, put in by the theatre owners in order to get the best possible results for amplified reproduction in their houses — are items which considered alone have been widely publicized as "new and improved features of the theatre." This year, all of these things have been put into theatres on a larger scale than ever before, and have been publicized less in theatre campaigns — which have given everything to "Sound" and "See and Hear" in their exploitation. T remains for the record of equipment business done by the leading distributors to reveal the amount of money that the theatre men have put up to give the fullest support to the new pictures. Mr. I Ireen said that in a large number of the theatres where sound systems were installed the projection machines then in use were adaptable to the apparatus required for reproduction. Nevertheless the theatre men, instead of using this equipment which had done several years' service, decided to "go all the way" and tiled brand new projectors along with their sound systems. Furthermore, the occasion was taken to brush up the houses by the replacement of other old equipment, and give the public every reason to react favorably to the "new era in picture entertainment and theatregoing." The replacement of projection equipment before it had reached the point of unserviceability is a rather new develop ment. Up to the time when sound installations were being made on a large scale in existing theatres, there were about 2,500 projectors sold each year. The number of new theatres, many of them the de luxe tvpe in which three machines were installed, accounted for the bulk of these new projectors. It was frequently pointed out by equipment men that projectors, though machine with that projectors, though machines with many working parts and therefore certain to wear out. there was little evidence that they ever did wear out, because tin re was never any considerable replacement of projectors in old theatres. HOWEVER, the large amount of new projector equipment in theatres this year hardly can be attributed to necessary replacement due to entirely worn-out machines, because the majority of the theatres equipped with sound during the period were of the newer type, and the bulk of the new equipment purchasewere made by houses that were newh wired. Under the conditions revealed by the large amount of new equipment sold to theatres there is no escaping the fact that the relationship between house furnishings plus the mechanical efficiency of the "show shop" and box office return asserts itself more emphatically with audible picture presentations than it did even in the days of the silent film. Good projection no longer is a luxury, nor is it something that will serve a an added attraction at the de luxe theatre — it 1 a necessity of motion picture theatre operation, now that sound has introduced the need for absolute precision machinery and operation in the projection room. Recognition of that fact by leading showmen led to a thorough revamping of projection rooms when sound installations were ordered, with the result that equipment sales this year have gone far ahead of any period -nice 1925, despite the fact that in the middle part of this year new building projects have fallen below marks set up in similar periods ot some of the intervening years While the public i paying more into the box offices of the bigger theatres showing talking pictures, the public 1 get ting more for it money, and a very considerable contribution to the added quality of entertainments offered film patrons 1 the voluntary offering of theatre men who have "gone all the way to support sound."