Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

October 4, 1930 Motion Picture News 71 Equipment and Its Relation to the Motion Picture Theatre's Success An Authority Discusses the Modern Trends in Theatre Operation, Particularly in Their Relation to Equipment As a Source to Public Patronage By J. HARRY TOLER I OVERHEARD two exhibitors talking shop the other day and the conversation ran something like this: First Exhib : "Well, Bill, how's it going these days?" Second Exhib: "Terrible. Never saw it so tough since I've been in the business. If this keeps up I'm going to walk away and leave it. How's it with you ?" First Exhib: "Oh, I can't kick. Could be better of course but do you know, since I spent a little 'jack' on my house; fixed it up a bit, I've noticed a gradual improvement. Look's like business is going to continue improving over at my place." Thus a little innocent eaves-dropping inspired some thoughts on prosperity and what is most needed to produce it. By what authority I may assume to discuss the subject of theatre prosperity is certainly of secondary importance to the subject itself — a subject that has been of very grave concern to many theatre operators during the past year and a half. The show business seems to be fraught with difficulties for those exhibitors who with inferior equipment and unattractive house environment are trying to hold their patronage with little more than the help of average screen entertainment. Every showman knows that of the total number of pictures he may run in the course of a year, comparatively few are of high calibre box-office value on their own account. A lucky break might give him one or two attractions of the boxoffice knockout variety. Those, of course, might profitably attract the public even though they were screened in a barn. But the reasoning must be confined to the average — not to the exception. At best, the larger percentage of his pictures will be above the average, but it is a reasonable and therefore safe assumption that at least 50 per cent of them will be judged by the public as no better than the average — each just another picture. How then may any exhibitor expect to consistently maintain a profitable pace with inferior equipment in an uninviting theatre? Merely add to the normally expected disadvantages of average screen entertainment the indisputable disadvantages of worn-out projectors, uncomfortable seats, poor lighting, unsuitable acoustics, bad ventilation, and unattractive atmosphere and you have conjured a fairly accurate perspective of what false economy may lead to. Theatre Must Aid Draw The physical value of an attractive, clean, well-equipped theatre is definitely definable. Does the theatre attract patronage— or is the burden of attraction carried principally by the screen? The former is certainly more conducive to permanent XJ ARRY TOLER, author of the •"• -* accompanying article on modern showmanship practices, is head of the newly organized Toler-Dunbar Agency, Chicago, specialists in theatre equipment advertising. By virtue of his years of experience in the theatre equipment and advertising fields he is qualified to write as an authority on modern trends in theatre operation, particularly in their relation to the part played by equipment in selling the theatre to the public. Toler has introduced many universally used equipment products into the theatre field, has been a student of theatre supply problems and has had opportunity to gauge the importance of having proper theatre equipment in any and all situations. Toler entered the theatre field after years of experience in adver' tising. He was a part owner of the Yale Theatre Supply Co. of Kansas City at the time that organization was taken over by the National Theatre Supply Co. For the last four years he has been advertising and sales promotion manager of National Theatre Supply, and resigned that position only recently to organize his own theatre equipment advertising agency. It is Toler's belief that modern merchandising methods can and should be applied to theatre operation. In this and subsequent articles which will appear in The Showman he will endeavor to show how good merchandising practices can be utilized to improve theatre business. prosperity because the many prospective patrons will passively avoid average, or even better than average, screen entertainment if they know that they must undergo physical and mental discomforts in order to get it. So it seems to me that now is a most propitious time for the whole industry to do some double checking and self-analysis, emphasizing in our deliberations the true relationship of equipment to the success of the theatre. What I say may sound like equipment sales talk. If it doesn't I've missed my mark, because I certainly intend to sell the idea that prosperity in any business these days isn't handed out on silver platters. It comes only to the man or group of men who are willing to provide those things which insure success and prosperity. Industry Can Correct Ills Is there anything basically wrong with the business of exhibiting motion pictures? It may be argued that business will never again be what it used to be; it may even be proved in some instances that the game (and it is a game) is no longer profitable except for a favored few, but I seriously doubt that there is anything wrong with the business that cannot be corrected within the industry itself, through the initiative of those who have made and will continue to make it an industry worth while. Public entertainment, through the medium of motion pictures, can no longer be classed as a "penny arcade" business; the transition from the museum class with its circus methods of operation and exploitation has been accomplished and it is now a legitimate, up-standing business, highly susceptible to good merchandising methods. The modern motion picture theatre is indeed a public utility — a necessity in the economic and social welfare of every community. Is it not. therefore, good business to provide our theatres with modern refinements that appeal to public sentiment? I address these thoughts particularly to those exhibitors located in the smaller towns — the Main Street centers of the country — who seem to have borne, altogether patiently, more than their share of what many have termed "a serious depression" at the box-office. It is my honest belief that hard times, politics, stock market declines, crop failures, midget golf courses and all those counter attractions and bugaboos which showmen have been talking about, are less responsible for a decline in theatre patronage than a mistaken attitude on the part of too many exhibitors. Too many have said "My theatre is good (Continued on Page 98)