Motion Picture Theater Management (1927)

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THE OBJECT OF THE BOOK 19 ers and employees, especially in connection with house direction, safety, and training. Part III is concerned with the physical building — construction, equipment, inspection, and maintenance. Part IV describes in detail the varieties of personnel and the manager's function in inspections, conferences and employment. Part V has to do with the fundamental problems of finance in budget making and control, and in purchase, stock, and insurance. Part VI considers the manager's relations with his advisors — the musician, the publicity man, the lawyer, and others. Part VII rounds out the picture in a summary of the past and some conjectures as to the future. In every division, of course, the details are viewed from the angle of the central consideration — the manager. The methods and principles described herein are naturally not in use in any one theater. They are rather composite ; that is, they are based on the procedure of the better type of motion picture theater, and are gathered from many instances rather than from few. Since they are without exception drawn from experience in operation, they constitute a theatrical standard that may serve as a practical guide. Yet executives must realize that expediency often takes precedence over theory, and that in theater operation much depends on the personality of the administration. Emerson has said: "Every institution is the lengthened shadow of some man." Business judgment must decide the occasions when theory is practicable, and when it is inadequate. Since figures tend to vary greatly in the motion picture business, it would be misleading to feature them in a general account of this sort. Not only are there variations within regions and districts and cities, but within the individual theater there are variations from season to season, from week to week. Therefore figures will be introduced only when necessary, and even then will be used solely for the purpose of illustration, and must not be considered on the basis of unfailing accuracy. These chapters are written after intensive study and after much first-hand experience in the operation mainly of large theaters. The content will therefore be found to apply most