Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 8, 1949 5 Hollywood Clicking? A smart national circuit created a potent slogan as the keynote for its new movie season campaign and it reads: Hollywood Is Clicking. A close inspection of your various trade journals for the past month or two would hardly bear it out. To judge from the lack of trade advertising and presumably, the lack of pictures good enough to advertise and shout about to the trade, one would be more apt to arrive at the conclusion that Hollywood and the whole industry, with the exception of a very few aggressive companies, has gone into a tailspin. We had begun to believe that the jitters which gripped the industry for the past two years was beginning to ease up and from all indications the company balance sheets seemed to be bearing this out. Then, the majority of the companies suddenly decided they didn't have so much confidence in themselves and their product, after all. Comes again the jitters, or at least symptoms thereof, over the latest foreign market development brought on by devaluation. So in Hollywood film company biggies huddle over plans to tighten the studio belt to offset the devalued funds frozen in foreign lands. On this particular problem we sympathize with the film company biggies. No sooner do they set up what looks like a workable formula than some governm^ent edict or international horse-trading upsets the apple cart. At the same time one wonders if the game is worth the candle. It seems to us there were some pretty good arguments set forth many months ago to the effect that it would pay U. S. film producers to concentrate on the domestic market to the extent of utilizing all the resources of brain and man-power to turn out pictures that will please American theatregoers and at production costs that would permit a profit from earnings over here. Some time ago the exhibitors were advised by a distribution executive that the film company does not have to guarantee a profit to the theatreman v/hen it makes a deal to rent a film. It seems equally reasonable that the theatres don't have to guarantee a profit to the producer on every picture he makes. The effort to get the most out of the American market — by pictures that will please and attract theatregoers turned out at costs that permit a profit from this, the biggest single market in the world — promises some very nice long-range benefits. Certainly it is worth the effort required to make pictures that will draw big audiences and worth the effort and relatively small expense of proper showmanship and selling within the trade. Let G eorge Do It! If there's a job of good-will building to be done by any one spokesman for the industry at such public events as dinners or convention gatherings, we can't think of any one better qualified for the job than Screen Actor George Murphy. On a previous occasion this corner paid its respects to George for his exceptional abilities as a spokesman for the industry and an ambassador of good-will. And with the passing of time and his repetitions of great performances in the role of Mr. Speaker for the Movies, our regard for him rises even higher. The industry owes a lot to George Murphy for the amount of time and effort he has given to these public appearances. His accomplishments in the role of speaker are nothing short of brilliant and match some of the great performances (such as his portrayal in "Battleground," for example) on the screen. We think there should be an award for such loyalty to the industry and such great talent in representing it at public gatherings — and we think George Murphy should get it. AAA Ally? tnemy or Television, source of so much speculation as to what it would do to movie theatre attendance, was taken right into theatres this week for one of the big national events of the year. The showings at Fabian's Fox Theatre, Brooklyn, Pinanski's Pilgrim in Boston, B & K's State Lake in Chicago, Comerford's Westside in Scranton and St. Cloud Amusement's Tower and Oriental in Milwaukee, demonstrated the potential of television for big events as an ally of screen entertainment. Thus, while there were a lot of people wondering about television and the theatre, smart showmen just went to work exploring its profit possibilities at the boxoffice. —CHICK LEWIS X SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW.' Title and Trade Mark Registered U. S. Patent Office. Published every Friday by Showmen s Trade Review, Inc.. IsOl Broadway. New York 18, N. Y, Telephone, LOn^acre 3-0121. Charles E. 'Chick' Lewis, Editor and Publisher: Tom Kennedy, Executive Editor; Ralph Cokain, Managing h^i tor; Merlin C. Lewis, Film Advertising Manager; Harold Rendall, Equipment Advertising Manager. West Coast Office, 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood 28. (^Utorna Telephone Hollywood 2055; Ann Lewis, Manager. London Representative, Jock MacGregor, 16 Leinster Mews, London_ W.2 ; Telephone AMbassador 3501. ilerat>«.\udit Bureau of Circulation. Address all correspondence to the New York office. Cable address: "Showmen's New York.