Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 8, 1949 19 Theatre Management Guide to Modem Methods in the Administrative and Executive Phases oi Theatre Operation The Evils of Multiple Playing Time For the past couple of weeks this column has been given over to the detailing of basic factual reasoning — not mine but that of one of the industry's topflight legal minds — to effect a better understanding of the business principles underlying the formulation of existing distribution-exhibition practices. In presenting these "foundation blocks" of sound and solid business reasoning the writer was actuated by a dual purpose : to discourage unwarranted and expensive lawsuits and, if at all possible, to curtail certain practices that are proving themselves exceedingly harmful to theatre attendance. Today there exists every possible reason for adopting and following assiduously a course of procedure directed toward the very sensible goal of making it as easy and inviting as possible for folks to spend their spare moments and spare currency in the movie marts. Any studied analysis of current business chartings, Washington bureaus and fact finding committees, etc. will evidence that considerable honest confusion is rampant about whether we are headed for further recession or another dose of inflation. These typings have always been directed toward "Today" and the immediate future with longrange business prognostications left to the crystal balls and ouija boards of swivel chair Sachems. In what I've read and studied — as well as the paper of this metropolitan city which carries ads of a soft drink selling six bottles for 15 cents (no limit) and preserved cherries at 15 cents per pint — ^there is little to indicate other than a continued purse flattening for the population category we look to for the bulk of our ticket sales. With ticket sales far below last year — Government tax reports show a drop month-to-month that runs into the millions of dollars — and all reliable factors indicating no surcease within binocular range, it's high time we applied some common sense to the job of getting and holding customers. Everybody from studio slavey to the mighty moguls of distribution and exhibition knows that "habit" is the mightiest of all human elements limplementing movie attendance. Ergo : any business practice holding the slightest possibility of seriously interrupting the "attendance habit" must be viewed as perilous. To give you an illustration of just how serious the interruption of "habit" can be to theatres, let me cite the results of the August strike of San Antonio, Texas, street railway employes.' I stopped in the Alamo City some two weeks after the strike had ended; here's what I found out: During the early days attendance was affected very little, since most folks considered their inconvenience in the form of a lark and had fun hiking and hitch-hiking on private cars, trucks, etc. Toward the end of the first week the drop began showing, with the downtown "B" and deferred runs being 'hardest hit. The "A" showcase customers were still coming along pretty fair but the increase in autos in the downtown area was making the job of finding parking space rather difficult. Some of These Houses Chalked Up 30-Year Lows The drop in attendance was progressive — but fast — with the second week showiing serious effect in the gross of the showcase houses and bordering the disaistrous in the "B" and deferred runs. The neighborhoods were hardly affected until the third week when they hit the skids for a slump of 10 to 15 per cent. By that time business in the downtown "A" houses had dropped off 25 to 35 per cent and the "B" and deferred runs — where attendance is drawn principally from the lower non-auto-owning class — dow-n 50 to 60 per cent. I was told tliat some of these houses chalked up 30-year lows during the closing days of the stnike. Of course -the street railway employes strike was no fault of the theatres. But it did interrupt the "habit" of going to the movies for no end of folks. The highly important point is that some three weeks after settlement the theatres had still failed to reach the attendance normally enjoyed previously. This despite concentrated publicity and advertising directed toward correcting the situation. The "habit" had been broken and considerable time will be required — and considerable dollars lost — before it again reaches the gross enjoyed before the unfortunate interruption. I forgot to mention that during this time the Drive-ins enjoyed a pronounced increase in business and that one neighborhood, catering to the city's elite with art and foreign films, went through unscathed and reported a slight hike in attendance. As mentioned above, the .-.treet railway strike was, so far as theatres were concerned, unpreventable. But let's take a look at some of the crazy practices of both circuit and independent theatres in highly competitive metropolitan centers that tend to accomplish the samy purpose. Most outstanding of these "sins against ourselves" that are preventable, and currently in practice throughout the nation, is the utterly senseless, silly and selfish scramble for day-anddate availability following first run. In recent years, circuits and independents have "gone overboard" to determine who could excel in building the most impressive and imposing community theatres. In itself, this procedure is highly laudable and of a nature that promises to increase the prestige of the industry and attract a greater flow of patronage. Just what part was played by the prospect of those annoying and business-destroying "writs" in influencing one chap to attempt excelling the other for the purpose of establishing a premise on which to base a law suit for prior run because of better or more imposing accommodations and facilities? Regardless of motive or intent, the result is an array of theatres that would defy the judgment of Solomon to select one over the other for preference in availability. With the court decisions providing so much in the way of conflicting regulation on distributor practices, with lawyers of owners advancing from all directions to flay and slay, came the neutral decision of day-and-date availability. Vie for Rail Position So, with porcine avidity — and seemingly kindred intelligence — any and all in the favored category grab for "firsts." Now what happens? Well, let me give you a tabulation of conditions in one middle-sized city where seven neighborhood de luxe circuit buses vie with five super independents for the rail position. (I should mention that the first-run situation is one where it is possible to liquidate three toprank pictures a week but where hold-overs and (Continued on Page 20) * This series copyrighted and must not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission from Showmen's Trade Review, Inc. TWO AWARDS. Charles P. Skouras (center), president of Fox West Coast Theatres, receives on behalf of his organization two awards from the National Safety Council "for exceptional service in the cause of safety." Jim Bishop (left), president of the council's Los Angeles chapter, presents the local award, while the national award is presented by Earl F. Campbell (right), of Chicago, national director of the field organization for the council.