Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

18 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 15, 1949 Theatre Manag-ement Guide to Modem Methods in the Administrative and Executive Phases of Theatre Operation Supervision, Not ^Stuporvision^ I was reposing in semi-slumber, scanning mind memos amid the tranquil fragrance of my own private Memory Meadows, with my head nestled in the gossamer softness of the dream robes that cover Reverie's lap and holding a perfectly good ticket to tlie Land of Morpheus, when the noisy myrmidons of reminiscence began shaking me to wakefulness. Seems like, since the first crocus discarded its 1949 overcoat to emblazon the hillside with news of the coming of sipring, I've visited some 350 theatre managers in five states and two countries, who were finding the road to compliance with supervisory edict pretty rocky and that it might be smoothed out a bit for them if I'd oil up this word tractor and head it into the more formidable obstacles. Guess it must have been the success of Paramount-Publix that spawned the departmentalization of theatre authority. Back in the middle and late '20s that outfit was going strong and acquiring theatres faster than bunnies multiply in a rabbit hutch. The need for quick training of an executive staff to instruct managers of newly acquired theatres in the rudiments of service, advertising, maintenance, operation, etc., as devised by the rapidly expanding company, was acute. In the interest of quick dissemination and assimilation of the new company policies and methods, various single functions of the theatre were broken into segments that were important and necessary only to the immediate essentials of rapid expansion. It must be remembered that Paramount-iPublix was international in scope with United States holdings well into the four-figure mark. An outfit of that size requires a lot of "top brass" and a considerable array of "tin" during its early maneuvering. When the growing pains ended the outfit was pretty top-heavy with supervisory executives, little and big, and there are many who attribute the chaos attendant on its lingering demise during '32 and '33 to this cause. However, during its years of atfluence, the company was careful to swing its supervisors from one section to another and give them an extremely valuable cosmopolitan outlook and experience that accounted for a trading of ideas — ■one territory to another — reflecting favorably in gross receipts as well as other departments of their operation. Most circuits born of Paramount-Publix took unto themselves many of the operational procedures which had proved of value in conducting the affairs of the mammoth outfit efficiently and proficiently. They also employed much of the "brass" and no small quantity of the "tin." Having been trained in an "itemized" rather than "unitized" school of supervision, it was quite natural that a modicum of the company's sins should be adopted, along with the multitude of its virtues. Outstanding among the former was the brain-stifling, initiative-destroying, effort-corroding bane of excessive supervision. Shrinkage of Reliable, Experienced, Dependable 'Brass' Unfortunate though it be, it must be admitted that, through the years, there has been a consistent shrinking of available experienced, capable, reliable and dependable "brass" in the field of exhibition. Age, the Grim Reaper, lures to other fields and plain old jealousy have served to deplete the field to a point nearing extinction. In many instances the "tin" has acquired the status and polish but has, in most instances, proved to be sorely lacking in the array of mental molecules essential to competent and judicious exercise of administrative direction. With the genuine "brass" almost gone, the "tin" frequently assumes a Janus attitude— with one face portraying humble and polite servility to the salary source and the other depicting supercilious abstraction that discourages contribution or comment, to those he supervises. Like eunuchs strutting the halls of a sultan's harem, they wear the mantle of authority while being unable to mentally comprehend or physically comply with the wants, needs or desires of their charges. There is and always has been need for capable, competent and sincere administration of supervisory edict over theatres. No manager, however experienced and efficient, is proof against error or, because of constant association and encounter as well as over-familiarity, guilty of condoning laxness or fault in behavior or conditions to a degree warranting correction. The well-trained "theatre sense" of a competent visiting supervisor detects such lapses instantly and— depending on the degree of competence— can, through constructive suggestion and adroitly presented criticism, effect necessary changes, repairs, replacements, etc., without detracting an atom from the aggressiveness selfconfidence or dignity of the. manager. Such a supervisor is always careful to create an atmosphere of friendly personal interest that induces the manager to lay his entire bundle of business worries * This series copyrighted and must not be reproduced m part or whole without written permission from Showmen's Trade Review, Inc. ( and frequently those of a personal and domestic nature), indecisions and confusions on the table for advice. In such an atmosphere the supervisor is not only in position to analyze concisely, and intelligently present understandable advice, criticism or solution, but is enabled to accurately gauge the mettle, calibre and potential of managerial material. Despite the skimpiness of remaining "brass," enough exists in the upper areas of executive authority to guide the effort of supervisory appointees along lines they themselves followed in building the industry's formerly unsurpassed structure of proud manpower : to make them capable of doing a hangup job of constructive supervision — or, at least, to erect such restrictive barriers as will make them incapable of public or private (family) display of their incompetence. With efficient manpower shriveling consistently, and other industries waving better wages and working conditions to lure the better men from our ranks, there is no requirement of greater importance facing owners and topbracket executives. The maintenance of our position as leaders in the field of mass entertainment—and we MUST maintain it if we are to succeed, or even survive — is 100 per cent dependent on the type and character we hold at the helms of our little and big theatres. Now, more than ever before, we need the kind of supervisor who will visit every house under his jurisdiction; who will listen to the manager's problems attentively, analyze and consider carefully and provide with equal fervor, lioth constructive criticism of errors and praise and encouragement of effort and accomplishment. Theatre Fundamentals We need supervisory talent sufficiently backgrounded in theatre fundamentals to determine the actual cause for most of the errors, mistakes, omissions and oversights in theatre operation. Such men can transmit to even the neophyte managers the kind of knowledge that will effect correction at the source and thereby prevent recurrence. By all means we should get away from the expensive and superfluous overlap of supervisory authority where contradictory decisions and conflicting advice and instruction confuse and stultify rather than explain and inspire. The evidence pointing to the foolhardiness of continuing the top-heavy supervisory structure — in today's comparably small circuit operations— is abundant. That the cost is tremendous, both in misspent dollars and discouraged and destroyed manpower, is brutally obvious and a cause for wonder about our survival by those with whom (Continued on Page 20) Kids Observe Rules Of Safety, Get Tickets Tom Grace, manager, Eastwood Theatre, East Hartford, Conn., has a new tie-up with his local chief of police, with a number of guest tickets given weekly to school children demonstrating public safety measures. Under the tieup, police officers on duty at various intersections near schools report the names of outstanding youngsters weekly, with the latter getting guest tickets and Grace receiving numerous newspaper breaks.