Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1962)

LETTERS Points Up Some Business Wrongs My partner and I have been in show business for just a few years, but long enough to see this business, on the whole, go from the silly to the slime. I would love for someone to ask me what is wrong with this business. I think the following would be a few of the answers: 1. Why did we kick our main supply in the pants — the producer? We took his theatres away from him and said, “You make them and we will show them. You can’t have any profit on your product.” So what does Mr. Producer do and say: “To hell with you” and makes his best product for TV. Why shouldn’t he? He doesn’t have any theatres to worry about keeping first-class mass appeal pictures in any more. 2. It has been my main thought that the theatre in any town is a business like any other business in any town. I have never seen the dry goods store say to the barber shop, “Put a sign up in my store and pay me a high price so my customers will come to your shop.” 3. I wish the people who are responsible for the advance advertising on pictures would produce and distribute the picture. They certainly have the ways to get the masses ! But what do you get when you see the pictures now? A big letdown on most of them. 4. Where does the exhibitor have any rights over his product? You are sold a picture for a few days. God only knows what is going to happen to that picture just before or just after you play it. In one case a company was releasing a big picture in this area just before a theatre was to play it. Six different high schools had a 16mm print of the picture and were showing it for a 25 -cent admission. And, of course, everyone knows about the Saturday Night at the Movies in glorious Cinemascope (color by De Luxe) and fourtrack stereo sound, all on TV. Well, there went eight years of CinemaScope, stereo and color by De Luxe down the drain, for theatres. I haven’t seen a picture yet on this program that I would turn down playing in my theatre, especially with the product shortage now. Maybe this company was forced to sell by the board of directors. Why, oh, why couldn’t they come to theatres and sell this product, and keep it within our industry? But this company’s salesman hasn’t been to see us since last April! 5. Does this industry have room for just one Mr. Disney? Why can’t more companies make pictures for the masses and sell them to the masses as Mr. Disney does? I’m sure these pictures wouldn’t cost much when you have a car company advertising its product throughout the film takeup with its cost! Why are people buying Mr. Disney’s pictures? Maybe it’s because people want to see something clean. No sex, no slime, no sex promotion, no dirt, no cussing ! Because they get enough of that in real life. And no matter how much you want to make a picture like life, a film can never capture real life ! Let’s keep mass entertainment for the (Letters must be signed. Names withheld on request) masses and give the masses, not the few, what they want to see ! Product shortage? Right now, all the big pictures of the year are out. Many we could play in our theatre Christmas and New Year, but no dice. We are playing a six-month-old picture on Christmas and a second-run on New Year’s because we cannot touch any of the new product that was released for us over the holidays. Tradepress ads always say, “Contact us now and date.” Yeh! Six months later. We are a county seat and first-run house, I thought. RICHARD L. COSBY Indiana Theatre, Salem, Ind. Tribute to Universal Although I am no longer a member of the motion picture industry — even though Boxoffice usually makes me feel I am, I had some reflective thoughts when I read your editorial about Universal’s forthcoming 50th Anniversary. That means the company was formed in 1911 — where does the time go? By the time I was eight years old, I had developed an insatiable interest in the movies. Whenever I could afford to go, which wasn’t very often, I’d sit through two performances; and whenever I couldn’t go, I’d stand outside (in the summer, of course) and steal a few looks until I was shooed away. Because of my curiosity, I made it a practice to scavenge the trash bin behind the theatre in our town in search of a discarded piece of film which I could study, or reading material which I could pore over at my leisure. One publication I always enjoyed was the Universal Weekly, and the feature that gave me the greatest pleasure was the weekly “Straight From the Shoulder Talk” by Carl Laemmle. Maybe I was too young to understand everything he said, but he wrote so simply and straightforwardly that “bread-and-butter” and “brick-and-mortar” phrases made their impression upon me, and I have never forgotten them. If I had been old enough, and had operated a theatre, Mr. Laemmle would have had another buyer of his product. Of course, in succeeding years, glamorous Paramount with DeMille, Valentino, Swanson, etc., and star-studded MGM with Garbo, Gilbert, Novarro, Crawford, Shearer, etc., dazzled me and pushed Universal somewhat into the background. But I never forgot “Merry-Go-Round,” “Hunchback,” “ King of Jazz” and other entertaining Universal films, and I have always had considerable admiration for the company because of its success in catering to public tastes. To be 50 years old and doing well, to have survived revolutionary changes and developments, to have overcome economic and financial hurdles, is a tribute to the men behind the company who have carried on the principles and practices set down by Carl Laemmle in those “Straight From the Shoulder Talks.” RALPH COKAIN 166 E. 35th St., New York, N. Y. Reach the Lost Audience Via TV I was very much interested and impressed by your editorial, issue of December 11, pertaining to Star-Building “Crusade.” This is something this industry needs badly at this time. However, I would like to ask a simple question: What good will it do to show these two-reel star-building subjects in the theatres, if the largest percentage of the public is home watching the TV programs ? Most of the people we meet in our towns are thoroughly acquainted with the TV personalities and know absolutely nothing about most motion picture theatre movies! Let us ask ourselves why is it they know the Disney pictures? And, incidentally, the Disney product will outgross every time the other motion pictures. Why? Because Disney uses the national prime time TV to put over his product. Seems to me — going back to your editorial, paragraph two — this would be a good means to obtain funds for the purpose of putting this star-building crusade on national prime time TV. Then, and only then, will we be able to bring back that lost audience to our theatres. CAESAR BERUTT Berutt & Wandel Theatres, Rolla, Mo. A Veteran Director Speaks Thank you for your kind letter of November 21. There comes a time in life when one starts thinking of calling it quits in the business world. For yours truly, this coming January will record 50 years of service in the motion picture industry. The records will show that I started in 1912 at the Edison Studio in Fordham, N. Y. Believe me, I have seen a lot come and go in our business. The last picture I directed was “Atomic Submarine” for Allied Artists in June 1959. You see, I have been submerged for over two years, and the prospects of surfacing at this time is very doubtful, particularly when one reaches the age of 69. Thank God I am in good health. Play hand-ball every day — have been for the past 35 years. At least I am enjoying my retirement. As for Boxoffice : Let me say that it has been “The Pulse of the Motion Picture Industry” for me for many, many years. I’m sure the years I have been a subscriber is proof of that fact. The time has come for me to step aside and let the younger guys take over. General MacArthur said “Old soldiers just fade away” and I say that directors, actors, etc. just “dissolve out.” SPENCER G. BENNETT Los Angeles, Calif. Jack Schlaifer Joins MGM NEW YORK — Jack Schlaifer, veteran sales executive, has joined Metro-GoldwynMayer and will devote his time to independent distributor operations, handling the rereleases of top product. Schlaifer has been in the industry for more than 30 years during which time he was general sales manager of Universal, western general sales manager of United Artists and general sales manager of Eagle Lion. He formed his own company. Jack Schlaifer Associates, in 1950. BOXOFFICE :: January 1, 1962 7