Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

THE NATIONAL FILM WEEKLY Published in Nine Sectional Editions BEN SHLYEN Editor-in-Chief and Publisher DONALD M. MERSEREAU, Associate Publisher & General Manager JESSE SHLYEN Managing Editor HUGH FRAZE Field Editor AL STEEN Eastern Editor I. L. THATCHER Equipment Editor MORRIS SCHLOZMAN Business Mgr. Publication Offices: 825 Van Brunt Blvd. Kansas City 24, Mo. Jesse Shlyen, Managing Editor; Morris Schlozman, Business Manager; Hugh Fraze, Field Editor; I. L. Thatcher. Editor The Modern Theatre Section. Telephone CHestnut 1-7777. Editerial Offices: 1270 Sixth Ave., Rockefeller Center, New York 20, N. Y. Donald M. Mersereau, Associate Publisher & General Manager; A1 Steen, Eastern Editor. Telephone COlumbus 5-6370. Central Offices: Editorial — 920 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 11. ill., Frances B. Clow, Telephone superior 7-3972. Advertising— 5811 North Lincoln, Louis Didier and Jack Broderick, Telephone LUngbeach 1-5284. Western Offices: Editorial and Film Advertising— 6362 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 28, Cain;, Syd Cassyd. Telephone Hollywood 5-1186. Equipment and Non-Film Advertising — New York Life Bldg., 2801 West Sixth St., Los Angeles 57, Calif. Bob Wettstein, manager. Telephone Dunkirk 8-2286. London Office: Anthony Gruner, 1 YVoodherry Way, Finchley, N. 12. Telephone Hillside 6733. The MODERN THEATRE Section Is Included in the first issue of each month. Albany: J. S. Conners, 140 State St. Atlanta: Mary Charles Watts, 205 Walton St.. N. W. Baltimore: George Browning, 208 E. 25lli St. Boston: Guy Livingston, 80 Boylston, Boston, Mass. Charlotte: Blanche Carr, 301 8. Church. Cincinnati: Frances Hanford, UNiversity 17180. Cleveland: W. Ward Marsh, Plain Dealer. Columbus: Fred Oestreicher, 52% W. North Broadway. Dallas-. Mable Gulnan, 5927 Winton. Denver: Bruce Marshall, 2881 S. Cherry Way. Des Moines: Pat Cooney, 2727 49th St. Detreit: H. F. lteves, 906 Fox Theatre Bldg., WOodward 2-1144. Hartford: Allen M. Widem, CH. 9-8211. Indianapolis: Norma Geraghty, 436 N. Illinois St. Jacksonville: Robert Cornwall, 1199 Edgewood Ave. Manchester, N. H. : Guy Langley, P.0. Box §6. Memphis: Null Adams, 707 Spring St. Miami: Martha Lummus, 622 N.E. 98 St. Milwaukee: Wm. Nichol, 2251 S. Layton. Minneapolis: Jon Pankake, 729 8th Ave. S.E. New Orleans: Mrs. Jack Auslet, 2268% fif n«lldp ilia Oklahoma City: Sam Brunk, 3416 N. Virginia. Omaha: Irving Baker, 5108 Izard St. Philadelphia: A1 Zurawskl, The Bulletin. Pittsburgh: It. F. Kllngensmltb, 516 Jeanette, Wilkinsburg. 412-241-2809. Portland, Ore. : Arnold Marks, Journal. St. Louis: Joe & Joan Pollack, 7335 Sbaftsbury, University City, PA 5-7181. Salt Lake City: H. Pearson, Deseret News. San Francisco: Dolores Barusch, 25 Taylor St., ORdway 3-4813; Advertising: Jerry Nowell, 417 Market St., YUkon 29537. Washington: Virginia R. Collier, 2308 Ashmead Place, N. W., DUpont 7-0892. In Canada Montreal: Room 314, 625 Belmont St., Jules Larochelle. St. John: 43 Waterloo, Sam Babb. Toronto: 2675 Bayview Ave., Willowdale, Ont. W. Gladish. Vancouver: 411 Lyric Theatre Bldg. 751 Granville St., Jack Droy. Winnipeg: The Tribune, Jim Peters. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations Second Class postage paid at Kansas City, Mo. Sectional Edition, $3.00 per year. National Edition, $7.50. OCTOBER 2 8, 1963 Vol. 84 No. 1 YESTERDAY , TODAY AND TOMORROW MANY in attendance at National Allied’s 34th annual convention, held in New York this past week, referred to it as the best in the organization’s history. In all respects, it was a lively, wellmanaged and constructive affair for which the convention committee headed by Irving Dollinger deserves due credit. While some new problems came in for attention and some new faces took part in their discussion, many of the old and pernicious problems still remain, with their solution apparently as remote as ever. Some of these problems have been with the industry for so long, they have become ingrown and deep-rooted to such an extent that they are believed to be an integral part of the business; that it might even be judged to be fatal to be rid of them; that it is but natural for exhibitors and distributors to be in constant conflict with each other and neither would be happy, if the causes for these battles were to be removed. That isn’t true, of course, but that’s the way it often appears, especially to one who has been associated with the industry for more than four decades, a part of which time was spent both in distribution and exhibition. There has been a continuous repetition of discourse on the same old problems, hashed and rehashed and resolved upon, but rarely changed. It is a fundamental of all good business that buyer and seller work together to promote the widest possible sale of the products dealt in; that good relations be maintained between them and that differences, whether over price, quality or service, be quickly resolved, else both lose — and the ultimate purchaser, the public, loses, too. In just about every other business we can think of, “the customer is always right.” So goes a slogan or credo that seems quite widely remembered— except in this business. In every other industry, the manufacturer or distributor of a product seeks, not only to retain his every outlet for that product, but bends over backwards to strengthen it and so increase the sales of his products. Entering into that is every conceivable type of service and consideration, whether it be in terms, delivery, merchandising and all else that enter into good seller-buyer relationships. And when a retailer is hit by adverse conditions, everything possible is done by the distributor to help keep that retailer’s doors open. And, in most cases, it has proved mutually beneficial. Is there only a “today” in this business, and no tomorrow? Is the product in which the industry deals so perishable, as it has been made out to be, that every drop of profit it may hold must be obtained now or never? And hasn’t that myth been exploded by the long and profitable life shown by motion pictures, some of which have been shown over and over — and then continued to run on television? In his talk at a business session of the Allied convention, Ely Landau, accused exhibitors of not thinking for tomorrow. But this producer said nothing about producers and distributors who fail to plan, let alone work, for tomorrow. If more of them did, the problems that are perennially dealt with, collectively, at exhibitor conventions and, individually, between these conclaves, would long since have been done away with. For years and years, we have been hearing the cry from exhibitors that distributors are not cooperating in this or that; and the distributors blaming the exhibitors for not properly or adequately promoting the distributors’ product at the local level. Why can’t that condition be remedied at the local level by a sane approach that calls for a little more “give” and less “take” on the part of each? And, in the doing, set a solid base for the continuing of good and sound relations into the future. As has frequently been pointed out, the three principal branches of this business are interdependent — and the ENTIRE business is dependent upon what comes through the boxoffice. It is, therefore, patently obvious that, with an eye to the future well-being of the industry, it cannot “write off” even the smallest of theatre situations, as distributors have been accused of trying to do. The motion picture business always has been, still is and always will be a mass business. And, as in virtually everything else, there is strength in numbers, so must this business seek its perpetuation and progress through expansion in numbers, as well as in other ways, and not through reduction of its places of contact with the public. To this end, the mutuality of interests can best be served by the utmost of cooperation via every facet of showmanship and sound business practice — between exhibitors and distributors.