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The Manager 39
showmanship is not confined alone to selling entertainment. Politics has its showmen. Journalism has its showmen. Big department stores have their showmen. The fruit store at the corner may be an evidence of showmanship.
Successful theatres are a practical example of showmanship. Yet the successful theatre to-day, without the slightest change in its operation may be a failure to-morrow, and the word "showmanship" which was used to explain success becomes "lack of showmanship" to explain the failure. Every attempt to explain showmanship includes the words originality or ingenuity or novelty. It implies expressing ideas in a new way or doing things as they were never done before. It understands what the public wants at the time, and gives the public what it wants, as it wants it. But more than that, it means making the public want what you, as the manager, have to offer, giving it the way it is wanted, changing to a new way before your patrons tire of the old.
If human nature were always and everywhere the same and unchanged, there would be less need of showmanship.
As it is, the showman should know human nature not by theory, but by actual contact. Because human nature is so changeable, the showman should be an opportunist, alert to change quickly to meet a change in mood, and capitalize on a new fad or popular fancy. The last place you need look for a showman is in a rut. There is no rut of showmanship.
The manager, as a showman, should be as good a "greeter" as the hotel clerk, a better salesman than the commercial traveler, as good a mixer as the ward politician — yet possess the dignity that commands the respect of the conservative. He ought to be inventive, resourceful, tactful, and above all, possess innate good sense that directs his activities within the bounds of public decency.
Because the product he sells is constantly changing, he must advertise continuously and in such a way that he presents that phase of his product which will appeal most at that time to potential customers. But his advertising should not be confined to routine methods. It is most effective when he utilizes
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