The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (Jun 1, 1941)

Page 2 THE vW CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE Xill Published Semi-Monthly by the INDEPENDENT THEATRES ASSOCIATION HYE BOSSIN Managing Editor VOE.27, NO, 1I° JUNE, 1,-7941 Subscription Rates: Canada and U.S.: $5.00 per annum Madteas all communications to The Managing Editor The CANADIAN EXHIBITOR 21 Dundas Square Toronto, Canada Warner's List Long on Shorts The largest yearly agenda of short stuff in Warner’s history is on file — 86 in all, reports Variety. Planned are a dozen two-reel black-and-whites; six two-reel Technicolors; 10 one-reel Master Melody ,band pictures; 10 one-reel Vitaphone Varieties; 10 one-reel Color Parades; 16 Looney Tunes; 26 Merrie Melodies and two cartoons carried over from the Leon Schlesinger schedule. We added them up and our count came to 92. So what? There’s plenty to pick from in either total. In the long run the Variety count may come out right. The cartoonists are playing hookey from ink-and-board here and threatening to there. Schlesinger had his troubles, now settled, and Disney is on the spot. To the ‘Indies’ (Continued from page 1.) while the rest are standing still in the gloom. Like Columbus, it’s sometimes ‘better to be off the track than to stand still. Better to be going somewhere anywhere. You’re bound to think of many things and try some that work out. Tell us about them. Pass on your ideas. Write to us. Let the other exhibitors know what you think and how you did this or that. Every day the exhibitor needs new answers to new problems. Let’s pool our brainpower. Send us your pet peeve or your latest brainwave. We'll put it in the wash. Something might show up that will be of tremendous value to the exhibitor. { The Exhibitor Tell “Em and Sell ‘km What brings the customers in? If we knew the answer we could trade it for a share of the industry without putting up a dime. No sooner do the sages think thev have the answer when the whims of the cash customers prove them wronq. Hollywood spends mountains of money for films they hope will bust the box-office wide open—and gets them rare‘ly. It kicks in another heap of legal tender for exploitation. Then tke exhibitor has to make the chinaware manufacturers rich to coax the customers past the door—and often in unsatisfactory numbers. Suddenly out of some forgotten corner of a studio sneaks a “sleeper’’—a picture nobody knows anything about—and grabs press and public by the ears. Or a cheaply made film that grows into a surefire series. And you can’t keep the people out with a tank division. A couple like that and the exhibitor quits beating his wife and cursing the children. Then it’s summer and business droops. Or a new tax comes along. That's the kind of business itis. Full of surprises. keeps it going? We'll tell you what we think. The family trade. You can’t work too hard on it. The people brought in by good general exploitation are the cream —but the steady dribble of plain folks who love the movies pays the bills and leaves a profit. They're good customers summer and winter for the independent exhibitor. Sure,, their trade falls off in the summer. But there’s a good chance to keep them coming. Here’s a sample of movie chatter at home. “It’s too hot to sit around the house,” says one. “What'll we do?” “How about a movie?” says the other. “Might be a good idea—but I don’t feel like getting dressed.” “All right then,” says the first, a bold soul. to a show around the corner.” That’s us. We're around the corner on every street in the country. Plain folks dealing with plain folks. Let’s show them we're plain folks. Tell them they're welcome in anything but a suit of skin. Who cares if Pop shows his suspenders and Mom wears that old thing she changed to after dinner? They won’t—if the neighbors are doing the same. Tell them via the screen. Maybe a happy guy wearing a barrel and telling his friend that he’s on the way to your theatre—where he can be as comfortable as he likes. Don’t worry. They won't think it’s a rule and really come that way. Keep the steady trade headed your way, come all weathIt’s the backbone of the business. What “So let’s go er. ‘Charge Fee For One Night Stands Exchanges Stop Home Shows Hollywood—The movie capital, which makes a fuss about small| jection rooms are common, In Hollywood, where home proso things while ignoring big ones, just woke up to an evil that has irked exhibitors for years — the careless admission of potential customers to screenings. These, if they didn’t see the picture free and ahead of the public, would pay in the regular way. Fiim and theatre people, in being good to their friends, are hard on the exhibitor. It only takes a few admissions to make a dollar. There are 52 runs a year in the larger houses and often 104 in smaller ones. Customers killed off by pre-release showings can add up to a tidy sum if they paid. | for the privilege. many private showings were on each night that they actually represented a competitive circuit. Since most belonged to movie people they were served free of rental in almost every case. The whole thing started when busy executives began looking at rushes or the finished product at home. It grew and got out of hand. Exhibitors and exchanges finally revolted at the unfair competition. Now the Producers’ Association has ruled that home projectionists will have to pay from $15 to $25 nn June Ist, 1941 MPTOA Will Talk Over Feud (Continued from ‘page 1.) buyers, want to be exceptions to any rule that may hold back press and radio. Most agree that great harm has been done the box-office by thoughtless and undisciplined information. Hollywood’s press’ representative problem has never been easy. The Hays Office long ago took over the sorting of correspondents and all credentials are passed out by them. Applicants must meet certain qualifications, mainly those pertaining to the circulation and standing of the papers they represent. There are over 300 correspondents in the movie city and, up to the begirming of the war, it was next to Washington as an American source of news. In many cases double previews had to be held, one in a theatre and the other on the lot. Naturally, everyone wanted to attend the public showing and the situation was a trying one for all. The giving away of the story from start to finish, which is a real point of issue, is contrary to almost all writing practice. The surprise motive is the rule in most public entertainment and in all drama. It has been since scribbling began. It doesn’t matter how much money is spent on a picture or whether it’s big budget or “B.” If the patrons don’t care what happens or how it turns out, they walk out—and tell their friends. Writers and exhibitors, who are the A and Z respectively of the business, know and fear this fact. How to retain audience interest and attention to the finish is the No. 1 worry. Stars recognize it when they fight for the _ best stories and story departments strive to find novel scripts. This inflexible truth, however, ‘|}seems to have been lost on press and publicity departments. They seem to measure their work by lines captured and not the effect of them. The public has been entering theatres aware of what’s going to happen on the screen. Knowing the happenings in the lives of the characters, the patrons watch with diminished interest. No doubt the emphasis cn screen material in the photo magazines is immeasurably valuable in interesting the public. The problem is one of treatment. Exhibitors are tired of audiences giving them the lowdown on coming pictures and asking questions that are hard to answer, it seems. They don’t want the customers to know more than the trailers tell. They are rolling up their sleeves. It will be quite a squabble. In the meantime the studio-press differences may be settled to the satisfaction of both parties. But the exhibitor wants a say in the terms.