Canadian Film Weekly (Dec 24, 1958)

Christmas Number Page 14 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY FRANK H. FISHER OTION picture theatres are not the only type of business in which a sec tion is adversely affected during a period of general prosperity by the changing character of modern life. The trend to shopping centres and plazas in the suburbs has given the downtown businessman a great big headache. It’s a bit odd but that section of the theatre business located in the downtowns of large cities is — in contrast with the section of the retail trade in the same areas— the most successful. To protect itself the theatre business must do everything it can to keep the public coming downtown and, as Frank H. Fisher, vice-president and theatre operations head of The Odeon Theatres (Canada) Limited, told the Downtown Businessmen’s Association of Toronto while guest speaker at a recent breakfast meeting, “It is very obvious that we have a mutual problem here.” Every theatre patron who comes downtown to see a show becomes a potential shopper before or after the theatre, he told the DBA, which had been — in the opinion of theatre people — shortsighted in its insistence that information be removed from marquees as part of anti-sign municipal legislation it had brought about. This led to the resignation of the downtown theatres from the DBA. Said Fisher: “EVEN though your shops may be closed at night, your show windows, always the most attractive and well lighted, are viewed by hundreds of people who otherwise would not see them. I know from experience how often my own wife has bought things we have seen together in your display windows after the What Theatres Mean in Keeping the Downtowns Alive as Shopping Sections theatre. This is really the only way my wife seems to be able to get me to go shopping and I imagine I am a typical example of thousands of other husbands. “The benefit of a theatre to the restaurant trade is so large and marked it really seems too obvious to mention. Yet, I wonder how many restaurant owners credit the theatre with bringing him so much of his trade? This is a natural for a co-operative advertising promotion. I don’t mean just a tie-up with say one restaurant and one theatre, it should be a collective promotion, all the 4 : ; ’ i i 8 : x ‘ i : ; Pi rN NI \ is : f 3 ; i i rN ¥ i ¥ i y i y YI 4 ; ; ’ Season's Greetings ‘ i i ‘ and i f A ‘ . ry Best Wishes i yi 4 y b : Ay F.G. SPENCER COMPANY LIMITED Y Saint John, New Brunswick i Ny i i is Sb rh bbb barb hb arb eb eh nat ot eh eee theatres downtown and all the restaurants downtown. I honestly think the small town business man is more cognizant of the value of a theatre to his town than the downtown merchant is in an urban centre. Do you know that in 506 communities in Canada, communities too small to operate a theatre as a private commercial business, theatres are operated by the Board of Trade, Chamber of Commerce, or Service Clubs as a community service to promote business in their towns? These figures come from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. “Big city theatre attractions SSE REE EE EN ENE EE NE LE EEE EE LEE EEN PRE PARAPAPS PAPAS PSE : are a constant draw to out-oftowners. Everyone knows the value of the tourist dollar to the downtown business area. I’d say everyone who comes in from the country to see a new movie will spend money at your stores. Theatre operators are working harder than ever before in selling tickets, they are going out to smaller communities and promoting business by the bus load — even a train load from Peterborough on a Cinerama promotion.” THE speaker gave his listen ers some examples of how New York’s leading department stores boosted movies, some to the extent of taking full-page ads and selling reserved seats, suggesting even fashion shows by the smallerbusiness operators who didn’t have the facilities of the larger businesses. He agreed that the subject was a two-way street and that the theatres were benefitting from people attracted to the downtown for shopping. His company’s theatres had catered to 5,000,000 people last year and was aiming for 6,000,000. “If we can get that extra million downtown some of them will brush off on both of us,” he said. After describing means of co-operation and various tieins between theatres and shops he concluded: “The theatre, with its bright lights, colorful displays adds greatly to the gilt and glitter of downtown Toronto, yes, even sophistication. Where the theatres are you find life, especially in the evening. Try and visualize no Loew’s, Tivoli, Imperial, Downtown, Savoy and Carlton and see how dead that section of Yonge Street, or downtown would be. Yes, theatres do have a great impact on our downtown life. “Theatres give freely of their time, talent and screens in support of community and charitable needs, and so are doing a good public relations job with the public. In closing, I’d just like to remind you of the contribution theatres make to the life of a community. We provide hours of pleasure in safe comfortable surroundings and along with this pleasure there 1S an unconscious learning process going on, an awareness of the world around us, 4 greater appreciation of beauty in all forms — even Brigitte Bardot. “I do hope I have convinced you that the downtown theatre does have a great and beneficial impact on downtown Toronto. I am sure it does — just as sure as I know what a dull city this would be if we Cnly had small stores in shopPing plazas.” Oo —