The Exhibitor (1951)

REPORTS are already circulating that the Academy Awards next year will be tele¬ vised, which gives just about a year to exhibitors to figure out some reason to tell patrons why they shouldn’t stay home that night and look at TV. ★ CALL SYSTEMS for physicians are new developments in the drive-in field. ★ BELIEVE it or not but an elderly patron ruptured a stomach muscle laughing at “The Lemon Drop Kid,” which made it page one news for the theatre. * THEATRE MEN who like to point out ad¬ vantages of their houses as compared to TV home viewing will be happy to learn that TV has been called by an authority a threat to a child’s eyesight, especially those five and under, and that the danger from home sets are listed as follows (1) electric shock, (2) potential fires, and (3) implosion from the picture tube. ★ It WAS quite a night recently at an eastern drive-in. When motor trouble developed, it was discovered that the family cat had crept into the motor compartment of the ice cream cooler. Later, a hurry call for a special type of blood, broadcast over the p.a. system, resulted in a patron volun¬ teering the transfusion. ★ AN ACTOR is being sued by a company for showing one of the latter’s films at home screenings without specific permission. Lest any exhibitor become confused, it isn’t a case of not paying enough for it. — H. M. M. INDEX Vol. 45, No. 24 April 18, 1951 Section One Editorial 5 Feature Article — “Republic Week.” Scores in Encland 6,7 In The Newsreels 14 People . 15 This Was The Week When 10 Studio Survey SS-1 — SS-4 Section Two The Check-Up ..SS-1 — SS-8 THE COVER PHOTO Republic President Herbert J. Yates, right, and John Wayne recently traveled to England for the opening of Republic House, new distribution center for Great Britain and Eire, and for the London premiere of the company's latest Wayne starrer, "Rio Grande." The two are pictured at a party with a British exhibitor, Sir Sydney Clift. Vol. 45, No. 24 teT) Gj*cwation» April 18, 1951 Who’s Being Cute? Bearing in mind the experiences which many drive-in oper¬ ators underwent last season, it may be predicted without much fear of contradiction that the headaches both open-air owners and dis¬ tributors experienced during 1950 will be nothing compared to those 1951 will bring. This department has, in the past, tried to hammer home one point, that because of the tremendous investment and a short season and because of the particular type of operation that sees the drive-in influenced by more factors than the conventional house, the distributor should give the open-airers special consideration. It is true that many drive-ins in the south, southwest, and on the coast are open year-round, but now that the general season has begun, it has brought with it a plague of requests for first-runs, second-runs, and runs much earlier than those enjoyed last year by the unconventional operations. This is because the distributor, putting the drive-ins apart from the usual last run, insisted on selling films to the open-airers on percentage, one out of five or six at top terms, and with gimmicks expected to insure against any possibility that the exhibitor might buy film at anything less than what the exchange thought the price should be. And since percentage has become the vogue, drive-ins are clamoring for earlier runs. Eyeing what some courts have had to say, perhaps there won’t be many distributors who will refuse them. This will prove a hardship to existing conventional houses, which have been going through the toughest period in their history. The distributor can’t milk the cow from both ends. It has to run dry some time, and, when it does, the distributor will have only himself to blame for his sources of revenues slowing down to a trickle. It’s still odd how sales policies for drive-ins took on the same form in most companies for last-runs. Who’s Being Cute? A JAY EMANUEL PUBLICATION. Founded in 1918. Published weekly by Jay Emanuel Publica¬ tions, Incorporated. Publishing office: 246-248 North Clarion Street, Philadelphia 7, Pennsylvania New York office: 1600 Broadway, New York 19. West Coast Representative: Paul Manning 9628 Cresta Drive Beverlywood, Los Angeles, California. Jay Emanuel, publisher; Paul J. Greenhalgh, general manager; Herbert M. Miller, editor; Max Xavier Cades, business manager; Marguerite Gibson, circulation manager; George Frees Nonamaker and Mel Konecoff, associate editors. Subscription rates: Each of six sectional editions (New England, New York State, Philadelphia— Washington, Southern, Mideast, Midwest— Western) : one year, $2; two year, $3.50; three years $5. General edition: one year, $7.50 in United States and possessions, $10 in Canada and Pan-American countries, S15 in all other countries. Address editorial and business corre¬ spondence to the publishing office. 246-248 North Clarion Street. Philadelphia 7, Pennsylvania.