The Exhibitor (Nov 1938-May 1939)

13 Promises • HELLO, LOLKS! This is WARREN STOKES speaking to you from Hollywood over the JEP network. Promises have been made for the New Year and the most interesting to come out of movicland is the proposed plan of the major studios to install a five-day working week, interesting because certain producers are of the opinion such a plan will cut production overhead more than 3,000,000 a year, interesting because if this amount can be sliced from the cost of production it invites a New Deal in the cost of exhibition. • $3,000,000 A YEAR, sliced from production costs, is just what this industry needs. If, as believed by certain major producers, the studios can accomplish this through a five-day week working plan, 193 9 should be a year of prosperity for every one concerned. Production department heads opine that Saturday, taken on a yearly basis, is not a good working day because production progress is impeded by football, racing, Palm Springs week-ends, and other distracting influences which retard production results on Saturdays as compared with other days of the week. Experiment • HOLLYWOOD'S NEW EXPERIMENT might be the answer to that age old question: "What’s Wrong With the Movies?” and, if the producers can reduce their overhead $3,000,000 a year on a five-day week instead of increasing it that amount by working six, the exhibitors who have to work seven, might at least expect to reduce their overhead with the promise of lower rentals in accordance with these admitted lower production costs. • DIAGNOSIS OF MR. CELLULOID under these advanced theories and circumstances, shows indication of improvement through proper elimination of distracting influences which have obstructed the patient’s progress. This is Hollywood’s most interesting experiment. We are looking forward to more details on the proposed fiveday plan and its manner of operation. It holds promise of a box office recovery in 1 93 9, provided the learned doctors of Hollywood make it a cooperation with the exhibitors; removing from Mr. Celluloid a portion of his higher rentals to a lower point in his physical make-up, commensurate with his new birth rating under the improved formula. Warner Survey • JACK L. WARNER and his associate executive, HAL B. WALLIS, rate a close-up in this week’s edition of your Hollywood Newsreel for launching a national talent survey to be conducted in theatres throughout the country extending over a period of three months. This recognition of the value of the exhibitor to the progress of the industry has been too long delayed by the movie moguls content to bask in the sunlight of local ballyhoo to satisfy their own personal ego. Jack Warner is to be congratulated on this master stroke of showmanship, designed to groom and build the company’s new stellar lights, thereby increasing their value at the box office, through closer relationship with the paying patrons whose reaction outweighs the local cinema critica when the final tabulations are balanced for profit and loss. • TWENTY MILLION TALENT SCOUTS can’t be wrong. The Warner audience survey will give theatre audiences the opportunity to make suggestions on characterizations and stories for the Warner roster of new stellar lights: John Garfield, Jeffrey Lynn, Priscilla Lane, Eddie Albert, Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman, John Payne, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Marie Wilson, Gale Page, Rosella Towne and Bonita Granville. Tabulated comments of movie patrons will serve as a casting guide for future assignments in coming pictures. Exploitation • DE LUXE EXPLOITATION is the keynote of this venture. In addition to popularizing these personalities under the most favorable conditions, the plan has been moulded to arouse additional public interest through audience participation in the making of movies and the making of new stars, — a vital step in the progress of this industry. It will also create interest in forthcoming product under this company’s banner with the patrons invited to suggest new roles for these players. It provides an endless chain of public interest in the Warner product, the company’s personalities and in the theatres playing these pictures. It leads the way for Hollywood to follow with more co-operative showmanship of this type which cannot help but benefit the producer, the exhibitor, and stimulate public interest resulting in the welfare of the industry at large. Hail WB • HAIL WARNER BROTHERS! Step in for a close-up and take it big! Hollywood Newsreel salutes you for firing a showmanship broadside beyond the Hollywood hills for a direct hit on the main objective; which all of Hollywood will someday realize is not the main entrance to the studio through flattering personal publicity or paid advertising, but the main entrance to the nations’ theatres through paid admissions and public interest in the finished product. And that brings us to the end of another edition of your Hollywood Newsreel. This is WARREN STOKES saying, "So Long, Folks.” ADVANCE SHOTS Received too late to be included in the current Six-Point Reviews (the famous Blue Section) were the reports of the following pictures. HOMICIDE BUREAU (Columbia)— Bruce Cabot, Rita Hayworth, Marc Lawrence. 5 9m. An actionful, cops-robbers yarn, this has possibilities for the right neighborhoods. Also received were complete reviews on the following short subjects. Complete reviews will appear in the next Blue Section. SOPHOMORE SWING (Vitaphone)— 20m. For jivers an excellent, for other a good musical with a "scholastic” background. CLYDE LUCAS AND ORCHESTRA (Vitaphone) — 10m. A good offering of modern melodies. HOME BONER (RKO-Radio)— 1 8m. A fair Lazy Managers • WITH THIS talk about managers not getting enough opportunity to show their ability, one wonders why, for example, there hasn’t been a greater rush of entries in the JEP $500 Shorts Exploitation Contest. True, there have been entries but more could be used. The Short Subject Editors think, perhaps, that the boys, knowing that there is a March deadline, are taking their time, or, possibly, there isn’t the interest in shorts selling that one finds in features. At any rate, we say, speak now — you managers who want to get into the money — or forever hold your peace. The fr Professionals ” • IN THE WORLD of contesting, there are some known as professionals, people who make a business of entering contests — and winning them. Among the managers one finds almost the same condition — exploiteers or house operators who are forever garnering the top money in the contests which the companies conduct. We think, first, of Loew’s Ray Bell, working in the Washington area, who probably can show a total of prize money that will surprise most of you. Any survey would show that there are always familiar names among the campaign winners. Certainly, this can’t mean that these are the only exploiteers. It must indicate that the other boys either don’t know how to submit campaigns or think there is some hidden secret that they don’t know about. Our belief is that the managers who don’t submit campaigns are under the latter impression. Forgetting • WE CAN’T DENY that an increase in grosses usually occurs when games or giveaways are introduced in theatres — but there is another side to it, also. Recently, the trend, legally and otherwise, has been against use of money giveaways and in a lot of spots where this practice has been abolished, there has been a terrific letdown in grosses. First reason is because nothing can take the place of a good money giveaway, but, more important as far as the manager is concerned, in nine cases out of 10, he has forgotten how to sell his pictures. Running a theatre now seems to be coming down to an automatic science or a giveaway one day, a double feature the next, a giveaway the next, etc., with little concentration on the primary purpose of theatre operation — selling the picture. The squawk, of course, about pictures being poor is merited, but, even then, there can be a lot more exploitation than has been. Proof of this were the recent "jitterbug” and "horror” cycles in some sectors. Somebody thought of the idea and the others followed — but the ones who led the parade found out what we all know — there’s dough in ideas. Herbert M. Miller. Leon Errol comedy, of a bridegroom moving into a "demonstration” house. CIRCUS DAZE. Jam Handy. 9m. Back of the scenes with the circus in winter quarters, this reveals equestriennes, acrobats, clowns, acrialists in rehearsal, using at times an automobile as a mobile platform. A commercial (for Chevrolet), this has no direct plugs, is entertainment all the way. GOOD. January 11, 1939