The Exhibitor (Nov 1938-May 1939)

BM-5 ^ISCUSSIONS of seat selling, and the bearing of various adjuncts of theatre construction and management on that important subject all too frequently center on material, leaving quite unconsidered that equally essential, personnel. It is not enough for the operator of a theatre to contract for the best pictures he can buy; it is not enough that his theatre’s projection and sound be of the very best, in order to reproduce with fidelity of sight and sound that which Hollywood placed upon the celluloid; it is not enough that the seats and all other equipment with which the patron comes in contact be of the finest possible. It is not enough to do all these things: for it is just as essential to staff the house from the manager to the porter, from the projectionist to the night watchman, with a personnel which serve, however indirectly, to make real the personality — if a theatre can be said to have a personality — established by the structure itself. • COURTEOUS SERVICE does have a very definite, and tangible, value for the theatre. It is an attribute of operation which can be ballyhoo’d, exploited, and advertised, just as effectively as good chairs, good sound, year ’round air conditioning, and other items of physical equipment. Indeed, the personnel of a theatre plays a greater part in the influence of the public than, probably, any other aspect of theatre operation. The public has many times in the past — and, probably, will many times in the future — patronize theatres no better than barns, they will seat on board benches, they will endure errors in projection and sound, they will swelter in summer and shiver in winter, and all because it wanted to see a very definite picture, but there is one thing that the public will not tolerate for long and that is a theatre at which it feels it is not welcome. This reaction of the public is, of course, strictly a matter of personnel, from the highest executive down to the most menial of flunkies. • THEATRE EXECUTIVES, who count their service to the community (and to themselves) in terms of the totals on deposit slips, are hardly worthy of the dignity of the title "executive.” While no person is engaged in business, even the theatre business, for entirely the love of it or for strictly purposes of charity and out of the goodness of the heart, the operation of motion pictures has for its objective the making of money. Yet, it is one thing to blackjack customers and quite another so to treat COMPILED AND PRESENTED BY THE EDITORS OF BETTER MANAGEMENT OURTESY AND PERSONAL CONTACT ETWEEN PATRON AND STAFF patrons in such a manner as to make them put their money down, thank you for the privilege of spending their amusement budget at your theatre, and hope that they may come again soon. In the larger associations of theatres, where executives are thought of as a sort of super-structure controlling many theatres, but personally operating none, a particular responsibility rests with the officer primarily concerned with managerial personnel. No one will gainsay the statement that managers must be trained men. Accordingly, it is essential that the theatre executive use the keenest sort of perception in naming to managerial posts men in whose hands will largely rest the ministrations of countable thousands of dollars worth of physical propery and more uncounted thousands of dollars worth of public esteem and good will. No better way of insuring actual performance on the basis of academic consideration of possibilities is to render unto the Caesar of the theatre that which, in salary, will make him respect his employers and his theatre and present that incentive to make himself even more valuable to the organization. How some theatre executives "get by” with paying a paltry $18 a week for the responsibility of looking after a $100,000 investment is a cause for amazement. But it is done. However, closer examination will reveal that active management of the theatre is not all that it should be and, also, there is a greater turn-over among employees than in theatres where the manager is paid a salary somewhere nearly commensurante with the responsibility of the position. • AMONG THE ATTACHES of a theatre, the manager is, of course, the top man. In many organizations the hiring of employees (excluding of course, such union men as projectionists, stage hands, and the like) is up to the manager, and it is on his ability as a picker and leader of men that the morale of the entire organization rests. Granted that the right man has been selected for the right theatre, let us consider for a few moments how the selection of his aides may have a bearing on the public reaction. • FIRST PERSON with whom the vast majority of customers comes in contact is the cashier. In the majority of theatres, the ticket pusher-outer is of the female of the species. Even if the Atlantic City beauty pageant supplied only cashiers for theatres, the demand would still exceed greatly the supply. While all the beautiful girls do not compete in this annual April 19, 1919