The Exhibitor (Nov 1938-May 1939)

30 Number 29 of a Series: PAUL E. GLASE General Manager WILMER & VINCENT THEATRES Reading, Pennsylvania "No theatre manager can keep abreast of the times in his line unless he reads THE EXHIBITOR, and reads every issue. Its news columns, its editorials, its Better Management section and features make a complete publication, one that supplies new ideas, stimulates the theatre man’s mind by informing him up to the minute as to what is going on in his industry. What’s more, it has courage, independence and vigor and the reader can be sure its editorials are based on fact and good judgment. No theatre man can afford to miss a single issue.” Nearly every Exhibitor reads THE EXHIBITOR! AN INVITATION Throughout 193 9, expressions of praise, comment, criticism or suggestion from our many Exhibitor Friends will be carried in similar form in every issue. W,e welcome the expression of every reader and will use them in. the order in which they are. received. SPECIAL FEATURES BOOK REVIEWS Business Manual "PUBLIC RELATIONS FOR BUSINESS;' by Milton Wright, ix -F 346 pages. New York: Whittlesey House. For a long time The Exhibitor has urged theatremen so to conduct their business as to earn the maximum respect and goodwill of the general public. No altruistic motive has entirely prompted this argument, but rather that unanswerable one that it is good for the business. It is, then, gratifying to learn from no less an authority than Milton Wright, author of "How to Get Publicity,” "Getting Along with People,” and other useful and inspirational works, that "business is not a general intangible something that cannot be grasped. Rather is it the sum total of individual enterprises that keep the w heels of industry and trade turning throughout the country. So, in the process of changing business to make the world a better place, men have been giving their attention to specific business organizations and groups of organizations. Workers, politicians, consumers, theorists . . . have been seeking to limit and guide business enterprises in ways that will best further their own particular aims. To denounce and attack businesses as they are functioning or as they try to function is a natural part of such activity. With cards being dealt as they are, the businessman cannot stand pat. He realizes — often more fully than do his critics — that he is a social obligation. He is trying with more or less success to meet that obligation, but his efforts, sincere and earnest though they are, are hampered by the antagonism of those who distrust him and would take the direction of his affairs into their own hands. If he is to continue to be a businessman, he must understand the present viewpoint of his public. He must know not only what to do but how to make his public realize and appreciate what he is doing. To operate successfully, he must know how to get along with the public. Proper public relations must be established and maintained. Business leaders realize this fully. As intelligently and as conscientiously as they can, they are adopting policies and practices that will enable them to serve the public more effectively, more harmoniously, and more profitably.” As a textbook to serve as a guide in this course, Wright discusses the matter in the following wise: The spirit of the people; industry’s new role; re-organization for goodwill; telling the public by means of motion pictures, radio, newspapers, magazines, paid advertising, house organs, pamphlets and booklets, industrial displays, plant visits, employment applicants, contributions, public speeches, the man of the job; your employees as allies; winning the consumer; protecting the stockholder, your friend the competitor, business and the government; and, finally, a chapter devoted "especially for little fellows.” Exhibitors will find much of enlightenment in this book that, surely, is easy to read and quite worth reading. The Latv and Radio "NEW PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF RADIO,” by Louis Nizer. 2 8 pages. Reprinted from the 193 9 Radio Annual. Although all readers of The Exhibitor are not, as a group, particularly interested in those matters of law that have arisen to confront the nation’s judiciary, you are respectfully referred to this discussion by New York’s Louis Nizer, who, in 2 8 carefully written and annotated pages, takes up such matters as these: In a broadcast, intended for local consumption, interstate commerce because the radio waves cross a state line? Is a broadcast defamation slander or libel? Is the broadcasting of news a property right? Does the right of privacy (cf. “The Right of Privacy — A New Branch of Law” in this department) apply to a recording which is broadcast? To followers of The Exhibitor’s Television Department of Better Management the Nizer discussion of radio regulation (and also television and facsimile broadcasting) under the Federal Communications will prove enlightening. ADVANCE SHOTS Brief Glimpses of Features, Shorts to be Reviewed Received too late to be included in this week's Blue Section were the following subjects. These advance shots are given for the record pending the publication of the next Blue Section. BLUE MONTANA SKIES (Republic)— Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, June Storey. 5 6m. Smuggling on a dude ranch gives plot to the interludes between Gene Autry’s six songs. BOY’S REFORMATORY (Monogram) — Frankie Darro, Grant Withers, Frank Coughlan, Jr. 61m. A top-notch, juvenile-delinquency yarn, and Frankie Darro comes out on top in the end. "THE CHALLENGE” (Film Alliance) — Robert Douglas, Frank Birch. 77m. This re-enacts the first successful climbing of the Matterhorn, in the Swiss Alps. RANGLE RIVER (Hoff berg)— Victor Jory, Margaret Dare, Robert Coote. 72m. This Australian equivalent on a U. S. western is a nicely done Zane Grey story which should please the fans. ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Sig Rumann, Richard Barthelmess, Noah Beery, Jr., are seen in the Howard Hawks production for Columbia release. May ), 19)9