Exhibitors Herald (Jan-Mar 1920)

EXHIBITORS HERALD A STREET IN LONDON RE-BUILT IN NEW YORK 9WIIII]|||||!llllll!lilllll!|]!!iimi!:i:" 'HnMnuUHMMUNMBI .ii."iniimii;m n i* I PROSPERITY GENERAL IN INDUSTRY I 1 I Arthur S. Kane, Who Recently Resigned As President of Realart Pictures Corporation, Reports Trade Conditions Were Never Better flmiiiiiiiiiimiliiiiiiiiimiiiiiiii.iiiiiiiiimiiinilliiuilimiillliniiiliiiii.'i' ii: i: iiiiiiiniiin'!iii'ii:iii imipiini m On the left is shown a force of carpenters at work at the Fifty-fifth street studio of Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, reproducing a street in the poor section of London in 1860. It is for a scene in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The finished product is shown on the right. bowled me over with a flat statement that he appealed to 80 per cent of the people of his town who were old enough to go to amusements. Think of it! Practically the entire population as possible patrons! Of course this record is very high, higher than it would be in cities where there are other amusements. Hut it is easy to see from this man's careful analysis of his local conditions that the motion picture theatre in a small town is an institution. He told me further that he scored practically 100 per cent between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three. "Now that the magnificent Capitol theatre of 5,000 seats in New York is a reality and playing to business, the old cry of 'Make it small and hold 'em out' must be stilled. They seem never to get too big to 'hold 'em out.' Why. in the first picture show opened in New York City they put in extra large chairs and left lots of space between them so as not to have too many seats! They were afraid there would be so little business the place would look empty. It was only a few weeks till they yanked those seats out, put in smaller ones and added many rows. The public was there ahead of them, you see. And so it has been from that day to this. The public taste has developed faster than it could be catered to. "It is nothing for a leading downtown theatre of anything like adequate seating capacity in any large city of the country to net several thousand dollars profit each week. In exceptional cases they take five, six or seven thousand dollars profit weekly above expenses and overhead." Returning from the West after a three weeks' pilgrimage, Arthur S. Kane, who on November 29 resigned the presidency of Realart Pictures Corporation, brought with him stories of universal prosperity in the motion picture industry. Finds Prosperity Everywhere "Abounding prosperity has overtaken business in every section which I have visited," he declared. "Chicago is great. Los Angeles is outstripping the country in the boom which has struck it. Real estate is on the jump there and they are claiming a population of 700,000. The whole Los Angeles territory as well as those surrounding San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Spokane never were so good. "Mammoth building enterprises are on foot in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco and it will not be long until the other cities will follow suit. Large Theatres Are Needed "This leads me to an observation which applies and not particularly to the Pacific coast, but to every large city in this country. I have never yet seen a theatre too large in any of the great cities of the United States. To me this seems an astounding fact. However, it is matched by the assertion that there are not in any of the foremost communities of the country too many houses. In other words, there are not too many seats anywhere. Of course I refer to downtown conditions. " 'Every large city in the country is under-theatred.' "This astute student of exhibiting and producing activities was asked if he did not believe there was danger of building too many houses. " 'Not of the right kind and in the right places,' he answered. 'By the right kind I mean large theatres, and the right places are those where there is sufficient population to support such entrprises.' "In the case of downtown in the large cities it is practically impossible for any man to say that there are enough theatres. The plain fact is that we, in this business, have never yet caught up to the public. There has not been an important and worthy development in all the history of the industry when the public was not found waiting there ahead of time. It is, rather, for exhibitors and producers to try to keep abreast of the demands of the amusement going public. The tremendous expansion of the motion picture public, which nowadays is practically synonymous with the amusement public, is well illustrated by facts given me in San Francisco by a well-known operator in a rather small town. To get the full benefit of his remarks one should know that twenty-five years ago we calculated the theatreattending public at about 10 per cent of the population in any city. Stock companies in those days were marvelously popular. They got about everybody in town that wanted to go to a show. If in a week's show of a popular success an established company of stock favorites in a city of 400,000 inhabitants played to 20,000 persons it was phenomenal business. So you can see the estimate of 10 per cent for all regular or even casual attendants at the various theatres could not have been far out of line. Appeals to 80 Per Cent "When motion pictures entered the field the possible play jumped at once to 20 per cent. In a few years it had risen to possibly 35 per cent. "My friend of the small town theatre 80 Star of "The Strongest" To Make New Fox Special Renee Andoree, leading woman in the Fox production of "The Strongest," Premier Georges Clemenceau's only literary work, has been engaged to make a special production for the Fox schedule. The picturization of the story by the famous French statesman was recently completed under the direction of R. A. Walsh.