Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

32 EXHIBITORS HERALD February 21, 1925 C. M. McCoskey, a Showman All the Way Through Third of the Sketches Relating J. M. Loughborough’ s Impressions of the American Theatre Owner By J. M. LOUGHBOROUGH UNIONTOWN, PA., February 10. — Ever meet a man you seemed to warm up to right away, and who seemed to warm up to you? No fussy-business about him. No up-stage airs. No office boys or secretaries outside his office, waiting to challenge you like sentries and give you the impression that you are trying to enter the enemy’s camp. Just a plain, simple man. You walk up to him and say, “How are you?’’ He smiles, replies, “Pretty well,” and stretches out his hand in token of a genuine welcome. SUCH a man is C. M. McCoskey, manager of the Penn State Amusement Company, one of the most successful and bestliked exhibitors in the Keystone State. Uniontown is his home office, and he there controls three big theatres, the Penn State, the State and the Imp. Like Ben Franklin and Horace Greeley did in the newspaper business, McCoskey grew up in the show business. He is a showman all the way through — not the type that talks loud about himself and wears flashy clothes and big diamonds, but the kind of man who sits behind the scenes quietly and works hard and says little. He started his career in Buffalo, N. Y., with nothing but good health, a common schooling and ambition. Said career consisted in selling newspapers. Next he drifted to New York City and entered the show business at one of its fountain heads — Koster & Beal’s. He did everything there from shifting scenery to selling tickets at the box office. He also was a press agent, but that rare article of those days was then unharnessed and unnamed. McCoskey made good in the show business right from the start. He did what a lot of other early showmen didn’t do. He saved his money. When any banking was required he didn’t have to go out and look for an “angel.” He financed his own ventures and prospered — that is, most times he prospered and sometimes he starved. ^ ^ Then there loomed up in the universe of the show business a new planet. The stars smiled at it pityingly. Managers of the first constellation laughed scornfully. The planet was the motion picture industry. Showmen in general said it was not a planet but was a comet which would soon fade away with its shadow of light. But McCoskey was one showman who did not agree with the others of his calling. He saw a great future for motion pictures. He went back to his home city, Buffalo, and opened a picture house. It was a small place and Owner McCoskey oftimes ran his own projection machine. When he wanted a good one-reel “feature” he would go down to the branch exchange, take it off the shelf in the film room, leave his “1. O. U,” card, return a couple of days later and pay w'hat he considered a fair percentage of his profits. There were no contracts then. The exhibitor who had nerve enough to piit his name “on the dotted line” didn’t exist. Exhibitors of that time were springing up in the darkness like cellar mushrooms and fading away with the dawning of day. In all of those times of projection troubles, of audiences that snickered when they were supposed to weep, of rent bills falling due with only a few dollars in the box office, McCoskey held his own. How' he did it he says he doesn’t know. Perhaps it was because he is a simple man who shoulders burdens uncomplainingly. Not only did he hold his own, but he made money. J C. M. M’COSKEY of the Penn State Amusement Company. “I applied the higher mathematics of the show business,” he said in telling of his first picture house. “In doing that I did not look for a fourth dimension. Three rules I applied as follows; “(1) To get as good a picture as possible ; “(2) To let the public know I had it; “(3) To watch my house expenditures. “The profits and losses always took care of themselves, with the latter having the short end of it.” Things were pretty wild in the picture business in those times. Projection machines were being sold on the installment plan, two or three times to each machine ; exhibitors were looming up strenuously and fading away howlingly. Being a man who enjoyed an atmosphere of serenity, Mr. McCoskey decided to change his base of operations to Pennsylvania. Fifteen years ago he came to Uniontown, where he bought the Imp theatre. He prospered amazingly. The town marshal, instead of feeling in his inside coat pocket when he met Exhibitor McCoskey, would smile warmly and ask for “tickets to the blamed good show you are having.” Even the local clerks, street car drivers, etc., would greet Exhibitor McCoskey with a smile, an unusual tribute when it is remembered that the pioneer picture showmen were looked upon as being fit candidates for the psychopathic ward. * * As McCoskey made money he promptly sank it back into the picture show business. He had complete faith in the new industrjc Twelve years ago he organized the Penn State Amusement Company, buying real estate and building the Penn theatre. Next he bought another big tract of land in the heart of Uniontown and built the State theatre. During most of this time he had strong opposition. When he first went to Uniontown six houses were lined up against him. They all faded away. “Didn’t you have a big fight on your hands ?” he was asked. “No, I don’t believe in fighting,” he replied. “Fighting is out of date. It belongs to the era of the Cave Man.” “Then how did you win out?” was the next question. “By applying the methods of showmanship,” he said. “And what do you call ‘the methods of showmanship’?” he was asked. Many definitions have been offered. Let’s hear yours.” “Showmanship in motion pictures,” said McCoskey, “consists of advertising of the right sort, of picking good pictures with a powerful audience appeal ; of not running shows in a song-song, every-day way; of taking advantage of local conditions; of attending strictly to the theatre without becoming engaged in outside enterprises. * * * “No man can serve two masters, particularly in the show business, where continuous work is required. Our policy is to use prologues only for long runs, to emphasize the music, offering the best to be had. We have a man employed expressly to look over pictures, check up on the cue sheets sent in by the distributing companies, and to compile a cue sheet which is adapted to our audiences. We localize our shows in every way possible. “On Fridays and Saturdays we run slides for the churches, announcing their Sunday services. In return the churches always co-operate with me in every way possible. “When a picture demands big exploitation we go the limit. We have facilities for this at our disposal. In our exploitation we carefully avoid misleading the public. We seek to arouse the interest of prospective patrons, to draw them to our houses; but we do not have them go away feeling that they have not seen just what we told them they would see.” And then McCoskey, the showman of simplicity and strength, held out his hand with a hearty: “Goodbye. Drop around any time. Always glad to see callers.” To Hit Theatre Dancing (Special to Exhibitors Herald) INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Feb. 10.— Theatres here which operate dance halls in connection with their show for the attraction of patrons will meet an obstacle soon, it is thought, as the result of an effort that is being made by Rev. F. A. Hayward, city executive of the Federated Baptist Churches, and Rev. Paul Judson Morris, of the Emerson Avenue Baptist Church. They are studying conditions preparatory to presenting a bill before the city counsel to be made into an ordinance prohibiting this kind of an attraction. Christie Office Opens (Special to Exhibitors Herald) NEW YORK, Feb. 10.— The new office of the Christie company has been opened as distribution headquarters, with Carroll S. Trowbridge as general representative, at 2 West 45th Street. Charles H. Christie, vice-president and general manager, is making his headquarters there for a few weeks, but will return to the studio in Holl5rwood during this month, where a large program of A1 Christie features is under way.