Exhibitor's Trade Review (Nov 1925 - Feb 1926)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

EDITORIAL COMMENT "It is nothing for you to know a thing, unless another knows that you know it." Chains Frequently Over -Reach THERE'S one saving feature about chain enterprises, from the standpoint of the independent business that has to meet their competition: Usually their ambition is unlimited. They are ready to undertake anything. And frequently they undertake more than they can deliver. A fair example of this weakness of the chain methods of operation came to light recently in New York in connection with the ambitious effort of a chain of cigar stores to sell radio equipment. These stores entered into an exclusive agency deal with the manufacturer of a well-known radio receiving set and opened numerous radio departments as well as some exclusive radio stores. The set manufacturer, believing that he had turned a good trick, went ahead and made up a good many thousands of sets, goods running into considerable money And nothing much happened. Finally the radio department of the cigar chain gave up and quit and the set manufacturer was glad to turn his made-up stock over to a big department store to sell at half price, — pocketing a big loss. The moral, obviously, is that cigar stores ought not to try to sell radio sets, but that, like most chain enterprises, they will try almost anything once. In the theatre business we find a more or less parallel situation. We have chains of first-run houses that are eminently successful. That means that almost any chain will wager you a sizable bank roll that it can conduct small theatres just as profitably in proportion to the investment. Some of the first-run chains have put money into small houses and are now beginning to wonder* what it is all about. And, meanwhile, the question remains unanswered — Can small-town theatres be run successfully on the chain basis? . At this time the probable answer is Yes and No. In any case where the independently operated small-town theatre is giving satisfaction, where the management is popular, where the manager is known by his first name, where he is one of the stand-by cheer leaders of the community, the incoming chain is going to have a pretty rough time. Even the maximum of lights and gaudy decorations is going to have a hard pull against the fellow who knows his people and is giving them what they want, plus a smile. In the case where the management of the small independent house is cold, literally "independent" and in various respects antagonistic; where the manager looks on the fans of the community as a bunch of boobs, to be treated with no respect and fleeced with shoddy entertainment as often as he can get away with it ; where he isn't on more than speaking terms with his fellow business men and has about as much community standing as a crooked undertaker, conditions are ripe and elegant for the chain crowd and what they can be expected to do to the independent house will make a sad story. So, after all, it's a matter of competition, with the odds fairly well split according to circumstances. If you happen to be an Exhibitor and find yourself facing this problem, just look the ground over carefully and you can come close to writing your own ticket on the outcome. You can be fairly sure that a chain, if it takes the notion, will come in ; but the question after that will be, can it make expenses after it arrives? If not, you may ultimately be the beneficiary, inheriting a better theatre than the one you have, simply because you possess the one real requisite — specific knowledge of the business in your community.