Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1957)

tewpoifits (Continued from Page 5) your industry becomes just so much hogwash. I didn't stop going out to a movie because of poor pictures; there were enough good ones around. rNor did the price of a movie ticket ever keep me from seeing a show I wanted to see. 'I never kicked at paying a parking fee, even though it costs over a dollar in town. ' We have no baby-sitter problem. ' Neither of us are night ball fans — half a dozen games a season was our limit. rAnd we aren't of the nightclub set. The standard TV shows are no better than before. As a matter of fact, when some of our favorite "steadies" went off the air we cut down our viewing of regular television stuff pretty sharply. There were no more nor less special super-duper TV "spectaculars'' that might keep us at home. If none of these were responsible, you might ask, why did we stop seeing movies ? The answer is, we DIDN'T! On the contrary, we began to see more movies than ever before. But not in the movie theatre. At home. Cozy and snug, with slippers and cigarettes and a cool drink and a soft arm chair and the lights down low. And some of the best pictures ever made by the biggest studios in Hollywood with our favorite stars. It didn't matter that they were made five, ten, twenty years ago. They're still wonderful entertainment, often better than anything playing in downtown theatres. And lately they have been coming on at a decent hour so that we didn't have to stay up half the night to see the fadeout. Until a year ago or so, we rarely watched a movie on TV. Those British films were so unintelligible you needed subtitles to make out the dialogue. The Westerns were cut out of a pattern that was frayed when Tom Mix was riding the plains? The others were minor pictures from the minor studios. The difference now is that we are getting movies we had paid — and would still pay — money to see. Only we're getting them for free. Why, then, in the name of good sense, should I go out, and pay a couple of bucks for the privilege, when I can get exactly the same type of entertainment at home for nothing? It's as simple as that. But there's something more to it than plain logic. It came out in a discussion I had with my unhappy exhibitor friend who argued that looking at some of these good old movies should sharpen my appetite for going out to see the good new ones. I told him that we discovered (both my wife and I) that a curious by-product had been developed from this steady diet of good, though old, movies — we were getting more than our fill of movie entertainment. Something similar once happened when I was managing a resort hotel dining room one summer where the steak was the talk of the Catskills. I loved steak and, glory hallelujah, it was mine, free, to have whenever I liked. For the first three weeks, I gorged myself on it every evening. By midsummer, I couldn't stand the sight of a steak. It was the same delicious dish and the new guests still raved about it, but to me it was spinach. I had just had too much of a good thing. That, I'm afraid, is what has happened to me and to millions of others who used to go out to the movies and are now getting nightly servings of the same quality movie entertainment at home for nothing. I have seen it among my friends who used to join us in our weekly trips to the movie theatre and have become so stuffed with the steady stream of movies in their living rooms that they don't even think of going out to a movie anymore. Recently I saw some stories in your industry papers about an advertising scheme for new pictures that promised the picture would not be shown on TV for five years. If they think that's going to cure the problem, I think they're in for a sad disappointment. I can wait, so long as the good old ones are still around in my living room. The only time I'll be going back to the movr? theatre on anything like a regular basis is when NO movies are being show n on television. Of course, I don't mean what you call the "quickies" or the foreign pictures or those that are made specially for TV showings — they're all inferior. But the famous old pictures, regardless of age, are going to keep me at home. And let me add this ... it makes me sorry — not just for you people in the movie business — but for myself, too. My wife and I both feel that we are getting sluggish sitting around at home too much. We used to enjoy the excitement of going out to a movie show with another couple. We resent the small screen on which we see the movies now. And, to tell the truth, we often remark on our yearning for the "good old days" when we went out more. Yes, we're getting older, but I honestly don't think that is the reason for our new habits. It's simply that your industry is providing the temptation to keep us at home by showing your best films on TV. If you movie people aren't committing suicide, what would you call it? Sincerely, EX-MOVIEGOER This is your industry slogan. We think it is an effective businessbuilding device because it lays its full stress on the psychological value of "going out" to the movie theatre. Use it in every phase of your advertising. Page 16 Film BULLETIN November II, 1957