Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

Without Enthusittsm— Show Business Is No Business The author of the following is a V.I. P. of exhibition, one of the foremost theatremen in the country, a keen student of his industry whose thinkmanship we regard as impeccable. He originally expressed, in general terms, the opinions contained below during a personal conversation with the Publisher of Film BULLETIN, and we asked him to put them down on paper for our Viewpoints page. His name is omitted at his request, for obvious reasons. — M. W. I am flattered that you considered some of the thoughts I voiced during our talk yesterday worthy of space in your publication; they came off the top of my head, and frankly it surprised me when you suggested that I put them down on paper. I trust the views in cold print will not disappoint you or your readers. While it appears, on the surface, that movie business has undergone radical changes in the past dozen years or so since television arrived to share our audience, most things really remain constant. Production costs have spiralled to dizzy heights, but the dollar is a lot cheaper than it was 30 years ago. Many theatres have been converted into food stores or bowling alleys, but new ones have risen to accommodate the population explosion in the suburbs. And, of course, thousands of drive-ins are bringing films to families and lovers. So, the total number of theatres varies but little from what it was 20 years ago. Some analysts of our business regard the spectacle (blockbuster, they now call it) as a recent development, an out-size answer to the small TV screen, but D. W. Griffith, King Vidor and Cecil B. DeMille were turning out "blockbusters" in the silent era when the screen was postage stamp size. The motion picture is still basically a medium of scope (although it lends itself to intimacy, too), and neither television nor the stage can approach it in that respect. The bigger screen of today is a mere technical improvement that adds to the advantage the 35-foot movie theatre screen has over the 20-inch television screen in sheer visual impact. Even the popular subject of sex has not changed a great deal over the years. Some of today's films are a bit bolder, true, and the Will Hays version of the wages of sin no longer prevails in the scripts. But movie sex symbols date back to the days of Theda Bara. Nothing really has changed much in our business, except one thing. That is the spirit of the industry, the flamboyant flair with which it once razzle-dazzled the public and made everyone in the world believe there was no business like movie business. It was a spirit that permeated the whole realm of our industry because it came from within; the film producer relayed it to the distributor, who passed it along to the exhibitor, and all of us oozed it out over the people who bought the tickets. It was enthusiasm, spelled out in terms of showmanship. What has happened to that enthusiasm? A new attitude has taken hold in the film branch: the picture is what matters; all else is incidental. I couldn't disagree more. BULLETIN Film BULLETIN: Motion Picture Trade Paper published every other Monday by Wax Publications, Inc. Mo Wax, Editor and Publisher. PUBLICATION-EDITORIAL OFFICES: 123? Vine Street, Philadelphia 7, Pa., LOcust 8-0950, 0951. Associate Editor; Leonard Associate Editor; Helen PerManager; Norman Klinger, Business Manager; Robert Heath, Circulation Manager. BUSINESS OFFICE 550 Fifth Avenue, New York, 34, N. Y., Circle 5-0124; John Ano, N. Y. Editorial Representative. Subscription Rates: ONE YEAR, $3.00 in the U. S.: $5.00 $4.00; Europe, $5.00. TWO YEARS, $5 00 in the U. S.; Canada, Europe, $9.00 Philip R. Ward. Coulter, New York rone, Publication Film companies invest $2 million in a production, a brand-new product, then practice the most niggardly economy in presenting it to exhibition. The sales force in most branch offices is so sadly under-staffed that the theatreman often has to take the initiative in buying the picture, if he wants it — a situation that exists in no other industry I know of. The harried salesmen and branch manager, under home office pressure to obtain top terms for almost every film (with the silly tradition of making adjustments after the engagement), have little time to think of sparking enthusiasm in the product. The field promotion men in most areas have so wide a field to cover that they can render little more than token service to theatres playing the picture. How can one expect them to provide enthusiasm. An important source of my own enthusiasm for films and future business prospects has always been the advertising in the trade press. I regularly read three publications, a daily, "The Exhibitor" and your "Film Bulletin". Over the past few years, and particularly in recent months, I have noted the dwindling amount of advertising appearing in the papers. Some issues have appeared without a single page of advertising. I'm sure this is of grave concern to you and your fellow publishers, but let me say that it gives a theatreman pause as well. It strikes me that the lack of advertising in trade papers implies an attitude on the part of the film companies that they can ride the present sellers' market without fuel to excite the theatreman's enthusiasm. Don't they realize that the average movie won't go any where without being either pushed or pulled? Some film men seem to have forgotten the rudiments of show business. Without enthusiasm . show business is no business. Film BULLETIN October 14, 1943 Page 5