Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

The Vieu frw OuUide Mmmmmmmmaam^*^ by ROLAND PENDARIS — — — ■■■ — Fun for Waiting Customers We are in recepit of a gracious note from A. Fuller Sams, Jr., president of the Statesville Theatre Corporation of Statesville, North Carolina inviting suggestions from this column about ways of entertaining customers while they are waiting to get into the theatre. With thanks to Mr. Sams for his kind opinion of our columnar efforts, let us proceed to the question. Waiting in line is nobody's idea of bliss. At best, up to now, it has been a necessary evil. But it can be something better. The column which caught Mr. Sams' particular attention mentioned as possible time-killing attractions between shows such items as rear-view projectors or television or tic-tac-toe pads and so forth. Obviously what is practical for some theatres, in terms of budgets, physical facilities, type of patronage and the like may not be practical for other showplaces. Therefore, we preface the list that follows with a small caution. Don't expect every suggestion to be applicable to your own situation. If you get two or three worthwhile ideas out of the whole batch you are ahead of the game — and so are we. Now as to specifics: First, for theatres where the waiting line is outside rather than in the lobby we suggest the following. Bean counting contest: place bowl of beans on tray or wheeled cart, and walk along line inviting guesses from standees as to number of beans in bowl. Two couples whose guesses come closest fifteen minutes after start of contest are admitted free to theatre. (Purpose of the fifteen minute stipulation is to eliminate couples who have gotten into the theatre in the meantime.) Games can be conducted every fifteen minutes, as long as the line holds out. Usher or attendant writes number each contestant chooses on a distinctive slip of paper, keeping carbon. You can specify that only round numbers can be used to make selections of winners easier. For example, if you have 60 numbers entered by patrons and the exact count of the beans is 2760, you can insist that all guesses end in 0 to make the arithmetic easier. You can invite a local organization to supply volunteers to conduct the game, if you don't have personnel of your own, with the organization collecting from you an amount equal to the cost of the tickets given away (i.e., if 12 free admissions are won in the course of the evening the organization gets the price of 12 admissions). Through this device you may find the organization urging its members to go to the movies. Lucky number drawing: in effect this is a simpler version of the count-the-beans suggestion. Here you simply have the customers draw a lucky number, out of a hat. The simplest way to sell your regular numbered admissions tickets to the patrons, keeping a record of the first ticket and last ticket sold so as to know within what range the winning ticket will fall. Use one set of three-digit hat checks, obtainable from stationery stores. When each winning three-digit check is drawn from the hat, all ticket holders with the winning final three numbers win refund of their ticket purchase and first place on line. The number of drawings per night and the number of tickets to be drawn each time would be determined by the customer traffic. Good-will certificates: Printed and rubber-stamp dated goodwill coupons with a modest premium value can be distributed to standees. Each certificate might be good for a reduction of, say, 50 toward the purchase of an admissions ticket for a future performance, as a token of theatre's appreciation of the customer's patience. Only one coupon for any one date would be redeemable in ticket purchase. That is, someone who came in with certificates for November 8, 17 and 25 would get 50 rebate for each, or a total of 150, but someone who submitted 3 November 8 coupons could only get one 50 credit. In order to be valid, each coupon would have to either be stamped at the time the standee entered the theatre or to be presented later at the box office with an accompanying ticket stub of the same date. Fashion display: Where weather permits and cooperation of local merchants is forthcoming, fashion displays can be presented as a standees' attraction. Restaurants have found these to be pleasing events. They might prove the same for the theatre. The above are only a few of many possibilities for outside the theatre and we must repeat that their use depends on both your facilities and your type of clientele. But every one of them has a precedent in some other consumer business. Now we move inside, to those poor customers who got past the front doors only to find themselves stacked up like sardines. One of the main problems of indoor standing and waiting is that unless you have a lobby the size of the Radio City Music Hall's you do not have an orderly line, but rather something more like a mob scene. We approach the care of the indoor standee on the assumption that he just barely has room to stand — so no fashion parades, no window displays nothing that he has to get to or that has to get to him after he joins the mob. Good-will certificates can be presented as the folk enter the theatre, as soon as you know they are going to have to wait inside. Our other suggestions also involve doing something as the patrons enter the lobby, not after they are in. If you have sufficient light for reading, there are a number of items you might distribute. Various premium supply companies maintain stocks of puzzle cards or football or baseball trading cards, for example. (Again your type of clientele would determine your type of premium card.) If your theatre publishes a news sheet about coming attractions, this might be distributed. Insurance companies might be willing to give you a stock of first aid cards. Your floor may end up littered with discarded copies, and first aid cards may not be terribly exciting, but they are something. Bear in mind too that you might be able to prepare a game card of your own for passing the time. As a matter of fact, if enough of our readers express interest, we'll do a piece about a game card which we ourselves have used successfully through the years. (A game card, as we use the term, is a card which can be used to play games; for instance a rectangular card with the numbers 1, 2, 3 or 4 can be used in an odd-oreven matching contest with someone holding a similar card.) A television set mounted high on a wall so that most of the standees can see it, even if they're toward the back, can be a time passer for them. If you can set a few loudspeakers up and borrow some oldtime records, you can regale the lobby crowd with a "guess who" evening of fun until they get in to see the picture. Your local radio station may even be willing to do the whole thing for you on tape, in return for cross-plugging on your screen. The idea is to play all or a portion of a record, then asked the audience to guess who made the record. Pause for 1 5 seconds or so to let the patrons discuss it among themselves, then give the correct answer and go on to the next record. If you care to sacrifice a small amount of lobby space, you can have new product demonstrations by local merchants as an extra added attraction. No charge to the merchant for the space or the audience — no charge to you for his show. You can use that same bit of space for an art show by the local high school (pictures not hanging, but displayed for half a minute each on a single easel, properly lit) or a woodcarver at work, just to give two varied possibilities. No doubt many readers have their own pet ideas on the subject. These are some of ours. Over to you. Page 10 Film BULLETIN October 14, 1943