The Film Daily (1926)

10 DAILY Wednesday, August 4, 1926 "Short" Theater (Continued from I' aye 1) to provide a program of two hour? of short subjects divided into units each of about one-half hour duration. Under the plan, the show would open on Monday with Unit A, Unit B on Tuesday, Unit C on Wednesday and Unit D on Thursday, with a full lobby schedule of what is due on the program for each day. On entering, each customer would receive a ticket with the time stamped on it, by a clock such as is in use in many billiard halls. I assume a minimum charge of ten cents for a half hour, allowing five minute? leeway, or 35 minutes time to come out and pay ten cents. Over 35 and up to 65 minutes, the charge would be 20 cents; for three unit;^ 30 cents and, for the full show, 35 cents. It may be possible that the prices could be set at 10, 15 and 25 cents. By having a show in half hour units, rotating by days, it would be possible for any person having a fixed lunch hour to have lunch at :> soda fountain and have a half hour for pictures each day, going four days to see one whole short subject show My conception of material for such' a show would include practically all the news reels which do not duplicate the same events. There is a wealth of comedy in one and two reels, also films such as the Fox Varieties, prize fight records, views of the Vatican, the Polar flights, animated cartoons, fashion reels, etc.— Palmer Smith, motion picture critic "Evening World." Proper Test Would Demonstrate Value The question of theaters confining themselves exclusively to short subjects has come up for discussion in short su1)ject circles again and again for several years past, and from time to time various theaters in various sections of the country have tried it and many of them with encouraging success, but in nearh* every instance they soon have run out of enough short subjects of the better kind to establish such a policy permanently. Naturally, the feature theaters nowexistent have contracts for such short sui)jects as they require and in most instances they have the best short subjects under contract, thus I very much doubt if a strictly short subject policy ever has had a real proper test. I never have had any doubt thai a short subject theater managed with the same c;ire as any other high-class theater and given a selection of the l)est short subjects available on the present market would be a complete success. Furthermore, if there were a great number Of such theaters the shorl subject producers would be encouraged to make better short subject? and possibly short subjects better suited to an all short subject program than they now make, which Recognition for Short Subjects GREAT interest is manifest throughout the industry in the experiment being conducted at Indianapolis by Frank J. Rembusch in operating the Band Box as an exclusive short subject theater. In recording the innovation, THE FILM DAIi,Y editorially praised Mr. Rembusch for his courage and foresight, stressing his confidence in the short subject which has persuaded him to carry on, evenj though the Band Box to date has been a losing proposition. Short subjects have made tremendous strides during the last year in their campaign for proper recognition. Showmen at last^ are beginning to realize the pulling power of short subjects, giving them prominence in advertising. Although much progress in this direction has been made, short subjects are receiving far less recognition than is their due, with the short subject theater being looked to as the vehicle on which the short subject may ride to the position of influence and affluence which is its due. That the short subject theater is a logical and imminent development in motion picture presentation is the consensus of opinion of the industry's leaders, whose views are recorded on this page. would make the short subject theater an even greater success. W'ith the demand as it now exists in the market obviously tlie sliort subject manulacturei's are centering tlieir etforts on making pictures that will tit in with feature attractions, hence they are not ideally designed to fit an all short subject policy, yet f do believe they are sufficiently adaptable to such a policy in many localities, and a sufficient beginning in those localities would, no doubt, very promptly bring about the desired product. In the meantime, such theaters should not try to run as long a show as the regular feature house, nor should he attempt to charge as high an admission price. There seenis to be an opinion prevalent that the public is interested only in theaters charging liigh admission prices, which I never have believed is true. There are, no doubt, milhons of people who would be satisfied with a strictly motion picture entertainment if it Oould be had at an admission price somewhat lower than those now prevailing at our leading theaters. — Elmer R. Pearson, vicepresident and general manager, Pathe Exchange. Short Subject House Should Make Profit In large cities, on lanes of heavy traffic, theaters showing programs made up entirely of short subjects should be altogether successful. The greatest charm of motion pictures is their variety, and the shorts of course offer the greatest sort of variety and in the briefest time. The time element is the controlling factor with theaters of that sort. The patron often thinks a lot more of the time he is about to invest in entertainment than the money he ia about to invest. Men between business errands downtown, and women on shopping expeditions, with an hour or so to spare, should find the all-short motion picture theater an attractive place for relaxation and diversion, and should be numerou.q enough in every large city to make such houses paying propositions. Programs of this short, attractively presented, should draw the patronage of many people who arc not ordinarily picture goers and educato them to the entertainment value of films. Programs should 'be well-halanccd with short subjects of diversified nature, but they should always include plenty of the modern sort of fastmoving, clean comedy, with the laughs depending upon the situations and the cleverness of the players, rather than the old slapstick stuff.— Colvin W. Brown, F. B. O., vicepresident in charge of distribution Why Not Short Subject Houses? Quite a lot of discussion is now going on, in the trade and newspapers, regarding the proposed establishment of motion picture thea-? ters exclusively for short subject programs. The only thing not understandable is why there should bo any question as to the success of such ventures. Universal has been demonstrating the value of Short Subject shows for the past year, in connection with thg complete service plan, and it is only a short step from the weekly shorti sul)ject show to the day in and day out short subject program. When Carl Laemmle inaugurated the complete service idea more than a year ago, one of the outstanding features of the plan was the opening oS the way for exhibitors to give a special short subject show once a week The complete Universal service av eraged about 17 reels weekly, which hundreds of exhibitors divided into two programs, one consisting of the feature release of the week, together with a one or two reel comedy, and the other made up, entirely of short subjects. As the product was supplied under a fiat weekly rental for those exhibitors who signed the complete service contract, hundreds of exhibitors running one night a week, seized this opportunity to open up an additional night without increased film rental cost. Almost as m.iiiy, running two nights a week, added a third night, and so on up to the unusual number of weekly change houses signed uj) under this plan, who seized upon tlie liberal aspects of the service to add special matinees, noon hour and supper hour short subject shows to their regular schedule These exhibitors have proved the value of a short subject program as a drawing card. TluTeforc it only remains to consider the individual case in talking of special short subject houses. In the first place, the greatest appeal of a show made up on shorts, is for the man or woman who has from a half-hour to an hour to spend in the theater. It is from this class that such a theater will draw the bulk of its I'atronage, even though there undoulitedly is a regular clientele which will prefer a program of one and two-reelers to a feature program. The short subject theater will be cspe cially successful in the down-town sections of the larger cities, where there are always thousands of persons with from thirty to forty minutes on their hands, waiting for trains, waiting between appointments, relax ing during the noon hour or around supper time. For instance, in the big St. Louis railroad terminal, there is a theater which is highly successful becaiise hundreds of people waiting for trains find it more to their liking to be entertained by motion pictures than to sit around in the waiting room, being stepped on and stumbled over. There is a theater on Park Row, New York City, not far from the big newspaper offices. Almost every newspaper man in New York has relaxed from the grind of modern journalism in that house. Many of them are regulars there — reporters and editors alike. In fact, that theater is one of the places where reporters are "rounded up" when a big story breaks. The exhibitors has found that he has a highly critical clientele. Good short subjects are especially well liked because many of the patrons only liave a half-hour or so to stay. Simdarly, a short subjects theater on Broadway should be a huge success, because wherever there are crowds of people, whether it be on Broadway or Main Street, there always will be found a definite percentage of them who have a half-hour or so they don't know what to do with, and who would welcome an opportunity to go into a short subject house and see a good comedy, or a snappy western drama rather than to find themselves line up for Reels 3 and 4 of a feature, for their half-hour. In the larger cities, it may be a good idea to make the price of admission to a short subjects theater so reasonable that the halfliour man will feel he is getting his money's worth. The smaller the town or the more localized the community the more the exhibitor of a short subject house will have to appeal to regular amusement seekers during the regular amusement hours. His prices necessarily will have to be on a higher scale than the city man who plays principally to transients. — Julius Singer, Universal short subjects sales manager. Rembusch House Signal Development Frank Rembusch's enterprise in Indianapolis is a signal development in the exhibition field. The idea which he is executing is one which has been looked upon with growing concern and interest by many exhibitors, but it has apparently been left to Rembusch to first adventure in this, as yet, unexplored field. His enterprise is worthy of the interest and confidence of the entire industry. — Fred V. Greene, Jr., Sales Manager, Red Seal Pictures, Inc. Similar House Seen in Every Community Frank Rembusch's theater devoted exclusively to the presentation of short subject films, is of great interest to all concerned in the development of this heretofore neglected part of the industry. There is no reason why a house presenting one and two reel films only should not be successful and eminently so. In every large city there are thousands of transientsi who, while waiting to make a train or between the intervals of shopping, would appreciate a house where they could drop in for a half hour and see a variety of short films without the necessity of waiting through the feature. I believe the short subject theater, to be successful, must be a small capacity house with a nominal admission price and spotted in the proper location. There is room for one of these in every city and the example set by Mr. Rembusch should be followed by exhibitors in other portions of the country. The permanency of this specialized type of theater is insured by the developments during the past year in the production of one and two reel films. Taking our own organization as an ex