First National News (April 15, 1928)

4 First National P a t h e News Issued Semi-Monthly HOT STUFF They Make Summer Velvet Through Picking Up Winter Hits, and Boy IT'S THERE WM. O'NEILL FEORA MARASCO An Interview with WILLIAM O'NEILL, President, and FEORA MARASCO, Secy.-Treas., Brewster Theatre Corp., Brewster, N. Y. O'NEILL and Marasco have discovered that there is a big demand for big specials that have played Broadway at $2.20 top, among the summer colonists who intended to see them in the city but never got around to doing it. They make a profit in the summer by looking up the pictures the summer vacationists overlooked in the winter. Every summer settler who comes within the radius served by the theatre is canvassed upon arrival. Among other question, they are asked what pictures they would like to see at the Cameo during the summer evenings. The replies are carefully filed. When a sufficient demand is shown for any particular picture, it is booked and the people who asked for it are advised of its play date. How this system for summer profits originated and some of its curious twists form a story of unusual showmanship slants. First — meet the factors involved. There's Dad O'Neill, genial septogenarian who is known to film salesmen as the "Roxy" of Brewster. He furnishes the guiding power for the Cameo Theatre from his 50 years experience in the show game. There's Feora Marasco, whom Dad has trained as his partner for the past 15 years, the active executive who keeps the wheels running. There's Brewster, a calm community of 1500 modestly-incomed people, dependent in large measure upon the railroad for its upsand-downs bounded, from a competitive theatrical standpoint, by Danbury ten miles east, by Lake Mahopac ten miles southwest and Mt. Kisco, fifteen miles south. There's Brewster's only theatre, the Cameo, an attractive 425 seater. It shows twice nightly on week days for which it gets 35 cents top. Saturdays there are five acts of vaudeville and a matinee added for which the night prices are 60 cents. 75c High Mark Occasionally, when a big special like "The Sea Hawk" comes along, a 75 cent price is charged. Getting those admissions out of a town situated as Brewster is, is a feat in itself; but they do it despite obstacles. The town is small, the surrounding country is undeveloped and sparsely populated, except for one thing — The summer colonists have swarmed into the surrounding lake regions in great numbers. As a result the Cameo, unlike most theatres, finds summertime the time when it shows a difference between a living struggle and a fair profit on its investment. "When we got the idea of canvassing the summer colonists we got some surprising results," Showman O'Neill volunteered. "We found that many of them had overlooked the big pictures shown on Broadway during the winter. They had always wanted to see them but something had come up at the last moment to stop them." "So we book the big ones they missed at home and tell them we've booked them," Business Manager Marasco added. Broadway "Rep" Counts "We found that those are the pictures they want to see because they've heard some one else talk about them. We got quite a kick out of having New Yorkers come to Brewster to see the big pictures; but we've realized what an opportunity it is for us," Dad O'Neill commented. "We find that it pays us to see what the summer colony wants to see," Marasco summed up. "A Broadway run means a lot to the fans here" O'Neill concluded "We've got the 'Patent Leather Kid' booked for a run at advance prices; and we know now it's going over just because the folks are aware that in ran 16 weeks on Broadway at $2.20 top.'' No "Lay-offs" Here "And don't forget, the summer colonists aren't worrying over how many people the railroad may lay off next week," Mr. Marasco added significantly. They've gone to unusual steps, these two, to visualize an opportunity for additional patronage. Now that they've found it they're going to unusual steps to keep it. With every change of bills a man and a machine make the rounds of the summer colonies posting new window cards. On occasion the advertising bill has been known to run as high as $283 one one attraction. Small? For a 425 seat theatre it's a good percentage per seat, even when allowance is made for the inclusion of Mt. Kisco and Danbury papers to cover a radius of about 15 mlies in every direction. ANOTHER BIG HIT After commenting that "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is not one of the usual jazz or gangster story pictures, Cary Gratz, in Motion Pictures Today, adds: "it will nevertheless be deeply enjoyed and appreciated for exquisite photography and settings, flawless acting and a tremendously interesting and generally intelligent motion picture." A PASS FOR PEP TO PEP UP THOSE WHO PASS Forty passes were given for Pep window tie-ups during the run of "A Texas Steer" by H. E. Yost of the Broadway Theatre, Santa Ana, Calif. A sample of co-operation from the Kellogg Company for exhibitors on this picture.