Harrison's Reports (1951)

Entered as second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the post office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Yearly Subscription Rates: United States $15.00 U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.50 Canada 16.50 Mexico, Cuba, Spain 16.50 Great Britain 17.50 Australia, New Zealand, India, Europe, Asia .... 17.50 35c a Copy 1270 SIXTH AVENUE New York 20, N. Y. A Motion Picture Reviewing Service Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors Its Editorial Policy: No Problem Too Big for Its Editorial Columns, if It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. Published Weekly by Harrison’s Reports, Inc., Publisher P. S. HARRISON, Editor Established July 1, 1919 Circle 7-4622 A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XXXIII SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1951 No. 25 LOUIS-S A V OLD THEATRE TELECAST HUGE SUCCESS The exclusive theatre telecast of the Joe Louis-Lee Savold fight, which took place last Friday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden after a two-day postponement of the match at the Polo Grounds, is being hailed by the participating theatres and the sports promoter as nothing short of a tremendous success. Because of their inability to clear coaxial cable lines, a number of theatres in four cities were unable to carry the fight, with the result that only nine theatres in six cities — Albany, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Washington and Pittsburgh — participated in the test. According to reports, each of the theatres was sold out hours before fight time, with hundreds of persons turned away, despite the fact that several of the theatres raised their admission prices. In all cases, the audiences were described as highly enthusiastic, cheering, booing, groaning and applauding as if they were at the ringside. The different theatres reported that their normal Friday night grosses were doubled and tripled, but it is doubtful if any theatre made profit on the test because of the high coaxial cable charges, which normally would be pro-rated if more theatres had participated. Some 22,000 persons viewed the fight in the theatres, and it is reported that the International Boxing Club, promoter of the fight, was paid $10,000 by the theatres, which sum was a guarantee against 40 cents per seat. A second exclusive theatre telecast of a major boxing bout will be held on June 27, when Jake LaMotta meets Bob Murphy at the Yankee Stadium. It is hoped that more theatres will be enabled to join in this test, but the exact number has not yet been determined. There is no question that theatre television has received tremendous impetus from the success of the Louis-Savold exclusive telecast, and it will undoubtedly go down in the industry’s history as the start of a new era in theatre programming. After more tests are held and additional theatres join in the experiments, the industry should get a pretty fair idea of theatre television’s possibilities. Meanwhile, its potential shot-in-the-arm effect on the box-office is encouraging. BELOW THE BELT Under the heading, “Fooling the Public is Another Road to Help Kill the Motion Picture Industry,” Ben Marcus, president of the Allied Independent Theatre Owners of Wisconsin, had this to say about a current competitive fight between two drive-in theatres in Kenosha, Wisconsin: “It has come to the attention of Allied Independent Theatre Owners of Wisconsin that on June 8 and 9 the Mid-City Drive-In Theatre of Kenosha, owned and operated by Standard Theatres of Wisconson, played an old picture, entided ‘Task Force,’ with Gary Cooper starring, produced by Warner Brothers, in opposition to the Keno Family Drive-In Theatre, playing first-run Kenosha, on June 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, the picture entitled, ‘You’re in the Navy Now,’ also starring Gary Cooper but produced by 20th Century-Fox. The Keno Family Drive-In Theatre is an independently owned and operated theatre, a member of this organization. The two driveins are in direct competition, located on opposite sides of the city of Kenosha. “Beginning with Thursday, June 7, the Mid-City Drive-In ran ads in the local Kenosha Evening News, advertising ‘Task Force,’ following the advertising campaign and using the mats of 20th Century-Fox’s production, ‘You’re in the Navy Now.’ Throughout their ads that ran June 7, 8 and 9, the Mid-City Drive-In attempted, and succeeded, in convincing the populace of Kenosha that it was playing “You’re in the Navy Now’ first-run before the Keno Drive-In. This organization has no objection to honest competition. That, we believe, improves the industry as a whole. However, in this particular instance, the Keno DriveIn ran teasers for ten days prior to its opening, only to have the Mid-City Drive-In jump in and take advantage of such campaign with the most unscrupulous type of deception this industry will ever see — not only bordering on, but actually infringing on, the copyright of 20th Century-Fox’s picture through deceptive advertising. The Keno Drive-In had been awarded the Fox picture on proper competitive bids and was entitled to the full fruits and benefits of such first-run playing. “In the opinion of the undersigned, this was the most flagrant attempt on the part of the Mid-City Drive-In to deceive the people into believing that the Mid-City Drive-In was playing a first-run Gary Cooper picture before the Keno. It was, further, the most outrageous misrepresentation by an exhibitor to mislead the theatre patrons and caused untold amount of confusion amongst them. This is the most unfair type of competition that can be imagined. This industry is founded primarily on the principle of offering to theatre patrons the best possible entertainment on the highest possible advertising level. In these very trying times we should be striving to improve public relations with the potential theatre-going public rather than destroy them. “This, in my estimation, should be brought to the