Harrison's Reports (1954)

84 HARRISON’S REPORTS May 22, 1954 exhibitors agree on the desirability of showing CinemaScope pictures in anamorphic form. The trend, in other words, is to modernize and to exploit the “new look” in motion picture entertainment. The exhibitor who bucks this trend and chooses to show CinemaScope pictures in 2-D is, as Leonard Gold' enson has said, “going back to the. days of the old country store and the horse and bug^, and may go out of business altogether.” The exhibitor who allows the parade to pass him by will have no one to blame but himself. AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE VALUE OF ORGANIZATION Of the many exhibitors who are eager to equip their theatres for CinemaScope presentations as soon as possible, a large number are in a quandary as to the choice and suitability of their equipment require' ments. To help solve their problems, the Allied Theatre Owners of New Jersey has arranged for a demon' stration to be held at 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, May 25, at the Mayfair theatre. Hillside, N. J., for the purpose of comparison of various new lenses and other types of equipment. The demonstration will be a closed one, open only to Allied members by invitation. Following the dem' onstrations, which are being conducted in cooperation with supply dealers, a discussion will take place. Exhibitor associations that have not already done so would do well to follow New Jersey Allied’s lead in setting up such comparative demonstrations so that their members may be fully informed before investing in costly equipment. To those of you who are not members of an ex' hibitor association, Harrison’s Reports would say that the demonstration arranged by New Jersey Al' lied is but one illustration of the importance and value of organization and of the benefits that member' ship offers. If you are not a member of a regional unit, you should become one at once. COL. COLE SOUNDS A WARNING NOTE Col. H. A. Cole, board chairman of the AlUed Theatre Owners of Texas, issued the following state' ment this week: “After two years of work the federal tax admis' sion fight ended with almost complete success April 1, about six weeks ago. This job, financed by the entire motion picture industry, was spearheaded and car' ried through to success by the great work done by hundreds of exhibitors all over the United States. “During the course of hearings before Congres' sional committees we had warning from a number of Congressmen that relief, supposedly granted to theatres, would be siphoned off, and the producer' distributor would receive practically all the benefit. We tried to soften this viewpoint, calling attention to the obvious fact that it was the industry that was suffering and that both exhibition and distribution would benefit in usual proportions from any relief. “I am greatly disturbed by authentic reports re' ceived from all parts of our country that the pessi' mistic predictions coming not only from exhibitors but from Congressmen themselves have come to pass. Perhaps I should have been prepared for this when looking at the figures compiled by COMPO, showing that during the past eight years the boxoffice had declined 35%; whereas, production'distribution in' come had declined only 23% — a shocking picture in view of theatre closings during that period! “Now, reports from all the country and from all classifications of theatre operations indicate unmis' takably that this trend is not only continuing but getting worse. With the shortage of pictures of box' office value, selling terms have become more and more onerous; and it appears that the relief accorded thea' tres is due to shrink more and more and shortly dis' appear. “This is unthinkable and quite shortsighted on the part of the distributor'producer. It can only result in further closings and in the draining off of necessary theatre reserves, which should be devoted to new equipment, better theatres and new energy in the retail end of our industry. This will eventually and inevitably be reflected in reduced earnings to our industry. To call this a shortsighted policy is an un' derstatementi “After conferences with many exhibitors and after viewing the fact that numerous unsuccessful attempts have been made by exhibitor organizations to per' suade those who control, toward a more sane and business'like attitude, the conclusion seems inevitable that these same 18,000 theatres, which carried through the campaign on tax relief, will be forced to go back to Congress with the request that an offi' cial investigation be made by the Ways and Means Committee to decide whether or not the refvmd by the government to the motion picture industry has been confiscated inequitably, if not illegally, by the one branch of our industry which needed it least, contrary to the express intent of the Congress. “This is a drastic step and one which is approached with reluctance but it seems inevitable in view of the present attitude of distribution, which is exercising its power, seemingly without mercy.” HERE WE GO AGAIN! West Coast exhibitors and Hollywood studio ex' ecutives will get their first look at SuperScope, the anamorphic wide'Screen process developed by Irving and Joseph Tushinsky, at a special invitation show' ing to be held at 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, May 25, at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. A similar demonstration was held in New York City last March and, according to a press release, the demonstration resulted in an avalanche of orders that swamped the production capacity of the Tushinsky organization and caused the West Coast demonstra' tion to be delayed imtil production could catch up with the demand. As most of you probably know, the sale of SuperScope lenses is being handled by National Screen Service. An intriguing statement in connection with the Hollywood demonstration next Tuesday is that, “in addition to SuperScope, the Tushinsky brothers plan to unveil a startling innovation — to be kept secret until the day of the showing — on which they have been working for some time.” There has been no hint of what this “startling in' novation” might be, but it is to be hoped that it will prove to be another advance in the right direction.