Harrison's Reports (1950)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

32 HARRISON'S REPORTS February 25, 1950 The exhibitors who are not doing their share in this tax battle will do well to remember Mr. Myers admonition that, unless the industry makes an all-out effort to secure repeal of the admission tax at this session of Congress, and succeeds, the industry is doomed to remain the victim of discriminatory taxes, and a target for additional ones. Theatre attendance has been declining steadily, and if we can rid ourselves of this obnoxious, tax it may very well prove to be the shot in the arm our business needs. Now is no time to either shirk or relax in the battle to repeal the admission tax. If anything, our efforts must be intensified. THE BUSINESS DECLINE In their brief presenting the industry's case to the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Myers and Mr. Sullivan, to offset the Treasury Department's estimate that the admission tax would bring in approximately $395,000,000 in the 1951 fiscal year, which is about ten million dollars more than is hoped for in the current fiscal year ending in June, brought out the fact that there has been an alarming decline in theatre attendance. They told the Committee that figures obtained from different exhibitor organisations throughout the country indicated the following drop in business: Theatres in the Eastern Pennsylvania territory show a decline of from three to fifteen per cent from 1948, with the drop more marked in the coal mining districts. West Virginia exhibitors report a drop of from 35 to 50 per cent for the first week in 1950 as compared to the same period of 1949, attributing the decline in part to the coal strike. For the same period business was off in the Kansas-Missouri area by 25 per cent; in Michigan, 10 to 12 per cent; in Philadelphia, 4 to 12 per cent; in Colorado, 12J/2 per cent; in the Gulf States territory, 20 to 25 per cent; in Maryland, 26 to 28 per cent; in Tennessee, 25 per cent; in Minnesota, over 15 per cent; in Illinois, 20 to 30 per cent, with small-town theatres in Southern Illinois reporting a decline of 20 per cent from 1949 and 27 per cent from 1948. New Jersey reported a drop of 1 5 per cent for the first five weeks of 1950, and the New England area reported a drop of from 15 to 20 per cent for the same period. This business decline, according to Myers and Sullivan, is attributable to the increasing competition from television and other forms of entertainment, as well as greater selectivity on the part of the public in their choice of motion pictures. These figures, to say the least, are alarming. There is no doubt that television is hurting business considerably now that there are approximately four million sets in use and about 100 television broadcasting stations. But if competition from television is tough today what will it be like by the end of 1954, at which time, according to predictions, there will be twenty million sets in use with a total "viewing" audience of about 75,000,000 people — half the population? The solution to declining box-office receipts is no mystery. It is, as it has always been, good pictures, which the producers are not making in sufficient numbers. No matter how choosey the public becomes, no matter how inclined people are to stay at home near their television sets, a good picture will attract them to the theatre's box-office. But the mere fact that an exhibitor has booked a good picture is no guarantee that he will do good business, for, unless he advertises and exploits the show properly, it may very well prove to be a box-office dud, in other words, applied showmanship is as important as the good picture itself. As Martin Quigley is credited with saying : "The motion picture good enough to sell itself has not yet been made." No amount of showmanship, however, can make a success of a bad picture. There has never been a business slump for good pictures, and until the producers learn to make them with more consistency than is now evident, theatre attendance will continue to suffer. A SOUND ARGUMENT AGAINST BLIND CHECKING Among the trade practices criticized at the recent mid-winter meeting of National Allied s board of directors was the practice of blind checking, particularly on flat rental pictures. An effective argument against this practice appears in the current issue of 'Theatre Facts," the organisation bulletin of the Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana, which had this to say : "Inasmuch as future flat rentals may be predicated on these checks they penalize the aggressive exhibitor who may go out and heavily exploit some particular picture and pay a premium to the lazy exhibitor who makes no special effort on the same picture. But worse, this information is very likely to be completely inaccurate. We are familiar with more than one instance where this inaccuracy is proven. The result is that a good distributor-exhibitor relationship is completely destroyed by this misinformation." KEEP SMILING In the latest of his "newsy" and always informative organization bulletins, Leo F. Wolcott, chairman of the board of Allied's Iowa-Nebraska unit, offers some sound advice to his members regarding the importance of making their theatres more comfortable and inviting if they are to hold their own against competition from television and other forms of entertainment. "Don't expect your public to get very enthused about it," says Mr. Wolcott, "if your theatre is dingy, uncomfortable and uninviting. Be sure your equipment is in good repair and usable shape. New chairs, carpets, decorations; a new screen does wonders for a theatre. Change your lobby around if possible, and your display frames; make your popcorn machine and candy counter more attractive. New drapes for the boxoffice. Next, rear back and take a look at yourself and your theatre staff — well, maybe there isn't much you can do about that! A few new clothes, a bit neater appearance down the line. But that isn't what I really meant. How do you and your staff treat your public? With utter boredom and dislike? Let's hope not; but many do! Get smiles on every face in your staff, including your own, even if you have to employ facial surgery, and keep them there! A smiling face is like a good mirror — everyone smiles back. Treat your public just like you loved them, even to the dirty little urchins who squirm, and stink, and run all over the place! If you don't, then don't get sore at them because they drive out to the nearest -Drive-In."