Harrison's Reports (1962)

52 HARRISON'S REPORTS April 7, 1962 Oscar Night.,. (Continued from Front Page) thousands of theatres throughout the land, in addition to their own company owned ( AB-PT) theatres, urge people to stay home on April 9, and see stars on the Oscar show they hardly ever see during the rest of the Tv year? This is the one night when the topflight names who shun Tv will show up on the little idiot box in the living room. More than 3,000 theatres volunteered to use the official kit. About 25% of that represents the major circuits, 15% the smaller circuits and the remaining 60% is supposed to come from the strictly independent theatre owner. It is claimed by the Theatre Owners of America that there are a goodly number of independent theatres that will promote Oscarnight in their own way, using their own material (paying for it) and their own approach. Sumner ot Oncar \ leu -«t« Keep* Mounting But, there is no guarantee, - the whims of Tv tuner-inners being what they arc, that the commercial sponsors will get more for their money (listenernumber-wise) than those in the past. When NBC landed the Oscar show, for the first time it went on the air the network couldn't get sponsor-response. It had to saddle the cost on one of its house-accounts (and family member) RCA. With about 20,000,000 sets in use then, the show penetrated less than 10,000,000 homes. In 1954 an auto sponsor hitched its horsepower to the Oscar bandwagon. The listener response wasn't any better though there were 40,000,000 sets in use. In 1955, 18,785,000 sets were tuned in for the Academy show. In 1956 there was a rating fall-off of nearly three million homes. In 1956. there was a pick-up of about 2,000,000 homes. In 1957, the swing to the Oscar-cast found 70,000,000 viewers, with 5,000,000 more climbing aboard in 1958. The '58 show was sponsored by the combined forces of the film industry, - the Academy itself, the producers-distributors and the exhibitors. The latter for good reason didn't think it fair to be asked to help defray 50% of all the over-all costs. In '59, 59,000,000 picked up the show; in '60 there was an increase, while last year ABC claimed a listening audience of 80,000,000. Most of the figures were provided by the Motion Picture Association of America. Add up these figures and it can't be denied that the Tv-ing of the Oscar awards has cost the exhibitors of the nation a pretty penny in lost revenues. Whatever the losses to the theatres of the nation, via the Tv show, on April 9, the night will belong to the 3 5 -year old Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The decade of televising its great show has been fraught with professional pressures and personalized protocol. The criticism from without wasn't half as destructive of morale as the self-aggrandizing skullduggery that sledge-hammered the revered Academy from within. All this plagued the Oscar awards like illness a sickly child beset with weakness of heritage. But, the Academy has grown to master its difficulties and weather its pains. Not even its detractors will deny that it's a powerful force in the industry, today; that it has made definite and constructive contributions to the progress of the film business. Today's blue-printers of the destinies of the Academy, for all their dream Freedom of Screen (Continued from Front Page) Another battle won does not say that the war is over against a censorship that is ever-threatening the films in many parts of the land. Johnston urged that there be no letup against the forces advocating censorship, which can come in many guises. He urged a pooling of the industry's strengths and energies, the better to meet the invaders of a free screen. The necessity of a bigger and wider public relations approach becomes urgent now so that movie-goers should know about the fine quality of films being produced. Publicity Seeker* Attack Fllmm That the industry has its invidious detractors, there can be no doubt. That most of them are professionally trained publicity-seekers is also well known. Their implement of attack has been the claim of a gradual deterioration of the entertainment quality of the pictures being produced these days. The falsity of this underhanded nature of propaganda, is in the pictures themselves. Seldom in the history of the industry has there been a more steady flow of bigger and better films. This is the exhibitors' evaluation, not alone the distributors'. These strong, defensive truths however mustn't lie hidden under a bushel of industrial inactivity. "Let the people know!" Meaning, bring them to the theatres in ever bigger numbers to see what the screens are offering. The product itself will be the greatest defense against the industry's determined detractors. It's a paradoxical kind of warfare against the enemy. By battling it, you help defeat the forces for censorship; curtailment of the freedom of the screen and other democracy endowed liberties that are the inalienable rights of the motion picture industry. The weapon being a stronger approach to the movie-goer, means a bigger response at the box offices of the nation's theatres. Verily, it's not too tough a job for the film business. But, as Johnston pointed out, these courses of action must be taken if the industry is to succeed in the many battles ahead. drenched creativity in the studios, are hard-bitten, shrewdly calculating executives who know the plight (in all its reality) of the film business all over the country. Some of them are their own bosses, make their own product, arrange financing, go out on the road to help sell their films and bring to the box office increased revenue. Tradition, Preattge Keep Academy Going When the Academy organized 35 years ago, it was for keeps. The motives of the founding fathers (the late Jean Hersholt, William deMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., et al) were powerfully sincere. Their idealogies left their enduring imprint on the history pages of Hollywood. Outside of Columbia University's Pultizer Prizes, in the realm of letters, there is no other tribunal the world over that occupies such position of public respect, traditional prestige, and industrial importance as does the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. To repeat, there will be box office losses the theatres will sustain on the night of April 9. But, from it will accrue the intangible residue of the institutionalbuilding good will for the film industry. That's the payoff of this economic sacrifice, say some of the dependable wise-men of the business.