Harrison's Reports (1962)

Entered as second-class matler January :. ai tlif po:=t jfF.ee at Xew York, New York, under the act ol March 3, 1879. Harrison's Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: Published Weekly by United States $17.00 Harrison's Reports, Inc., U. S. Insular Possessions... 19.00 Canada and Mexico 19.00 A Motton plcture Reviewing Service ^00 Broadway Other Countries 19.50 New York 19, N. Y. 45c a Copy Devoted Chiefly to the Interest* of the Exhibitors COlumbua 6-4434 Ettablhhed July 1, 1919 Martin Starr, Editor A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XLIV SATURDAY, MAY 12, 1962 N0TT8 When the Strikes Come Ours is a strike'Stricken economy which provides for an ever adjustable wage-line geared to the rise or fall of the unpredictable economy. The country is al' ways in danger of major strikes. When the strikes come, after the cooling-off periods, official sessions with the government arbiters and other Solomonic agencies have failed to halt them, whole communities are affected. Standing in the middle of this betroubled situation is the theatre. For, strikes mean an ever-lessening out' go of the spending dollar. Only the bare necessities are bought in most families. Surely, buying an admission ticket to a movie is not included in the pinched spending that descends upon a people during those terrible periods of workless days and payless weeks for the bread-winner. But, there are some nature of strikes that don't affect too severely most of the other wage-earners of a community. These may take their pro-rata toll on the local economy, to be sure, but they do not cut in too heavily on the spending dollar that may be put away for movie entertainment. Throughout the land, there are many such situations right now. To be sure, theatres even in these strike-bound communities can't do all the business they'd like to. Michigan Allied Meet* Newspaper Strike Take the newspaper strike in Detroit. Allied of Michigan looked upon this strike as one with "potentially disastrous effects" on the movie business. The Detroit dailies ceased publication. For all the communicative power of radio, and its young brother living in his "vast wasteland," television, the daily newspaper is still the most powerful of these media of communication with the public. The doings of a community make their journey through the steppingstones of type reaching objectives more tellingly impressive than its other competitive forces of communication. The doings in the theatres of the Detroit area could have very nearly been dangerously blacked out were it not for the fervent, frenzied, feverish manner in which the Metropolitan Exhibitors of Detroit set its massive machinery to work in reaching out to the movie-goers of that vast area. In detailing the Detroit format of emergency operation, we do so because strikes of this (Detroit) nature, and others, can break out in your own community with little warning. To repeat, in these strikeridden days that go into force within and beyond your area of operation, it is best to be prepared with a plan of emergency action. The revenue lost during a strike period, in which the exhibitor becomes one (Continued on Bac\ Page) Hollywood, Whipping-Hoy There was a time when the exhibitor fought the distributor, and vice versa, tooth and nail. While most of the inter-industrial battling took to the fonts of the trade press, some of it poured over into the lay press columns frontiering the entertainment section of the newspapers. Verily, there were times when the interchange of upper-echelon denunciatory epithets was grist for the mills of the syndicated Hollywood columnist thus exposing the so-called dirty family linen to the movie-going public. Fortunately, there is a more peaceful atmosphere mantling the relationship between exhibitor and distributor these days. To be sure, here and there there rises an exhibitor cry of "-on to Washington and the Justice Department.,1 In many instances, that march is staved off as cooler heads and more conciliatory minds prevail. Right now, we're upon an era when the third leg of the motion picture tripod (produc( Continued on Bac\ Page) Fine Complains to Majors The diplomatic, cool-headed approach +0 troublesome, territorial matters was again evidenced by Marshall H. Fine, young president of the Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors. This time, it concerns Pittsburgh Fine wrote to each of the general sales managers of the major film companies regarding what he felt was "--a potentially serious threat to Pittsburgh area theatres from tax-exempt, non-theatrical competition". . . It seems that a legitimate theatre, operating on a non-profit, tax-exempt basis plans to show 35mm feature releases. This would be in direct and unfair competition with regular motion picture theatres in the Pittsburgh area. Admission, of course, is to be charged . . . Fine, speaking for not only Allied members, but all exhibitors, pointed out how detrimental such a move would be to the majors' regular theatre accounts. Also, it would be contrary to the best interests of the film companies. The Allied leader hopes that there will be no 35mm releases booked into this nonprofit theatre operating under civic association exemptions. He made urgent request that distributors of the companies' 16mm releases do not serve the playhouse in question . . . Once again, the honest, forthright outcry against the abuse of one situation, can be the safeguarding of fair-practices in all territories.