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486 HARVARD BUSINESS REPORTS
being made up of mill employees. From the point of view of the theater such conditions were considered favorable. If homes were uncomfortable and overcrowded, people would seek outside diversion at the theater.
The existing competition was examined. There were 17 so-called picture theaters scattered throughout the city with a total seating capacity of about 10,000. All these theaters were of the "store show" or "upstairs" variety: motion picture show quarters produced by remodeling large stores, lodge rooms, and other buildings. At six o'clock in the evening there wrere few people on the streets of Milltown; at eight o'clock the streets were almost deserted. A visit to the theaters showed them to be fully attended. On further study it was found that it was a regular habit of the workers to go directly to the motion picture theaters after dinner.
The one industry upon which the city depended was carefully considered. The entire city would be affected if the manufacture of fine cotton goods should suffer depression. At that time, however, Milltown showed higher earnings among its employees, better records of dividends paid, larger growth in population, and a greater increase in bank deposits than other cities in the state. It appeared to the company to promise, in spite of its risky specialization, a sufficiently stable situation to justify an investment, providing the investment was amortized before a general change in conditions occurred.
It also appeared that the existing competition might easily be made inconsequential. The company believed that a theater large enough to make it possible to offer the best entertainment, and fine enough to make the shabbiness of all other theaters in the city painfully evident, would inevitably obtain the available patronage, even at a price somewhat in advance of that to which the townspeople had been accustomed. A theater with a seating capacity of 2,500 at a building cost of approximately $125 per seat would meet the requirements. Such a theater would normally be erected only in the best location of a larger city.
The site proposed was within two blocks of the main transfer point of a street car system, which was also the center of business. Every local car line would pass this site. It presented, however, some serious disadvantages. It was just large enough to accommodate the theater building, with no surplus space for commercial