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.
PUBLIX THEATERS CORPORATION 519
their association with the company in an executive capacity, they had kept in close touch with the theater situation in the important cities. Most of them visited theaters over the entire United States several times each year. They believed that they were in a better position to judge the value of a program of entertainment to a community than was the less experienced theater manager. Current changes in a local situation would be better known by the theater manager than by the executives, but most of the executives would know the background of the town and its entertainment history better than would the theater manager, so that they could more accurately judge the significance of the changes.
The stage programs for the de luxe theaters were the same for all parts of the United States. In most cases these theaters used the Publix Unit Shows, which were prepared by the company's own showmen in the New York office. There the casts were selected, hired, and trained, and the properties prepared. After the shows had been completed they were booked to the de luxe theaters. When a show had completed its time at one theater, it travelled on to the next one. The company had 40 of these unit shows on the road at all times.
Other parts of the stage shows, which in most cases were similar to vaudeville numbers, were booked by the district managers at vaudeville booking agencies located in their districts. The theater manager's only duty in connection with a stage show was to make sure that his stage and properties were prepared and to hire all the local talent that the show required. The orchestra and the stage band connected with the stage shows were in the regular employ of the theaters and did not move with the unit shows.
In the matter of the selection of his staff, the theater manager was not limited by the New York office. He was permitted to make his own selections from the people who were available locally. The number of people to be employed and their positions and salaries, however, were specified in regulations published by the New York office. The training of the theater staff was undertaken by the manager, who was required to follow detailed instructions contained in a manual published by the New York office called "Training of Theater Employees for Publix Service." The following classifications of employees were listed in the manual: ushers, elevator operators, messenger and service boys,