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528 HARVARD BUSINESS REPORTS
program more than once a week. Continuous showings were possible in the larger cities, but were judged inadvisable in the smaller ones. Transportation conditions in the different cities necessitated special arrangements as to the time of exhibition. Not all the theaters were equipped with sound reproducing devices and it would be some time before sound pictures could be shown in them all. The size of the theater and its competitive position also had an influence upon the suitability of various types of entertainment. The difference in the types of population in the various cities was another factor bearing on the selection of pictures and other entertainment. Newton, for example, was the location of a large university; Mohawk was a highly industrialized center with an unusually large percentage of foreign-born citizens; Marsden was the county seat of an agricultural county.
Mokan Theaters, Incorporated, concluded that it should seek to secure managers who were able to analyze their communities so as to be able to make the most suitable selection of pictures and the best arrangement of playing dates. The typical chain theater manager, it was thought, was inclined to book pictures that he believed should attract people rather than those which actually would appeal in a particular neighborhood.
In addition to the care in booking, the company also desired the manager to develop the right kind of exploitation. The typical chain theater manager was seldom given the responsibility for exploitation; individual advertising campaigns were planned at the central office for all theaters in the chain. The central office provided ideas and other help for the guidance of the man in the local theater. A chain theater manager had to be able, however, to coordinate his theater with the home office program, and to make the best use of the help available to him.
Mr. Mokan realized that the independent type of manager who could be relied upon would be difficult to secure. While the stress of competition with chain theaters that enjoyed more favorable rentals had developed a number of excellent showmen in independent theaters, the independent manager commonly considered the chain theater manager as an automaton and was uninterested in such a position. He questioned the opportunity afforded for advancement in a chain and preferred a freedom from the hard and fast rules of central office control. The number of men of experience available for chain managers was, therefore, limited.