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Vulcan Theaters Corporation1
theater operating company — motion pictures
Executive Training — Establishing Theater Managers' Training School. A company operating a large chain of motion picture theaters considered establishing a theater managers' training school, because of a shortage of available managers of the type required. Some executives opposed the plan in the belief that showmanship, which they considered the chief requisite for a theater manager, was the result of native ability and could not be formally taught. Since even without the school the company would be forced to train new managers in its theaters, the company decided to establish the school and to plan a course of training that would allow development of individuality.
(1930)
In January, 1930, the Vulcan Theaters Corporation considered the establishment of a theater managers' training school. In the past, managers for Vulcan theaters had been recruited from the company's own employees, from rival theater-operating companies, and from the motion picture industry in general. After 1928, at which time the company inaugurated a policy of rapid expansion, it became apparent that these sources were incapable of supplying a sufficient number of men of the proper type.2 The establishment of a theater managers' training school was proposed as a remedy for this situation and as insurance against its further recurrence.
The Vulcan Theaters Corporation in 1930 owned and operated a national chain of about 400 theaters which ranged in class from de luxe first-run to small neighborhood houses. Vulcan theaters in general were well located and as a rule catered primarily to a medium to high-class patronage. Control was of a strictly military type, radiating from a central office in New York through 5 division or circuit managers established in the more important key centers. Unit theater managers operated under the supervision of district managers, of whom there were 20, and who in turn
1 Fictitious name.
2 See Mokan Theaters, Incorporated, page 525.
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