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VULCAN THEATERS CORPORATION 533
the corporation would know whether or not he was capable of assuming these responsibilities. Furthermore, the school should attract a steady supply of young men of promise to the company.
Several executives with long experience in the show business opposed the establishment of a managers' training school. It was their contention that showmanship could not be formally taught. In their experience they had found that good showmen were those gifted individuals whose native ability enabled them to sense entertainment values and successful methods of exploitation. Those who had been unusually successful in the field of showmanship declared themselves to be without set principles or theories. They attributed their ability to a sort of sixth sense.
It also was maintained that the practical side of showmanship could not be acquired theoretically; that only experience could impart the necessary knowledge. Furthermore, because methods of showmanship changed frequently, theories based on present and past practices would be of little value in judging problems of the future. Those opposed to the school favored training future managers in theaters wherein they would come into contact with actual problems of operation.
Despite the adverse criticism, a majority of the company's executives favored the establishment of a school. In their opinion, the probable benefits of the plan more than compensated for its weaknesses. In the first place, without a school the company would be forced to train managers in its theaters. While this method might produce an immediate practical knowledge of some of the more common problems of theater operation, it would not cover the broad field of showmanship. A candidate selected as a possible theater manager, unless he possessed previous experience, would probably be assigned as assistant manager in the theater selected for his training. While some of the managers of Vulcan theaters were excellent showmen, many of them would be poor teachers. Furthermore, those possessing the capacity to teach probably would have neither the time nor the inclination to assist in training a student. Training under such a system would be spasmodic and not uniform. Each manager, for example, might emphasize his favorite phase of theater operation to the exclusion of others, regardless of their importance.
Training of this type was further limited by the type of theater to which a prospective manager would be assigned. Many of