The Exhibitor (1959)

41 Years of Service to the Theatre Industry Founded in 1918. Published weekly by Jay Emanuel Publications, Incorporated. Publishing office: 246-248 North Clarion Street, Philadelphia 7, Pennsylvania. New York field office: 8 East 52nd Street, New York 22. West Coast field office: Paul Manning, 8141 Blackburn Avenue, Los Angeles 48, Calif. London Bureau: Jock MacGregor, 16 Leinster Mews, London, W. 2, England. Jay Emanuel, publisher; Paul J. Greenhalgh, general manager; Albert Erlick, editor; M. R. (Mrs. "Chick") Lewis, associate editor; George Frees Nonamaker, feature editor; Mel KonecofF, New York editor; Tom Wemer, Physical Theatre and Extra Profits departmental editor; Albert J. Martin, advertising manager; Max Cades, business manager. Subscriptions: $2 per year (50 issues); and outside of the United States, Canada, and Pan-American countries, $5 per year (50 issues). Special rates for two and three years on application. Second class postage paid at Phila¬ delphia, Pennsylvania. Address all official communications to the Philadelphia publishing office. VOLUME 62 • NO. 15 AUGUST 19, 1959 THAT PITTSBURGH CASE That’s an interesting story from out Pittsburgh way, where 31 other theatres have appealed to the U.S. District Court for permission to become parties at interest in the Basle Theatres, Inc., suit against certain distributors. It seems their major complaints are against compulsory competitive bidding, against arbitrary clearances that tend to promote exclusivity, against being placed in arbitrary zones and being required to bid against other theatres in such zones that are not in substantial competition, and against sales pressures and sales demands made possible by nothing more tangible than the availability of fewer and fewer prints of a commodity where freshness and newness is a quality of value. The sales policies in question were introduced in several different areas, but it looks as though Pittsburgh will be the testing ground. And if the volume of letters we have received, and the volume of conversation we have listened to, can be OUR GREATEST SUMMER . . . This summer of 1959 will be recorded as having produced some of the strongest boxoffice business in many years. Tal¬ ented features such as “ANATOMY OF A MURDER,’ “HOLE IN THE HEAD,” “HORSE SOLDIERS,” “MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT,” “NORTH BY NORTHWEST,” “HER¬ CULES,” “BIG CIRCUS,” “SAY ONE FOR ME,” “BLUE DENIM,” “FIVE PENNIES,” “NUN’S STORY,” and others, have done clobbering grosses in the first-runs. Long run fea¬ tures such as “SOUTH PACIFIC,” “WINDJAMMER,” “DIARY OF ANNE FRANK,” “SLEEPING BEAUTY,” and even the perennials, “TEN COMMANDMENTS,” “AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS,” and “GIGI,” have held steady with few signs of slipping. And in the neighborhoods and subsequents, the spring greats such as “IMITATION OF LIFE,’ | “SOME LIKE IT HOT,” “YOUNG PHILADELPHIANS,” ■ and half a dozen more, have stretched normal three-day i houses into full weeks, ten days, and longer. So the public has left the “re-runs” and the banal chatter with which TV takes its annual vacation and is really seeing that movies are both their “ best entertainment ’ and “ better considered an indication of the intensity of feeling that exists, “the Pittsburgh Case” will become one of the really important industry lawsuits. We won’t be too surprised if it gains equal stature with “the Paramount Case” in industry annals. Or if it is appealed by both parties through as many different court levels. It almost seems as though the whole question of whether movies remain mass entertainment, available to the public in thousands of theatres from coast to coast at the same time and at widely fluctuating price scales, or whether movies become class entertainment, available in only a few exclusiverun theatres for long periods of weeks and at high price scales similar to stage plays, operas, orchestras, etc., rests on the eventual decision in Pittsburgh. All eyes will be on Pittsburgh for many a year to come. And with very good reason! AND A QUESTIONABLE FALL than ever”. But what are we doing to cater to this new found demand in the four long months between Labor Day and the Christmas holidays? With few exceptions, the first-run outlook from Labor Day on is pretty bleak. Fewer pictures and less talented pictures seem to be the rule. Almost like the seashore hot dog stands and bath houses, we seem to turn the water off after Labor Day and shutter up our attraction boards for the next four months. In just such situations in the past, some smart distributors have “made hay.” Four or five features with class can look awfully big to both the public and to exhibitors when there is little else around. On the September, October, and No¬ vember horizon we think we see the first tell-tale signs of just such potential greats. We also feel that the smarter dis¬ tribution heads will recognize the vacuum and will push ahead some unscheduled product to take advantage of it. Maybe it is wishful thinking— but the signs are right! In any event, let’s do everything in our power to keep the public in a movie-buying mood. ON VARYING ADMISSION PRICES An interested reader, who recently week-ended in Atlantic City, has dropped a query in our lap. It seems that he remembers when the summer resorts were first given seasonal availability that was day-and-date with I the large cities in the same area. He remembers also that a major consideration was the ability of the summer resort to get the same or even higher admission prices, because the patron on vacation was in a spending mood and expected to pay a high dollar for his or her entertainment. So he was j shocked to now observe that summer resort prices, at the top of their season, have not kept pace with first-run prices elsewhere. Cases in point were “HOLE IN THE HEAD” and “ANATOMY OF A MURDER” at $1.25 and $1.50 per adult, when the same pictures are playing simultaneously in Phila¬ delphia and in New York from $1.80 to $2.00 per adult. What happened, he wants to know, to the old lush boardwalk prices? We would like to know, too. Is it a case of Broadway too high, or of boardwalk too low? It’s high time we found out.