The Exhibitor (1960)

TAX ASSESSMENTS ( Continued from page 15) steadily rising during those years. Still a further cross-check is provided by the 1960 U. S. Bureau of Census reports on employment. In 1954 there were a total of 157,536 paid employees in 18,513 theatres. In 1958 there were a total of 129,557 paid employees in 15,694 the¬ atres. Down 27,979 or 17.8%. Here in the state of Pennsylvania the number of employees dropped from 8912 to 7372, or just over 17%. So, I believe I have made my point that theatre business is not in good shape— and that it deserves any assistance that you gentlemen can give it. Taxes generally have a practice of going up and up. It is only through the assessed value of any business that you have an opportunity to differentiate between the business that is in financial trouble and the business that is in financial clover. Lack of parking facilities, changing neighborhoods, general obsolescence and changing shopping habits, have already permanently removed many of our former roofed theatres from the economic picture. In Harrisburg the great Loews Circuit just the other day sold the Loew theatre to a group of local merchants who will tear it down in order to make a parking lot out of the site. The Chelten Theatre, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia became a Church in which they show religious films only. Other theatres have become furniture warehouses, catering headquarters, paper storage centers for neighboring printers, CYO recreation halls, etc. But seldom if ever do they convert into any estab¬ lishment that can be assessed at anything like their former theatre assessment. May it not be good business— as well as good judgment— to make every effort to meet the remaining theatres halfway in their individual struggle to survive as tax paying members of their local communities? Some of you, I am sure, are speculating on the growth of drive-in theatres during these same 14 years— and wondering whether they didn’t in some way offset the roofed theatre losses. In actual fact, drive-ins are a pretty special breed that need special and separate consideration. Drive-ins certainly answer the parking problem. And in order to have a place to park that inseparable automobile, the patron puts up with a picture on the screen, and with sound in his car, that falls far short of that in regular theatres. The drive-in theatres in the South and in the Southwest have in fact replaced many a neighboring roofed one. But in the North, Northeast and Mid-west drive-ins are a completely seasonal business. Their season starts with the first day of Summer vacation in local schools, and their season ends with the first day of school the following Fall. In those two and one-half months they must make their entire profit for the year. The other nine and one-half months represent each theatre’s battle to meet overhead and taxes, and to hold together a trained theatre staff that may be irreplaceable the following June. Any losses in that battle will result in dipping into the two and one-half months’ profit. It is for this reason that you will observe drive-in theatres in your local area operating Friday and Saturday, or Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from mid-September on. You may even find that this policy only operates until snow flies, and then they will close completely. Or you will see them advertising “free heaters”, “dollar-a-carload” nights, “free coffee”, “lucky license number” nights, etc. All of these are merely a show¬ man’s effort to attract a little traffic that will offset his losses during his off-season months. So, while drive-ins are a most appreciated addition to our industry, and one that managed to hold the industry together during some of the pretty bleak recent years, here in Pennsylvania they can only be consid¬ ered a seasonal “shot-in-the-arm” and not a basic all-year business. While drive-ins had been introducd prior to World War II, during the War itself there were only 148 drive-ins in operation in the entire U.S.A. Their real growth started in 1946 with the introduction of the in-car speaker and by 1954 we did an exhaustive study and published a detailed list of the name, address, ownership and car capacity of 4340 of them. 198 of these were in the state of Pennsylvania. Growth has been slower since then, but according to our records there were about 4800 of these splinter-season drivein operations included in those 15,694 theatres that the Bureau of Census credited the industry with in 1958. They don’t truly offset roofed theatre losses. In this discussion I have tried to give you a true picture of business conditions in the nation’s theatres, with particular reference to those in Pennsylvania. Much of the data that I have quoted, I have with me in its entirety if any of you would like to inspect it. I will also try to answer any pertinent questions that you might like to ask. I can only hope that I have impressed you with the need to give some special consideration to the assessment of the¬ atres. Otherwise, I can assure you, you are going to have a lot less theatres to assess. And a lot less neighboring business establishments, too. That’s for sure. Industry Triumphs At Fair DETROIT — The big news here is the result of the industry’s experiment in becoming the first to participate as an exhibitor in a State Fair. Many believed that the concept of treat¬ ing the public to shows composed, aside from one cartoon, of trailers, would not work. Fur¬ ther, it having been a last-miinute deal, vir¬ tually all preparations had to be made within 48 hours of the Fair’s opening. With these and many other handicaps, a dim view of the project seemed to have been justified. However, the results should be a lesson, if such is needed, to the industry nationally. While accurate count was impos¬ sible, estimates of attendance for the 10 days range between 75,000 and 90,000 persons who were exposed to paper and trailers on 25 current and coming films for the full half hour. Optimistic predictions had been that 5,000 would be sufficiently rewarding. Col. Inf. Names Jordan NEW YORK — Marion Jordan has been elected a vice-president of Columbia Pictures International at a meeting of the board of directors, it was announced by Mo Rothman, executive vice-pi'esident of the international organization. Jordan recently joined Columbia as Con¬ tinental manager with offices in Paris after serving for many years in a similar capacity with Universal Pictures. FPCC Profit Slips MONTREAL — Famous Players Canadian Corporation, Ltd.’s net profit in the first half of 1960 was almost 17 per cent lower than in the corresponding 1959 period, the company reported last week. In the January-June 1960 period the com¬ pany earned $914,764, equal to 53 cents per share. This compares with $1,104,906 or 63 cents per share in the first half of 1959. UA First-Half Net Up NEW YORK — The first-half net earnings for 1960 of United Artists Corporation, after provision for taxes of $1,290,000, were $1,678,000, compared with $1,597,000 for the com¬ parable period of the previous year it was announced by Robert S. Benjamin, chairman of the board. UA’s gross world-wide income for the first half of 1960 totalled $51,426,000 against $44,844,000 for the same period in 1959. The six-month net represents earnings of $1.01 per share compared with 96 cents per share for the first half of 1959. Goit Joins Fox TV NEW YORK— Charles W. Goit, formerly national sales manager of Independent Tele¬ vision Corp., has joined 20th-Fox Television, Inc., it was announced by Peter G. Levathes, president. 16 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR September 21, I960