The Exhibitor (1964)

Complacency Is Mother Of Disaster, Levine Tells New England Showmen PLYMOUTH, MASS. — “Complacency is the mother of disaster,” Joseph E. Levine, presi¬ dent of Embassy Pictures, warned motion pic¬ ture exhibitors. Addressing the annual convention of the Theatre Owners of New England, at the Mayflower Hotel here, Levine called for “ag¬ gressive merchandising.” In propounding the active exercising of Showmanship, the show¬ man emphasized the importance of “grass¬ roots” selling. Levine declared, “At a recent trade press conference for the campaign on ‘Where Love Has Gone,’ I said there was only one place to sell, and that was at the local level, and there was only one way to sell — the Hard Sell! “Never was it more important to sell at the grass roots. Portland, Oregon, is as much grass roots as Portland, Maine, and Salem, Massachusetts, is as much grass roots as Salem, Oregon. Everything starts and finishes at the grass roots. Because it is here, at the grass roots, where you feel product accept¬ ance or product rejection.” Noting that exhibitors were “the doers and the thinkers,” Levine pointed out the “big job” they faced in looking after the motion picture entertainment of their wide audiences. “We in production and distribution give you the production and over-all planning,” Levine told the assembled exhibitors. “It is then up to you to implement or integrate our plans with your local needs.” “There is no one to regulate your speed, only your ability to get things done,” Levine went on. “Aggressive merchandising isn’t a one-way street. No one has a corner on enter¬ prise or resourcefulness.” In exemplifying exhibitor enterprise, Levine recalled that New England gave birth to saturation bookings, setting a national pat¬ tern. “If we are showmen,” Levine continued, “then we must act like showmen and make noises like showmen. The competition for today’s disposable dollar cries for this kind of showmanship. It isn’t enough to change a few stills, change the marquee, and insert an ordinary ad. “You talk about a picture’s ‘ingredients’ or ‘box-office chemistry.’ But, that’s the picture. What about the ingredient that you add — the merchandising ingredient. Don’t sell it short! “There are some prophets of doom who will say, ‘nothing helps.’ To those people I say they’re ‘nothing people!’ There is an audience for every motion picture. And if they don’t cotne to you it’s because you didn’t go to them with your story.” Levine asserted that the motion picture industry must address itself to the imponder¬ ables that constitute the “giant persuader” in swaying the free choice of the public. Half the battle will be won, he said, if guide lines are determined for selling pictures and if they are presented to the public frequently enough and in diverse ways. “One thing is certain,” Levine declared. “Complacency is the mother of disaster. Don’t just stand there. Don’t just sit there. Gear yourselves for the bright and exciting future.” For Embassy Pictures, Levine noted that his new co-production agreement with Para¬ mount Pictures guaranteed both quality and quantity. He pointed to the recent signing of Peter O’Toole to play the title role in “Will Adams,” with a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, Ben Sack, left, owner, Sack Theatres in Boston, with Ed Calinan, drama editor, Sunday Advertiser and Ralph Taeger, co-star in Embassy’s “A House Is Not A Home,” who was in Boston for a press lunch¬ eon interview for the premiere at the Beacon Hill Theatre. as an indication of the quality and box-office ingredients that could be expected. Embassy’s literary-property development, through the $200,000 Novel Award Program, with G. P. Putnam’s Sons, McCall magazine, and Fawcett Publications, was another indica¬ tion of how Embassy viewed the future, Levine added. “This is a dynamic business, but it takes dynamic people to make it operate,” Levine said in conclusion, “accept each day as a challenge and accept each challenge as a mark of progress.” Harling Continues Fight Against Pay-TY Projects Philip Harling, Joint Committee Against Pay-TV, reviewed the pay-tv situation as it exists today for delegates. “If the battle over pay-tv were to be waged on the basis of the selfish interest of motion picture exhibitors or national broadcasters, toll-tv would in fact be inevitable. The rea¬ son that paytv is not inevitable because it is in direct conflict with the interest of the American people. The public has been quick to grasp the underlying economic fact that paytv is preparing to seize from them a portion of the television spectrum which is a great natural resource and to sell it back at a high price,” Harling said. “It is incumbent upon every exhibitor who wants to stay in business,” Harling concluded, “to support the activities of the Joint Com¬ mittee Against Pay-TV, as well as the con¬ troversy which is now raging in California, and which will be determined on Nov. 3. The ballot box will be open to the people there and they will have to vote “YES” to repeal a law which was disguised as a revenue measure. If we lose, one company can take over all of the paytv entertainment in that state. If Nov. 3 turns out to be a defeat, this will be felt in every town and hamlet wher¬ ever there is a theatre. “Have faith in our opposition to pay-tv. We have been at it for almost 12 years, but the task is yet so great that it will require continuing financial and moral help of every person who owns a single theatre or a circuit of theatres.” Pay-TV Only For Rich, Calif. Opponents Charge LOS ANGELES — King size telephone com¬ pany charges for installing and maintaining lines of subscription television in Los Angeles point up the financial burden pay-tv puts on the public, Don Belding, state chairman, Citizens’ Committee for Free-TV, charged. The committee is seeking a “Yes” vote on Proposition 15, the initiative to preserve freetv in the home. “Under contracts between the telephone company and pay-tv for the three-square mile initial installation area, the phone company will be paid $273,000 a year for basic services,” Belding said. “This is about $68 for each of the 4,000 homes which pay-tv officials claim have subscribed for pay-tv,” he added. "In addition, Pacific Telephone will collect a $35 installation charge per set, plus a service charge of $6, per year per set. “Subscription television has been required to put up a deposit of $679,400 cash to reim¬ burse the telephone company in the event pay-tv lines must be removed. “The president of Subscription Television has estimated that the average family, within 10 years, will spend $1,000 a year for pay-tv programming,” Belding said'. “It can be seen that if pay-tv’s goal of wiring more than one million California homes is achieved, the public will be paying on the basis of these rate schedules some $74 million a year in telephone charges alone. This amounts to about $74 for each home. Add pro¬ gram costs, operating expenses, and profits on top of the phone bill and you see why only the wealthy neighborhoods are being wired for pay-tv,” Belding said. “The best free -tv programs will be siphoned off by pay-tv, depriving millions of Cali¬ fornians of their existing programs,” Belding concluded. Loew's Ups Meyers ST. LOUIS — Bernard Diamond, general manager of Loew’s Theatres, has announced the appointment of Donald Stewart Meyers as manager of Loew’s Mid-City here. He will succeed Rein Rabakukk, who has re¬ signed. Golden Named To Aid Sunshine Coach Project WASHINGTON— Variety Clubs Interna¬ tional Chief Barker James Carreras has announced the appointment of Nathan D. Golden, attorney of Washington, D. C., to serve on the Foundations and Trusts Com¬ mittee headed by Edwin Tobolowsky, industry attorney of Dallas. This committee will present the Sunshine Coach program for children to every foundation and trust throughout the United States for funds to make possible addition¬ al Sunshine Coaches to cover the highways throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada — providing assistive programs for needy children in the rural as well as the urban areas. Golden is a past chief barker of Variety Club of Washington, D. C., Tent 11; he served for many years as chairman of the Variety Clubs International heart com¬ mittee; and recently retired as the head of the motion picture department of the U. S. Department of Commerce to head his own law firm in Washington. 6 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR September 2. 1964