Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

62 MOTION PICTURE HERALD May 2 3. 1931 A SLANT ON GENERAL CONDITIONS! By EARL T. LEAPER Managing Director N. Y. Paramount Theatre The De Luxe Theatre! The first child of theatrical superlativism ; the most glamorous, colorful and romantic realisin of theatrical history ; the prodigal daughter of finance returned to suckle the fatted calf ; the dung heap and the rainbow's end of stagecraft; the musical panorama of a nation ; a whisp of art in the molding hands of commercialism magnified into a towering silhouette across the skyline of the greatest industrial epoch of all human history ; the marble portals to our dreamland of romance, adventure and beauty; admission forty cents to 1 p. m. A Tireless Task How many of us realize that the De Luxe Motion Picture Theatre was conceived and executed primarily for the sale of class "C" pictures? If you manage a De Luxe, don't sidestep the job you have picked for yourself. It calls for a shrewd, resourceful, tireless sales manager, and a most precarious calling it is. When John Doe spends a dollar in the clothes shop he has something tangible and lasting to show for his transaction, but when he leaves your shop he takes with him only a mental impression. What an unfathomable depth of thought this leads us to I Most of our troubles, indecisions, bad judgment and wasted effort and money is due to the lack of proper analysis of our problems. It's been a great loud-talkingguessing business. But these days are past. Over night the problems of this business have changed from the problems of extensive development to the problems of intensive development. You have got to grow three blades of grass where one grew before. Personally, I feel that these intensive development problems are by far the most complex the industry has ever had to face. Weekly nuts running into five figures are going to be real jobs in the face of highly developed competitive conditions and increased selective amusement buying. If a good De Luxe can make as much as a whole division, it can also lose as much. It's no longer a mechanical problem of building more seats, it's now a thinking problem of filling more seats. It can be done and for many of us it's going to be a lot more fun. Personally, I dislike extensive development. I'm glad that that period is over. I'd rather grow 45 bushels of wheat on one acre than 45 on three. That's progress. Development Extensive development demanded efficiently classified and standardized operations and entertainment merchandise. Chains and groups set up machined types of entertainment with an objective to appeal to a distinct strata of fans. In each case a sufficiently popular blend was found to warrant setting up the machines for its distribution. The population was unknowingly on a forced entertainment ration. Peak prosperity, leisure and money were an artificial stimulant to excessive demands of minority groups of entertainment buyers. The demands and spending power of these minority groups were just as inflated as the stock market. Nevertheless they controlled the box office. Their support was sufficient to warrant the theatre success in such classified and standard entertainment merchandise ; but at the exclusion of all other groups of purchasers. Therefore we saw developed almost to the extreme, different theatre entertainment policies, each catering to a select strata of fans. One almost felt that he would wake up some morning and find Liberty carrying an ear phone test on Para Practically every showman in the country is anxious to get the views of one who manages an "ace" deluxe theatre, therefore, what Earl T. Leaper, manager of the New York Paramount Theatre has to say should be interesting to all of us. Mr. Leaper tackles the present general condition of the industry in a manner that leaves little room to doubt that he knows what he is talking about. Apparently he has E. J. Leaper '"^^^ ^n intense study of presentday problems as they affect the theatre and theatre-operation. In the near future Mr. Leaper has promised to give us another article dealing specifically with DeLuxe Theatre management, and we can think of no one better qualified to discuss such a subject. His handling of the immense Paramount Theatre places him in a position to know all of the troubles and pitfalls that beset a managing director of a deluxe house. We are grateful to Mr. Leaper for this article and hope that our many members and readers find it as interesting as we did. MGM-Fox-WB entertainment blends. All in all it was a splendid little set-up and we sailed along merrily through the greatest prosperity period of any people of any country for all time. Extensive development, mushroom growth, demanded standardization and routine discipline. The impending crisis was inevitable. No peoples have yet learned moderation. They still must have their bellyaches. The fool rode with the wise man. After the holocaust could we pick the grain from the chaff? Reorganizing Then, suddenly the pendulum started swinging back and we found ourselves passing through the most disastrous and widespread depression our country ever knew, and it became not a question of not retreating, but a question of organized retreat and recession that v^ould be the least disastrous when we finally precipitated into an organized line and base of renewed offense ; and thus we find ourselves today entrenched, pretty well shot up, dazed and confused. In our pack of tricks are false ideas, unsound policies and useless and dangerous tools, but most menacing and dangerous is the_ fact that many of us think these ideas true, policies sound, and the old tools still just what we need, because a super-prosperous and tolerant public could once upon a time buy another shirt if they didn't like the tail of the one they had. Two Ways Out of This Situation: 1. We can blindly and hysterically stick to our old tools and false ideas and fight for the maximum purchasing power in our past established strata of patronage. This strata will be re-employed, gradually readjust itself mentally and financially and accumulate a financial amusement reserve similar to their old purchasing power. On the other hand, no one can blame us for selling duck eggs if we have a good market, but if the duck egg market collapses, that's another thing — more duck eggs won't help it. Perhaps they will never want duck eggs again — that's also another thought. 2. We can adjust our amusement merchandise so that we can immediately absorb all available purchasing power of our past clientele and in additio nbreak into other strata of amusemetjt seekers by discarding our old useless tools and casting out our false and dangerous ideas. Readjustment Now, let's check back into these plans more specifically and practically. In the first place, if our strata of patronage has shrunk thirty percent and we confine our efforts to the appeal to this classification, we are faced with a long, slow and discouraging period of recuperation — and what assurance have we that the old things are going to be acceptable to the rising new thoughts and mental and financial adjustrnent of our patrons. Some businesses are going to recover rapidly and some slowly and some not at all. There were many irregularities in the construction of our past unheard-of prosperity. These weaknesses must be squeezed out. On the other hand, reverting to Plan No. 2, we must make this elimination ourselves on careful analysis and conclusion and not be content with slow recovery of our strata of patronage, bat change our entertainment merchandise so that we can fill in this present gap of lost patronage by appealing to the different strata of amusement seekers. In this way, our recovery will be rapid and substantial and we will be able to adjust ourselves when the time comes into specific entertainment for specific strata of patronage if we find the entertainment purchasing market extensive enough. They Shop Now I think that we are all agreed that entertainment patronage is shopping for their merchandise. To have knowledge is one thing, to properly use it is a more complex thing. Our first error is in not properly analyzing this mixed strata of shoppers. The fact that they are shopping is the most encouraging fact for the good merchant. Our trouble has been that they haven't been shopping. We have become too self-satisfied, arrogant and fat on the good and in spite of the bad. We don't know values. We get dizzy and groggy when we are forced to jump up and find our bearings. We have the facts, we have the experience, we have the means and the tools. All that we lack is the definite knowledge of the necessity for a careful analysis, a precipitation of fact, judicious sound conclusion, a specific unanimously conceived plan of forward progression and our feet on the ground at all times. Creators and Organizers The first adjustment that confronts each of us is the definite realization that the transition from extensive development to intensive development HAS TAKEN PLACE. If I am going to raise that 45 bushels of wheat on one acre instead of three I can no longer hitch up the team and doze in the plow seat. The day for the true creator and organizer has come. It's just too bad if you are a showman and can't prove it at the box office. It is true that the extensive period we have passed through has been complicated by revolutionary technical adjustments in the field. Don't let these confuse you. They made the water a little rougher. Critical local problems have also dominated at times. These injections have befuddled many of us, and that is most unfortunate. If you think we have passed the period of heartaches and backbreaks, just tighten up your belt and take the punches of the next six months. The first jolt will be the economic adjustment