Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1932)

November 19, 1932 ROUND TABLE CLUB MANAGERS ROUND TABLE CLUR <iAn international association of showmen meeting weekly in MOTION PICTURE HERALD for mutual aid and progress CHARLES E. ("CHICK") LEWIS, chairman and editor SIGNS OF THE TIMES! WITH THE NATIONAL ELECTION behind us and a hopeful future before us we ought to be feeling a lot more cheerful than it has been our lot to feel during the past six months. A close study of box office grosses, as listed each week in MOTION PICTURE HERALD, indicated that the receipts all over the country were still in the "hot weather" class. It is no longer a mystery why business remained off even after what we call show-weather made a turn for the better. Radio election speeches were the answer. As Mr. Terry Ramsaye pointed out in last week's issue the competition was a bit too keen when one stopped to consider the outstanding speakers who were nightly entertaining (and entertaining is the right word) millions of potential theatre patrons via the air. The prolonged slump — having been definitely traced to the recent campaigning of candidates and others — may now be considered at an end, and with this thought in mind we must buckle down to business and start the trend back to the box offices. Judicious booking of shows and particularly careful selection of the units comprising an evening's entertainment are prime factors in building up business. Once your coming shows are properly lined up your next thought must be the selling of those shows in your communities. This will not prove difficult to showmen deserving of that title. They will be able to sell good attractions for profitable returns through intelligent and convincing copy and in all probability will be able to do so without the blah-blah and exaggeration that has been the key-note for all too many campaigns. V V V A SENSIBLE BIT of advertising psychology is to hammer your thought across until it has sunk in deep and left that kind of impression that should insure at least a fifty per cent sale. But that same thought can be pounded until it becomes just the reverse. And if such is the case, then it behooves us to strike what we often hear called the happy medium. This is especially true where teaser campaigns are part of a general merchandising plan. A teaser campaign can either create interest or make them lose that same interest. First, it must attract their attention. Then it must whet their appetites for the mer chandise you are trying to sell them. But all of this should lead definitely up to a climax — your opening day. Leave them wanting to know more. . . Plan your teaser campaign so that it will build up over a limited period. . . It ceases to be a teaser campaign if it runs too long. . . They will grow cold and stop looking for more. . . No successful teaser campaign was ever worked out haphazardly. . . It calls for careful planning and proper timing all the way through. V V V THIS IS THE SEASON for atmosphere in large doses, but, like the poor patient who was overdosed, don't overdose your patrons or your theatre. Thanksgiving offers great possibilities in the way of atmospheric effects ranging anywhere from Puritan displays to turkeys and pumpkins. Christmas can be counted on for the usual lighted and decorated tree and laurel and holly wreaths all around the marquee and lobby. But, like in everything else, do not allow your feelings of the spirit of the season to make you overdo it. This is especially true of Christmas. Knowing, all too well, the effect holiday shopping and Christmas has on the box office, we should be in no great hurry to emphasize the fact to all who approach or attend our theatres. If you were to ask our advice we should admonish you to do your Christmas front and lobby decorating not before December I 8th. Such decorations are then appropriate for two weeks and should be removed immediately after New Year's Day. Tackling this job any sooner merely impresses on the minds of those who do come to your theatre the fact that Christmas will soon be with us. Its effect is bad enough without rushing them. V V V PRACTICING THRIFT and economy is a gift, not a bugaboo. If you receive orders from up above to cut expense don't fly off the handle and start bellyaching about being held down. Just try to put yourself in the boss' place and go over every necessary expenditure with a sharp pencil. A good showman must be a good business man and every good business man well knows the importance of keeping the overhead down to a minimum. Waste in those small petty cash items soon mounts to staggering figures; perhaps the difference between profit and loss. "CHICK"