Motion Picture Herald (July-Aug 1935)

u I y 2 0 19 3 5 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 95 <»r MOTION ^^?a\ PICTURE HERALD m MANAGERS* ROUND TARLE CLUR z/fn international association of showmen meeting weekly in MOTION PICTURE HERALD for mutual aid and progress OP BACK TO SHOWMANSHIP He is a widely known theatre executive who has worked his way to the top from the low rungs, acquiring on his way up a sound and practical experience in the business of managing and exploitation. He speaks with authority, and therefore to be related with gratification is the opinion of this showman who sees a definite and early nationwide swing of the theatre pendulum back to showmanship and all the term Implies. "All" Implies many things, but most important is the rightful place It will again make for the real-honest-to-Henry theatreman who for, lo, these many years has been pushed Into dark corners, his talents ignored and neglected. "All" also Implies that men who know will be given a freer hand in selling their attractions, and that means enough advertising money to cover adequately all fertile sources of patronage. "All" means that good product will be sold properl/ and not permitted to starve at the box-office through exhibitor short-sightedness. And last but not least, "all" will allow the fireball showman to prove his worth and personally profit thereby. Thus will the wheat of manpower be separated from the chaff. The millennium approaches, gents, and long overdue, too. It becomes more evident with every day's passing that grasping-at-straw policies must be replaced with expert hardhitting and relentless showmanship. V V V SHOW MUST GO ON Floods swept McCook, Nebraska, and Manager Fred Glass, of the Fox Theatre, with every avenue of land transportation closed, made contact with a flyer who piloted him out of the maelstrom to his key city where Fred loaded up the ship with film and a generator and fought back to McCook, through death and desolation. The show must go on. That it does go on and that there are men who, in spite of hell and high water, make it go on is a constant reason why the theatre retains its high place as one of civilization's most vital factors. . V V V At the bottom of Warnerlte Dick Wright's letterheads, Is presented this thought: "Attend the movies regularly. In no way can you get so close to life for so little." Who was it that recently remarked, If admissions were twice what they are, motion pictures would still be the cheapest form of (=ntertalnment? DAMNED NEAR RUINED There's entirely too much of defeatist psychology in the attitude of those who profess themselves as being thankful today to be on a payroll on most any terms. This frame of mind undoubtedly has quite a bit to do with the current state of business in general and the theatre in particular. Showmen who are responsible for respectable grosses in this year's market should be compensated accordingly instead of being forced to kid themselves they are fortunate enough to be eating regularly. Thankful? Reminds us of the school Thanksgiving Day celebration when the teacher asked her youngsters to get up and explain for what they had to be thankful on that day. Each child dutifully gave a number of glowing reasons for so desirable a state until It came the turn of little Jimmy, age 10, cross-eyed, bowlegged, knock-kneed and freckled. "Teacher," he walled, "I got nothln' to be thankful fer. The good Lord damn near ruined me." V V V KEEP ON SAYING SO Many moons ago, this department protested often and at length against the buildup given the newspaper picture-rating system by the Broadway theatres using the stars in all manner of advertising. In June, an agreement was put Into effect by the ad heads to discontinue this practice. Now from Kansas City comes another shot at the starssystem from Lowell Lawrence, Journal-Post motion picture critic who has discontinued this method in his reviews, explaining that the system which was expected to become the standard over the country has petered out. No system of arbitrary picture rating by the critics can long endure If the theatre advertising men themselves say "no" together and continue saying so In unison. V V V The next step forward in the progress of your Round Table is a plan now in work for the formation of a series of local Round Table Clubs throughout the United States and other countries. Further details regarding the organization of these local units will be announced in an early issue.