Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

84 MOTION PICTURE HERALD July 18, 1936 ST. LOUISANS CO-OPERATIVE (Continued from preceding page) 55. The American Theatre for "The Great Ziegfeld" charged 55, 84, $1.10 and $1.55. In the Grand Boulevard sector the Fox is charging 25, 35 and 55, while the Missouri's rates are 25 and 40. Another distinct feature of St. Louis as a motion picture exhibition center is that the community has a number of outlying sections that are almost first run spots in their own right. The town's 10 second run houses are strategically located to take full advantage of this unusual arrangement. Few towns have separate business and community district such as Grand boulevard and Arsenal street, Grand boulevard and Gravois avenue, the Wellston section on Easton avenue, Grand boulevard and Natural Bridge road, Cherokee street and Iowa avenue, West Florrisant avenue around Warne avenue, and Gravois avenue and Morganford road. The second run houses will average around $3,000 a week each, while the 80 subsequent run theatres perhaps will take in at least $150,000 per week among them. An indication of the total motion picture theatre receipts here was an estimate that the proposed city tax of one cent on each theatre ticket costing 20 cents or more, which was killed at the last session of the Board of Aldermen would have cost the industry $200,000 annually. And in passing it must be said that the value of an alert and efficient trade organization for the protection of the motion picture industry has been proven here time and time again. Up to this moment not one really adverse bill has ever passed the local Board of Aldermen and been signed by the Mayor. But hundreds have been thrown into the legislative hopper. A special committee composed of Harold W. "Chick" Evens of Loew's, representing the first runs ; Leto Hill, general manager of the St. Louis Amusement Company, acting for the second runs, and Clarence Kaimann, who operates a number of subsequent runs in North St. Louis, has been serving with Fred Wehrenberg, as president of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners local organization, to watch legislation. Three proposed bills that met defeat at the last session would have tapped the industry for $350,000 annually if passed. Company Dominates Second-Runs In the second run and subsequent run field the St. Louis Amusement Company is the dominant factor with some 20 houses in operation. This company has also recently let construction contracts for two new houses. One to be at Goodfellow boulevard and West Florissant avenue in the northwestern part of St. Louis and the second on Forsythe boulevard west of Hanley road to Clayton, the county seat of St. Louis County. The St. Louis Amusement Company is controlled by Skouras Brothers Enterprises, a Warner Bros, subsidiary, which at present is in bankruptcy court. Nelson Cunliff, Federal trustee for Skouras Brothers Enterprises, is President of the St. Louis Amusement Company. Among the first run men "Chick" Evens and Charley Kurtzmann and Harry Greenman of the Ambassador and Fox give as much time to civic affairs as their crowded duties will permit. But as every one knows first run shows are very exacting in their demands on executives and as a result these first run officials have not taken the real active interest in community affairs as have Cunliff, Wehrenberg and Kaimann, for instance. First-Run Situation Differs However, there is another angle to the first run situation here that is perhaps different than elsewhere. The companies that actually own the Ambassador, Missouri and New Grand Central theatres are headed by Thomas N. Dysart, who for several years has been the ranking official of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, while Ed Koeln, who was co-trustee for the Fox Theatre property before its reorganization, was for many years City Collector of St. Louis and one of its most popular officials. In the Carondelet section and in the vicinity of Kingshighway and Gravios avenue, where is located the American Exchange National Bank, which he heads as president, there is no one better known or liked than Ed Koeln. And it is interesting to note that he was one of the pioneer motion picture exhibitors of St. Louis. He was in the syndicate that originally constructed the New Grand Central theatre and that owned the First National franchise for this territory. And it is said for him that he was the first exhibitor to successfully co-ordinate motion pictures with flesh and blood actors to produce "talking pictures." Fred Wehrenberg also occupies a very unique position along Cherokee street. Not even the Skouras boys could wrest his strategic hold on that community from Fred — even though they shot the best men in their organization to compete with him. And in the final results Fred ended up with the Cinderella Theatre, at one time operated by the St. Louis Amusement Company under the Skouras regime. As goes Wehrenberg so goes Cherokee street, it has been said. Theatremen Rated High To begin with, I will say that the advertising rates charged by the St. Louis newspapers are somewhat out of line compared to rates exacted from department stores and other advertising. But these high rates are explained by the publishers by the fact that they do give considerable space in their news columns to news articles dealing with the motion picture industry and its people. The three papers regularly use special columns out of Hollywood and from time to time drop in some special story. But in each instance the article in question has real news value to the readers of the papers. Each of the papers has its special motion picture critic and all use slides in the local theatres in a co-operative tieup on advertising. In the exploitation field the restrictions against a parade downtown and aqainst hanging heralds, etc., on lampposts, handicap the publicity bovs somewhat, but th<-re are ways of accomplishing the desired results if you only know how. Local merchants are also very co-opera tive when properly approached. Never is an important new house opened here without a special advertising section in one of the local newspapers and various business houses use generous space to pay their compliments to the theatre owners and managers. Likewise, a real tie-up can always be depended upon to get window space in some of the department stores or specialty houses. A striking example of this co-operation was the recent advertising carried by one of our largest department stores for various articles of wearing apparel, etc., used by Shirley Temple as part of the exploitation campaign for the run of "Captain January" at Fanchon & Marco's Fox Theatre. To sum up, St. Louis is a good town for good pictures and good showmen and we have plenty of both hereabouts. And it is not because I like them. Perhaps all of them do not rate with the Skouras boys, Billy Goldman, Harry Koplar and O. T. Crawford at !heir best, but on the whole they will compare favorably with motion picture men in other metropolitan areas. Personally I would give all of them a little more leeway to expand their capabilities. The older generation and the children like the neighborhood houses. There they find no parking problems, can go dressed as they please and get to bed at a reasonable hour. The price scale is 10 to 25 cents. Mama takes in the matinees at the first run in conjunction with some of her shopping tours, but on the whole the first runs, especially those along Grand boulevard, depend almost entirely on the younger men and women and visitors to the city. St. Louis' floating population is not so pronounced as in New York and Chicago, but enough to be considered. Many Own Homes Next to Philadelphia there are more homes occupied by owners in St. Louis than any large city in the land. This is an important factor in the patronage of our theatres and explains the pronounced success of such men as Wehrenberg and Clarence Kaimann, and the Ansell boys. And now to get back to where I began — St. Louis was making motion pictures when Hollywood was a vacant lot. It will jolt some of the big shots out in California to learn that St. Louis produced the first tworeeler, the first three-reeler and the first fivereel feature picture ever produced, and O. T. Crawford was the first man to ever send a motion picture company to location. The principal competition of the local motion picture houses are the various attractions in the Municipal Auditorium's Opera House and Convention Hall, the Municipal Theatre in Forest Park, the sports attractions at the Arena, including hockey, boxing and wrestling matches ; baseball at Sportsmen Park and various soft ball parks in the city and St. Louis County and an occasional dramatic attraction at the American Theatre. The Meramec River and swim pools are real summer competition. But week in and week out St. Louisians reach into their pocketbooks for about a quarter of a million dollars for their picture shows. That means that each man, woman and child sees a picture show on an average of once a week.