Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1940)

July 13, 1940 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 33 MOVE ON TO PLACE 16mm SHOWS IN 250 DEPARTMENT STORES NATIONALLY Building Equipment and Supply Companies Reported Pressing Idea for Store Auditoriums to Compete with Giveaways A plan to create a free-show 16mm 'theatre circuit' in department stores throughout the country is being discussed in Trenton, N. J., with some important factors reportedly interested, including the JohnsManville Company. Apparently the sales idea being transmitted to the stores is the reputed losses suffered by the stores as a result of local theatres giving away dishes, pots and pans, refrigerators, electrical equipment and merchandise of all kinds, practically all of which is bought wholesale out of town by the exhibitors. Unknown numbers of local merchants and department stores have complained down through the years against the giveaway practice which, it has been said, unfairly makes inroads into their business. Film Source Undetermined The Homa-Sote Corporation, of Trenton, manufacturing building equipment, in cooperation with the Raymond Loewey Company, a New York decorating concern, are said to have plans in hand for the installation of the necessary equipment for showing 16mm films in the stores. Sources of film supply could not be determined — but it should be no easy matter to obtain films from the hundreds of sources outside the regular industry, if they cannot be obtained from the industry itself. It is also learned that 200-seat auditoriums would be built in the department stores, at a reputed cost of $15,000 per unit. Johns-Manville Company, it is said, is interested in the material supply end of the proposition. Favorable reaction is understood to have been received from many stores, which are said to have responded to the sponsors' citation of the merchandise giveaway practice in so many hundreds of theatres throughout the country. Projectors Available Sixteen millimeter sound projectors are numerous on the market, at least half a dozen large projector manufacturers of portable equipments being on the alert for developing new fields for their machines, even manufacturing special units according to any requested specifications. Competitive potentialities of the project are obviously tremendous for theatres, scores of which depend to a considerable extent on "shoppers' matinees," which so many shopping-weary women attend before journeying homeward. It is reasonable to assume that many of those women shoppers would respond readily to a department store's standing invitation to be its guests, without charge, at a movie performance right on the premises. Also there is the matter of enticing women from neighborhoods with the free movie idea. While most of the large motion picture MOVIE-OF-THEMONTH CLUB Tri-States Theatres are using a Movie-of-the-Month Club giveaway plan in their two first-run theatres in Omaha, Neb. The plan was conceived by E. R. Cummings, Tri-States district manager in Omaha, and has been copyrighted. Under the plan the patron buys a $2 booklet containing either five 40cent {night) admissions or eight 25cent (matinee) admissions. A free ticket in the book is good for admission to the Movie-of-the-Month, which is the regular bill at one of the two houses, but is designated by Tri-States officials as the Movie-of-the-Month. producer-distributors do not circulate their releases in 16mm prints, there are some which do, as Motion Picture Herald pointed out May 25th (pages 15 and 16). Then there are many smaller companies which encourage non-theatrical business, and still numerous others which are on the so-called "fringe" of the regular film business. However, as stated, the big source of supply are the non-theatrical distributors of educational, documentary, entertainment and advertising reels. It seems logical to conclude that the department stores would be flooded with hundreds of reels from manufacturers of products being sold by the stores with no rentals for the films being required. Drop Auditorium Board The Kansas City council has abolished the board of governors that has operated the Municipal Auditorium the past year, and will name a director who will be aided by an advisory board representing civic and business interests. The former governing board included no one from the entertainment field. San Francisco Fair Competition San Francisco exhibitors report decreased boxoffice receipts, especially in neighborhood houses, because of the Golden Gate Exposition, now in its second year there. The attendance for the first three weeks of the Fair was reported 10 per cent ahead of the same period last year. Italian House in Detroit An Italian language picture theatre is to be erected in Detroit this Fall by Paris Bucci. THE BOOK OF THE MONTH BECOMES THE THRILL OF THE SUMMER! OSA JOHNSON'S (MRS. MARTIN JOHNSON [ I MARRIED ] uaocu uu imc 51 cai Duvn ui die mum 1 1 umu ocichiuii Produced by OSA JOHNSON Edited by RALPH DIXON • Norration Written by DON CLARK ond ALBERT DUFFY • Narrator JIM BANNON A COLUMBIA PICTURE