Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

ON THE MARCH Loew's Develops by red icann Cash Reserves AS this column began to roll, Broadway first runs held their price line. But Main Drag operators also held their optics glued to the Paramount where the commotion set in motion by a sharp unwinding of morning scales bubbled more sizzingly than any of the competition cared to admit. This development became interesting at its very outset. It could become quite significant in creating a trend on Broadway for the usual reasons. Should the cheaperprice move inaugurated by Bob Weitman, managing director of the Paramount, develop into an unqualifiedly howling success, others will not be able to resist. Since a change along Broadway has little chance of remaining an isolated incident, the reverberations wculd filter into neighborhood first runs, circuit and independent, and thereafter through the subsequents until the current structure throughout metropolitan New York adjusts itself accordingly. In the event this comes to pass, the repercussions, not remotely, may be felt elsewhere around the nation. A quick history, consequently, ought to prove interesting. What was determined at the Paramount was not reached by a fast yes or no. The new policy represents six months of search, checkup, analysis, indecision and some hunch, but not much. The curve of employment was studied. Income brackets were surveyed. Rises in the cost of living and their relationship to wages were investigated, of course. The experiences of legitimate theatres, night clubs with their dinner shows and dance halls were probed. Some of the results were awfully sad. These were the outside factors. Internally, Weitman had to indulge in little guessing. His own breakdowns helped there. For example, his records revealed that 23 per cent of the Paramount's attendance in 1943 was made up of service men who averaged about 35 cents afternoons and SO cents evenings per admission under the special rate extended them. In these days, the theatre gave the USO approximately 3,000 free tickets each week. By '46, armed forces attendance was down to nine per cent. By the middle of that year, the waiting line had evaporated. Meanwhile, grosses generally held up even if attendance was. off sharply. Grosses were all right because [1] Wednesday and Friday nights at $1.30 a throw, and [2] a range of $1.10 from noon to $1.50 after 6 P.M. on Saturdays and [3] $1.30 from opening to 1 P.M. and $1.50 thereafter on Sundays cleared the nut and put every other admission, on the side of velvet. Nevertheless, enough patrons were not "coming to the house. Those ofttimes incredibly heavy morning audiences which so long were a Paramount boast and fixture were not around. The objective was to get them back, if possible, and to revive thedroves which once stormed the doors and kept alive the motion picture habit. Piecing this and that into what emerged in final pattern, the decision led to lower tariffs with chief concentration on morning prices. They were slashed from 70 cents from opening to 11 A.M., 85 cents from then to noon and 95 cents from midday to 5 P.M. to 55 cents from opening to 1 P.M., Monday through Friday with tax included in all cases. Initial response was in the direction of the overwhelming. Echoes disappeared from the large Paramount lobby and there was no longer target practice in the balconies. Identifiables as night shifters going off their job at 8 A.M., salesmen, women shoppers and the unemployed appeared to be on deck again. AT 1 P.M. Monday of this week — sixth , day of the changeover — 6,026 admissions had been chalked up in a theatre seating 3,664 which suggests the rafters must have been dripping with customers. Other Broadway first runs, their morning prices higher, could not approach it. The closest presentation house had sold about 3,800 tickets, another about 1,500, a third about 1,000 while there was one all-sound stand with as few as 150 paid guests On that day, the Paramount — "Suddenly It's Spring," its film; Johnny Long and his band, Joan Edwards and Buddy Lester, its show — at its 6,026 attendance was working in reverse and comparing itself with its own immediate predecessors. This was it: "Easy Come, Easy Go," the film; Cootie Williams and his band, Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots, the show — 3,483 tickets. "The Perfect Marriage," the film; Elliott Lawrence and band, Olga San Juan and the Mills Brothers, the show — 1,631. "Cross My Heart," the film ; Tony Pastor and band, the Andrews Sisters and the Les Paul Trio, the show— 2,293. After 500 cards handed out on opening day of the new policy — February 26 — brought a 98 per cent return citing price, not show, as the reason for attending that morning, Weitman called off the sampling. "The answer was in. More cards simply would have brought more of the same answers," he stated. Press agentry has Robert Riskin "unperturbed and sitting pretty" with not even a slight case of Academy Award fever. Why? Because James Stewart and Jane Wyman, both Award contenders, are the leads in his new film. Suppose neither wins? To Buy Theatres Loew's directors were reelected last week at the annual stockholders' meeting in New York. J. Robert Rubin, vice-president and general counsel, presided at the meeting. Charles C. Moskowitz, vice-president and treasurer, explained why the company had not declared an extra dividend. Mr. Moskowitz said Loew's theatre business was running eight per cent ahead of the same . period last year. Despite good business, however, the company had not issued an extra dividend in order to accumulate cash reserves in case it had to buy up minority interests in houses owned jointly with independent exhibitors, he said. Reports Rentals Fall Mr. Rubin said domestic film rentals for the first fiscal quarter had fallen below the total for the same period a year ago, but that if the current trend continued in the second quarter the increase in earnings over a year ago would largely absorb the drop in the first quarter. Income from foreign rentals is the same, thing as it was during the like period in 1946. Stockholders were told that earnings for the 12 weeks ended November 21, 1946, were equal to 72 cents a share, as against 86 cents in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. Mr. Moskowitz was optimistic over future business prospects, saying he could see no early decline ahead. He was supported in this opinion by Joseph R. Vogel, vice-president and head of the Loew circuit, who said the decrease in business noted at some Broadway theatres was not indicative of a nationwide trend, but could rather be ascribed to a reduction in the number of visitors and an apparent lessening in the popularity of stage bands. Mr. Vogel also reported that Loew's will have terminated its few remaining pooling agreements by the July 1 deadline. A pool with the Fabian circuit was liquidated last September, he said. Ten Directors Reelected Directors reelected by the stockholders included Leopold Friedman, Eugene W. Leake, Mr. Moskowitz, William A. Parker, William F. Rodgers, Mr. Rubin, Nicholas M. Schenck, Joseph R. Vogel, David Warfield and Henry Rogers Winthrop. . The directors, in turn, continued in office the following officers: Mr. Schenck, president; Mr. Rubin, Alexander Lichtman, Edgar J. Mannix, Mr. Rodgers, Howard Dietz, Mr. Moskowitz, also treasurer ; Mr. Vogel, Benjamin Thau, Mr. Friedman, also secretary; and Marvin H. Schenck, all vicepresidents ; Jesse T. Mills, controller ; Nicholas Nayfack, Irving H. Greenfield and Harold J. Cleary, assistant secretaries ; Charles K. Stern, Louis K. Sidney and R. Lazarus, assistant treasurers. 24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 8, 1947