Motion Picture Herald (Aug-Oct 1947)

zAn international association of showmen meeting weekly in MOTION PICTURE HERALD for mutual aid and progress WALTER BROOKS, Director OP. LOEWS Managerial Course, announced by Joseph R. Vogel, vice-president and general manager of theatres, and Oscar Doob, his second in command, as instruction for managers, assistant managers and student managers in the circuit's 69 houses in New York City, takes us back to the Paramount-Publix school, which, with all its faults, served a useful purpose. There are many in this business who owe their present status and rewards to the fact that they had this instruction. The manager's skill is something that has to be acquired through diligent observation and study. Those of us whose experience goes way back, know that we learned our lessons the hard way. It is possible, with such competent authority as Loew's executive board will provide, for those who seek instruction to find it, and to their lasting advantage. We know that the advice and help of such men as Ernest Emerling, Dan Terrell and Eddie Dowden, is worth cash on the line, to say nothing of a man's time and attention. c^V* c^V, c^2V, € Attending the MPTOA-ATA convention in Washington, we listened to discussion of advanced admission prices, but with an argument in mind that there was nothing new in this for managers. We paid $2.00 to see "The Birth of a Nation" at the Liberty theatre, on 42nd Street, New York, that long ago. And, on the original Armistice Day, Nov. 11th, 1917, we were playing D. W. Griffith's "Hearts of the World" at the Coatesville Auditorium, at an admission price of $1.50 for adults. Why all the excitement about advanced prices now? And, in our experience and belief, good showmen have done all right at advanced prices. One thing only we'll concede, and ALL BUSINESS IS LOCAL Another of those smart remarks that sum up a lot of trade information in few words. It hits home in our business because we focus attention on the box office, which is the local point of sale. The manager on the job is standing where our business ebbs and flows, depending on our contact with the public. National presetting of motion pictures is all very fine; no doubt that a picture can be presold to some extent, more or less, but "all business is local" and, if there isn't the necessary local effort, then the pump-priming is lost, along with production effort and cost of distribution. Estimates of national gross attendance for film theatres vary considerably but, for the most part, can be pure guesswork as often as not. The fact is we believe there are fewer patrons, numerically, going to the movies today than in the past, and we attribute that to a preference for preselling and an inclination to diminish local showmanship. When every theatre is sold to its maximum potential audience, when this business is localized by superior showmanship and house management, there will be a marked increase in national gross attendance against that backlog which presales effort creates in the drawing power of a film. that is when a producer wants an advanced price, he should get in there and help pitch. And there is a matter of arithmetic involved. Pushing up the scale from sixty or ninety cents to $1.25 is one thing, but advancing it from forty cents to $1.25 is crowding your luck beyond common-sense limits. QThe success of the "Cynthia" Clubs which had appeal for teen-age girls should encourage managers to take advantage of National Girl Scout Week, October 26th to November 1st. National Screen Service has an impressive special trailer, with Margaret O'Brien featured, which should be used immediately. But go farther than that. Search out your local Girl Scout organization and do something cooperative, if for no other reason than to let them know that you are aware of their special week, and willing to do something. c^V, c^V, c^Vj 0% A friendly indication of the goodneighbor policy is brought close to home by manager Jerome Schur, of the Laconia theatre, Bronx, New York, who invited storekeepers in his uptown neighborhood to join him in a "welcome home" to good neighbors who had been away for the summer, asking them to drop in, at store and theatre, for a reunion. This goes "back to school" one better, for it brings adult participation, and like all good ideas, its very simplicity makes it workable. (T^V, c^V* e^V, We welcome, as a new member of the Round Table, that well-known manager whose operations reflect the small-town field, Jim Mason, of Cherry Valley. Some who have come too far from the grass-roots say there's no such place as Cherry Valley, but we know a hundred Cherry Valleys, in our mind and memory. And there are those who claim there's no Jim Mason, but we can vouch for him. In fact, we've known a thousand Jim Masons in this business. Jim is a good manager, and we'll welcome news of his DeLuxe theatre, to point the way for other showmen. — Walter Brooks MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER II, 1947 51