Motion Picture Herald (1954)

What tfcu Jake Out hejeent/j Oh What t/cu Put % Showmanship, we mean, what you get back in cash that you can deposit at the bank, is measured by the amount of energy that you put behind your promotion, publicity, advertising and public relations. Now, more than ever before, it depends on personal effort and showman’s skills, to meet the mark with a passing grade. Doing a bit of traveling lately, to Ohio, Boston and Toronto, on three separate trips, we observed the visible differences between those who work at their jobs, and those who are drifting with the tide. Large situations and small, the results are the same. If you don’t get behind the new product and push, you won't win back old customers or take them away from new competition. We have new dimensions to fight back with, but it still requires showmanship. Ted Schlanger, Philadelphia zone manager for Stanley-Warner theatres, hit the' nail on the head when he told an assembly of his managers what he had concluded after visiting 59 situations under his supervision. He said it was true that we have been blessed with a number of very good pictures this year, and that Stanley-Warner’s circuit business was obviously better, as compared with last year. But, he said, there were also good pictures last year — pictures like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" — "Moulin Rouge’’ — "Band Wagon” — "Stalag 17” and “Shane" — so it wasn’t entirely the result of new product that the grosses are up this year. He attributes it to the drive that Stanley-Warner managers have put behind current films— a drive that has had more push and power in it, and has been better organized, to obtain maximum results at the box office. We saw the same effect in Toronto last week, and in Boston, the week before. Business is good for those who make it good — and it drifts for those who drift with it. It’s not only the big circuits that display this business acumen — it’s also obvious in independent theatres, located in small communities, remote from any centralized drive other than their own ability and inclination to find showmanship ideas in meetings of the Round Table, and their pressbooks. KOREAN WAR ORPHANS f\ / m i ^ / UV* ■ v VeH' The Round Table's Foster Parents Plan has taken on new importance in Canada. Jim Cameron, Lakehead supervisor for Famous Players-Canadian at Fort William, Ontario, reports that the youngsters of his "Recess Time" Matinee club, now want one of their "adopted" children to visit them, and they have started a separate activity to bring a Korean lad to Fort William. The youngsters are mowing lawns, digging gardens, collecting wire hangers, baby sitting and taking dogs for walks, to raise the money. Since last year, the children of "Uncle Ken" Keehn's club at the Lyceum theatre, have been contributing to the support of a Korean boy, and there has been an exchange of correspondence and photographs, back and forth. The children like it; the community likes it, and the circuit likes it. Korean kids need someone's personal interest, across the seas. q SOME PROOF that British showmen are superior in their arts of selling approach is contained in the fact that LTNESCO prints comparative figures to show that there is a total of 26 visits a year to the cinema for each inhabitant of the United Kingdom, while there is an average of only 15 per year for each person in the United States. The publication, "Basic Facts and Figures” gives a total of 4,595 British film theatres, with a seating capacity of 4,200,000 and paid admissions totaling 1,312,000,000. In the U. S., there were 17,000 theatres with a combined seating capacity of 10.200,000 and an annual attendance of 2,300,000,000. This rather proves what we’ve been saying, that the British are better showmen, and that they work harder at the task of getting the public to buy tickets, at the point of sale. Britain, to quote the same UNESCO report, had only 12,000,000 radio receivers last year, as compared to our 110,000,000, with nothing said about TV. We’re about as much up on the British in this comparison, also. They haven’t begun to feel the effect of movies in the home, and it will hurt. COMPO has made it possible for theatre managers to get special films, as, for instance, “This is Your Army" — a feature length Technicolor picture produced by the Department of Defense, which will be released December 13th. It will not be “for free" — but will be sold at a nominal price, to recover the cost of 250 prints, with the balance accruing to the U. S. Treasury and Army Relief. Nine major distributors will handle the picture, dividing the country between them. It’s wise to make your application early. This is a better plan than was effective in the release of official war films, when every major news-reel received 500 prints and potential theatre patrons saw each picture so many times it was painful, as well as wasteful. You felt like crawling under the seat when the same official war film made still another appearance on the screen of a neighborhood theatre. — Walter Brooks MANAGERS’ ROUND TABLE SECTION, OCTOBER 2, 1954 43