Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1955)

We WcHiteted PkeMfMpk WaJ HefeYp ^tatf Ever since Thomas A. Edison perfected the phonograph — which, of course, was many years after the Russians invented the talking machine — people have been saying this ancient device was on the way out. The wiseacres have consigned the phonograph to oblivion, a dozen times. And, it’s not only still here, but it was never more prosperous, so don’t believe all you hear from fortune tellers. In fact, it’s the development and perfection of “Hi-Fi” — high-fidelity in sound recording — that has gone far in saving our own skins. Film industry can be grateful to the recording trades, for their research and results. They are selling more records, and for higher prices, today, than Thomas Alva Edison would have believed possible. Record sales run into millions — “Davy Crockettf’ has just passed 4,000,000 pressings, which is another kind of a record. To start at the top in achievement — Decca Records today owns the control of Universal Pictures, and to the advantage of everybody concerned. MGM has its own record label, and it is an asset to the company’s stockholders. Columbia Broadcasting Company absorbed Columbia Records — making a merger that accomplished more than merely the preservation of a good family name. You have only to pick up the newspapers and magazines to discover that they devote more pages of publicity and promotion to records than they do to motion pictures. It’s big business, all the way, and a growing business that will never be let down. Come tape or transcription, folks will always want the “playback” on their own home grounds. Moral in this is to fully appreciate our new dimensions — and keep looking, and planning ahead. No wiser advice was ever given than the Red Queen’s remark to “Alice in Wonderland.” — “It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else — you must run at least twice as fast.” We’re in a Looking Glass business — and it’s not the first time we’ve quoted Lewis Carroll TELEVISION-1965 "Television Digest" of Radio News Bureau, Washington, has published its prognostication of what television will be like, ten years from now. They foresee 65,000,000 television sets in use, which will resemble "pictures on the wall" — weighing only a few pounds, and costing less than they do today. Sixty per cent will be color sets, including portables. The complicated mass of wiring inside a TV set will be replaced by circuits which will be "printed" on flat sheets, to act as conductors. The big power tubes will be replaced by tiny "transistors" no bigger than your finger tip. "Tape" networks will be common, and 1,000 stations will obtain fullsound, full-color and picture "transcriptions" as easily as you can say Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company — the manufacturers of the magnetic tape for these complete recordings. Advertisers will spend $3,500,000,000 — that's three and a half billion dollars — in 1965, which is just about three times the total income of all branches of motion picture industry — production, distribution and exhibition, today. Radio will thrive — and there will be a hundred million radio sets in use, in addition to millions of automobile and even "wrist" radios — originally patented by Dick Tracy. They also predict that if subscription TV is a success, "neighborhood movies will be wiped out." On that cheerful note, we're going home to Pennsylvania to look over that last small parcel of real estate in which we have a continuing interest. on these editorial pages. The wonder is that wonders never cease, and there’s nothing really permanent but the certainty of change. Film industry need never worry about the far distant future, if we stop taking the status quo as something for granted. ^ RECENTLY we had a “Selling Approach” review of the pressbook on “The Sea Chase” — but we’ve just seen a publicity scene in Sunday’s New York Times, in free space, which gives us an entirely different slant on the picture, that the pressbook didn’t convey. (If they can get free space in the Times for publicity stills, you better try a few on your own newspaper man.) And, out-of-town, we saw examples of theatre advertising in which they never mentioned more than the top two names in an all-star cast. For instance, “Deep In My Heart” — without a mention of Helen Traubel. It happened that a smart audience was more interested in her than the stars — and that she delivered a great performance. You can’t be sure, when you only tell part of the story, that you haven’t omitted exactly the sales approach that will bring back those lost patrons, now roaming the highways and byways in search of entertainment. q NATIONAL THEATRES has begun a nation-wide campaign to obtain sponsored audiences, such as the Kaiser Steel-Fox West Coast deal, whereby company employees see current films in Fox theatres on a mass basis. Lem Jones, Fox short subject sales manager, has been given the assignment of making national tie-ups for major Fox pictures, in as many situations as can be included in such a project. Currently, over a period of three to five days, 23,000 Kaiser employees, relatives and friends, have seen exclusive showings of “Daddy Long Legs” in Fox theatres in Pomona and San Bernardino. The steel company pays a guarantee, and delivers its own key message at the showings. All this is something highly pertinent in many industrial situations, and has been cultivated by theatres of the Schine circuit and others, who capitalize the benefit of mass ticket selling in wholesale lots. A local industry in a small town may buy quantities of tickets for their employees, several times a year. — Walter Brooks MANAGERS’ ROUND TABLE SECTION. JUNE 18. 1955 37