Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1956)

HILUX 152 STILL the lowest and one of the finest... HILUX 264 152 FIXED '' VARIABLE ANAMORPHIC LENSES «197 .50 $395-oo EACH PER PAIR See your Theatre Supply Dealer or write us directly . . . NOW PROJECTION OPTICS CO. ROCHESTER, NEW YORK SPECIAL PURCHASEI Another shipment of Simplex rear shutter double bearings has arrived from large circuit. High numbers, latest features. Good condition, for regular or standby use. A steal at only $99.75 each. ★STAR CINEMA SUPPLYCO. 621 Vf. SSth Street, New York 19, N. Y. YOUR QUESTIONS ARE INVITED. If you have a problem of design or maintenance, the editors of BETTER THEATRES will be glad to offer suggestions. Please be as specific as possible so that questions may be answered most helpfully. Address your letter to BETTER THEATRES SERVICE DEPARTMENT, Rockeller Center, New York. we’ve never known exhibitors to agree ver}^ much on anything. A difference of opinion not only is a Constitutional right, it often is a mark of intellectual superiority, and maybe this latter meaning explains why we exhibitors like to disagree with people in general and with each other in particular. Be that as it may, it has been quite a novel experience to find all of the exhibitors whom I have talked to during the past few months in perfect agreement. What they agree on is that business at small town theatres is bad. Maybe that idea does not represent a fair test. It could be an idea for which they have a special weakness. Man tends to be a perverse kind of animal, and exhibitors are nothing human. There is, however, also the possibility that the facts leave them no alternative. Could be they simply don’t know how to argue away the figures. In that case they are forced into complete unanimity on this matter, despite their natural dislike to share the same opinion. • This is so rare a phenomenon in our business that I am inclined to be a bit skeptical about it. For one thing, every now and then I read reports which give the lie to those who insist attendance this winter is bad. I read of records being broken at this and that theatre. If these are true, then does the unity among exhibitors with whom I have been in contact represent a conspiracy? In such matters, as in how to get a picture on the screen, our business used to be much simpler. In the old days business may have been bad in some sections or some seasons, but it was standard practice to say that business was, at least, pretty good. You didn’t tell your butcher that you’d have to eat farther down on the hog because people weren’t attending your shows as they should. That was understood to be poor public relations. • Even if you had figures to prove that attendance at your theatre now is down, would your butcher accept them? He can point to figures that show this country is rolling in prosperity up to its eyebrows. And don’t you, just running off some reels of film, have the softest touch on Main Street ? W e therefore do not believe that any conspiracy to spread the idea of tough times in the theatres business could attain any great amount of success. Even to assume that this unity of opinion is not conspiracy but is really individual acknowledgment of an undeniable truth, it arouses suspicion you do not know (1) that motion pictures have been greatly improved technically, (2) that product is better, (3) that the public is again ‘"talking about the movies." Unanimity of opinion that “business is bad” may thus mean only that the well known orneriness of exhibitors has settled down into a single pattern of plain cantankerousness. • As we said, we are mystified. We do know, however, that you aren’t going to reform exhibitors very easily. Their habit of looking at empty seats and getting certain notions about business is not one which can be got rid of with mere reasoning. You’ve got to have something stronger than that. We wish we knew what that something was. If there is anything else than lively patronage to convince exhibitors that business is good, this industry ought to find out what it is. First thing we Americans do when we get trouble is (rugged individualists that we are) to call a meeting. A meeting offers an opportunity for some person or group to present a panacea. There is no point in observing that the panacea seldom, if ever, develops. The meeting serves a purpose anyhow. It gives all factions a chance to hurl charges of deficient' and delinquency at each other and to work up a feeling that “something is being done.” It is, to be sure, a form of deception, but while it hasn’t done anyone much good, it hasn’t hurt too many people, either. We therefore propose a meeting open to representatives of all branches of the industry and free to discuss any topic pertinent to a mutual desire to increase theatre attendance and to provide for profitable 32 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, FEBRUARY II, 1956