Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1956)

Grass Roots Psychology Is Easier Seen Than Spelled says . • . owner-manager of the Northwood theatre in Northwood, la. THIS IS an easy business in which to find yourself getting into a rut. Every day, week and month you repeat what you did the day, week and month before. Take billing, for instance — Today I went billing eight neighboring towns on a month of programs. This time I had a double mission. I was going primarily to get somebody to look at one of my calendars long enough to think about seeing a show, and secondarily to talk to hinterlanders about movies, weather and television. The mercury had climbed to zero from its early morning low, and by 9:30 I was alternately sloshing and slipping over patches of frozen gravel and packed snow, each mile generously sprinkled with fat hen pheasants growing fatter gorging themselves on to-market-spilt corn and busily indifferent to mid-century traffic. I had eight towns in two states to bill today, my territory laying as much in Minnesota as it does in Iowa. There was no time to waste, as tomorrow' I must take half the day seeing that my program is properly hung in the stores of the 73 local merchants, about eight of whom come to the show more or less infrequently. It takes longer to bill Northw^ood, this being a county seat metropolis complete with court house and fire engine. Having tried for a long time to identify the cause of the slump of the small town box-office from my office chair, I wanted today to take my problem to the people. After explaining by theories derived from self-hypnosis and ordinary trances why they aren’t coming to movies as in days of yore, I find that the only sensible idea developed by all this swivel chair probing into is that we’ve got the people over-analyzed. They don’t know the answer any more than we do ! When you speak to them of the subconscious self-identification that we high-class analyzers think is the reason they come to shows, they just give you the fish eye and wonder what in hell you’re talking about. Here are some typical findings, town by tow'n as I ran into them today. Just a mile inside Minny Soda lies the post office and depot of Gordonsville. The post office also contains the grocery and the dry goods store, the gas station and the cafe. It’s not a shopping center, as you might think. After I tacked up my calendar and hung my one-sheet, I slipped on to a stool for a cup of unwanted coffee. The proprietor made sure he had my nickle and then opened the conversation by asking what I thought of that horrible exhibition of bowling on TV yesterday afternoon. When I told him I hadn’t seen it he gave me a full rundown on the fiasco, complete as to spares and splits. His conversation was no better than his coffee, so I took off for Glenville. Now there is a town ! It used to be about a thousand, I guess, but the coming of cars, closing of the harness shop, explosion of the tavern, and paved highways have made it a ghost town. It took four blocks of walking over slippery snow-packed sidewalks on Main Street to get rid of 19 programs and another one-sheet. By this time I was ready for my second cup of coffee. The lady in the cafe showed her friendliness by opening a conversation, for which effort she employed this very sage observation, “Television hasn’t hurt the shows much, has it?’’ I said, “No, only about 50%. ” She followed this up by saying that she hadn’t seen a show for nearly two years, but she liked them so much better than the stuff they have on television. She was quickly taken to task by some grandpa, whom I’d never seen before, who claimed that he’d just as soon see movies on TV as anywhere. He liked them. This gal said she used to stay open when the jackrabbit ran one night a week, but that circuit had only been patronized by teen-agers this winter, and teen-agers never seemed to have more than a nickel to spend after the show, so she now closed every night. But then so has the jack-rabbit closed and Glenville becomes more and more spooky. • Myrtle lies about eight miles east of Glenville and the trip over is always sheer delight to the viewer who loves the sight of big prosperous-looking farms with large 400 or 500 Waft Forced Air Heaters — Custom made for Your Theatre — 220, 208 or 1 10 Volts. World's Finest 100% ALL ALUMINUM CONSTRUCTION with the NEW, EXCLUSIVE ALUMINUM CHIMNEY THERMOLATOR iNKAR HEATERS G-IVE YOUR PATRONS LIVING ROOM COMFORT AND SAFETY I HEATERS AND WIRING MAY BE LEASED FOR WINTER PROFITS WRITE. WIRE OR CALL THERMOLATOR CORPORATION 1628 VICTORY BLVD. GLENDALE, CALIF. MANAGERS! Get This Handy Helper— The Master Guide to Theatre Maintenance —a book of practical information to READ and KEEP for REFERENCE $5.00 postpaid Published by Aaron Nadell. Order from — QUIGLEY BOOKSHOP 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y. BETTER THEATRES SECTION 33