Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1956)

barns, neat fences, fat cattle — and, nowadays, antenna-ed houses. It’s a rich looking country, but you wouldn’t think so from the looks of Myrtle. That’s a town’s name. Myrtle people gave up about 25 years ago. You can see it when you enter town. I found no conversation about movies, weather or even television. I dumped my programs and sheets and skedaddled. If you ever want a good place in which to give up, remember Myrtle, IMinn. Seven more miles down the road lies London. Yes it does, really. Look it up. It’s probably got 300 people — and no “exciting new personalities.’’ A new cafe just opened and I found a real good spot for my program near the cash register. It was too lonesome to stay for another cup of coffee, so I barged into the barber shop. Somebody was hiding under a half-inch layer of lather as 1 went in, but that didn’t stop him from talking. He was saying, “My Gawd, they must have wonderful bodies — the falls they take. Ol’. Gorgeous George really put the squeeze on that guy the other night, didn’t he?” That was close enough shave for me, so I did my pantomime and exited rear left. Minnesota was getting me down, so I slid back down into Iowa and started billing Kensett. It’s my closest and bestdrawing territory and their jack-rabbit also folded this winter. One of the grocers held me up for about five minutes as he told me about a neighboring town to the east whose theatre closed two weeks ago and then added, as an afterthought, as he smiled like a skunk eating applesauce, “Too much television!” That remark recalled Glenville. Out on the highway was the usual lineup of struggling gas stations and eating joints. Each got a program and, so help me, in three of them there were listless women behind counters while dirty children wallowed around the booths, while up on the wall was a television set taking the woman out of her drab surroundings with some soap opera. Actually the dame in the soap opera was having a lot worse time of it than she was! Now just how do you approach people like that about movies? After 1 left Kensett I hurried tlirough Manly, where they asked me if I thought my good friend Doc, who ran a theatre there, would reopen the show again. From there to Grafton, where they were too busy talking about the results of last week’s county basketball tournament to want to talk about showbusiness. The barber, who hangs a weekly program for me for a permanent pass, said, “Gosh, we haven’t been any place all winter.” I said, “You and ten thousand others.” • Dusk was due when I wound up at Carpenter. Didn’t have time to conduct much research. Everyone getting ready to go home and I had to drive ten miles home, eat, clean up and get into the box office in 90 minutes. Only conversation I heard was some farmer telling the boys in a service station, “Her bread is so tough I have to soak it in water to eat it. The damn dog won’t even eat it. And pie crust — man, I haven’t eaten pie crust since she started cooking.” I figured he had enough trouble without me talking to him about mine, so I went on home. You’ve read this far hoping to find an lems will be acceptable to the Government, f/ in line with general industry practise. If serious doubt exists, check with your civilian tax authority (lawyer, accountant or business advisor), or with the local office of the Internal Revenue Service. No one is going to be 100% right about such anticipated life for the many pieces of equipment we use, and corrections can be made at a later date if an error becomes glaringly obvious. At the time it becomes necessary to replace a piece of equipment, if it has not been fully appreciated, then the balance can be written off as obsolescence at the time of the change (deducting therefrom any salvage value) in a lump sum. Of course, many items will be continued in use after they have been fully depreciated, in which case they will simply be removed from your books as far as depreciation is concerned. You can only charge them off one time! Then if you are being fair with your public — therefore, in the long run to your business — having guessed the useful life answer to your problem that I’ve so patiently dug out for you. Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve found the answer. You wanta know what’s wrong with the small town theatre? Television. Surprised? • Say, did you see where last month’s column said “exhibitors are nothing human”? What I did say on my typewriter was that we exhibitors are “nothing if not human.” But one of the printer’s type setters seems to have substituted his own opinion of us! pretty closely, you might well give some thought to modernization plans! Unfortunately, one finds all too many theatres operating with equipment which was obviously charged off years ago, and which is definitely not in character with a modern place of entertainment with which one can cope with today’s competition for the amusement dollar. This is, in our estimation, a case of being penny wise and dollar foolish, for the trend is towards modernization — or forced retirement in favor of more practical, more aggressive competition ! METHODS OF DEPRECIATION We’ve mentioned already the new phase of the Declining Balance method of depreciation, but for comparative purposes we summarize below the other systems, which are optional in arriving at the same general objective in determination of taxes. 1. STRAIGHT LINE METHOD— Most commonly used (probably because of its utter simplicity), which divides the anticipated life of the equipment into equal 200% DECLINING SUM OF STRAIGHT LINE BALANCE DIGITS Year Annual Charge Cumu lative Annual Charge Cumu lative Annual Charge Cumu lative 1 . . $10,000 $10,000 $20,000 $20,000 $18,182 $18,182 2 . 10,000 20,000 16,000 36,000 16,364 34,546 3 10,000 30,000 12,800 48,800 14,545 49,091 4 10,000 40,000 10,240 59,040 12,727 61,818 5 10,000 50,000 8,192 67,232 10,909 72,727 6 10,000 60,000 6,554 73,786 9,091 81,818 7 10,000 70,000 5,243 79,029 7,272, 89,091 8 . . 10,000 80,000 4,194 83,223 5,455 94,546 9 10,000 90,000 3,355 86,578 3,636 98,182 10 10,000 100,000 2,684 89,262 1,818 100,000 COMPARATIVE DEPRECIATION CHARGES according to three methods allowed hy 19S4 Federal Income Tax Law, as applying to new assets valued at $100,000, with an estimated life of 10 years. (From “New Revenue Code of ’54 Explained” by Commerce Clearing House, Inc.) DEPRECIATION IN TAX CALCULATIONS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 34 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 3, 1956