Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Sep 1956)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD rjCetterS to the ^Jherci id Must Work Together To the Editor: I have been reading letters to the editor for many years concerning the good and bad points about the theatre business. Now I will give my viewpoints. Picture producers and exhibitors all must have concrete plans about pictures and theatres and must work together to keep each other in business. What we need today to keep the industry alive is a good stimulus and some plain common sense. Let’s look at our business as the average business man who makes an item that sells for less than a dollar. In order to outsell the other makers of the same item, it must be better and have more appeal for the buyer. That is the same pattern we must follow in the theatre business. The average admission is less than a dollar to the movies, which is lower than prices to any other form of entertainment. This fact must be stressed at all times to the ticket buyer by some method. Produce pictures that will get the largest attendance into the theatres, that is the women and family trade who always have been the backbone of the industry. Forget about pictures for the teen-agers who are just fly-by-night trade and do not benefit the theatres. More personal appearances of stars to both first and subsequent run theatres would help to increase grosses. I suggest that the “Big Six” each have a man on the board of directors who knows the likes and dislikes of the average ticket-buyer by daily contact with them. This man is a theatre manager anywhere or any place in the United States. — HAL ENGEL, Mgr., Temple Theatre, Union City, N. J. Physical Theatre To the Editor: In your issue of January 14, 1956 in the Managers Round Table department you published a story entitled “The Importance of the Theatre in the Town” which has since become even more timely and I would like permission to reprint this article to be used as a mailing to all newspaper editors and presidents of local civic clubs in the more than 100 towns where we have business. Speaking of the wave of small town theatres closing, you may be interested in a situation, opened brand new a year ago next month, that has shown a continuous profit. This theatre is modern, with widely spaced, brand new seats, air conditioned and immaculately clean but above all, according to the owners, they give top credit to their proper presentation of Cinemascope, the writer having insisted upon correct screen ratio at the time of the installation. Yet, all around them, and generally, less than one half of the theatres in the Charlotte area state that CinemaScope has not meant one thing to them. Just a glance at their screen sizes is all you would need to see why. Further, the writer and associates have under our supervision several small town theatre remodeling jobs, outstanding among them the Lamar theatre, Lamar, S. C., where the former manager acquired the house from the out-of-town owners three months ago, where CinemaScope was shown on old 2-D screen with “bed sheets” sewed on each side, among many more equally stupid points of neglect. This is a shining example of the writer’s contention that what this industry needs is completely new ownership and the hammering home of “Up-dating to equal that living room comfort and cleanliness.” — Edward A. Rosenblatt, Theatrical Engineering Company, Charlotte, N. C. • Congratulations To the Editor: Congratulations on that fine article Floyd Stone wrote on Ed Sullivan, one of our finest ambassadors of good will. Not only does Ed Sullivan give a tremendous boost to individual pictures, but many times his coverage is good public relations for the whole business. His presentation of the stars from Hollywood on his program Sunday night (June 24) although a plug for “The King and I,” was great for the industry as he brought out the part the stars were playing in the establishment of that new hospital at UCLA .—EARLE M. HOLDEN, the Lucas Theatre, P. O. Box 1096, Savannah, Ga. The columns of the “ Letters to the Herald"” department of The Herald are open always , as they have been over the years since this publication began, to anyone whose interest in the welfare of the motion picture, as an art and an industry, impels him to voice to the people of that industry a viewpoint, a constructive criticism or even a pat-on-the-back for all or any part of the business. Letters should be signed to attest their authenticity. July 7, 1956 Page BRIGHT SUMMER seen with upturn in business expected 12 FOX INTERMOUNTAIN finds film festival box-office booster 12 BOX-OFFICE must be hypoed, industry leaders agree I 5 SCHINE CIRCUIT offers participation plan to managers 21 NEW HOPE rises for British tax relief 22 THE BOX-OFFICE champions for the month of June 3 I SERVICE DEPARTMENTS Refreshment Merchandising Film Buyers' Rating Hollywood Scene Managers' Round Table The Winners' Circle National Spotlight People in the News In for JULY Section begins opposite 44 REMODELED Riverview in Minneapolis MOVIES in a Garden. Lakeland. Fla. PROGRESS Toward a Better Picture IN PRODUCT DIGEST SECTION REVIEWS (In Product Digest): Somebody Up There Likes Me, Francis in the Haunted House, Simon and Laura, Massacre, Magnificent Roughnecks, Jedda the Uncivilized. 39-44 3rd Cover 25 33 26 27 24 Showmen's Reviews 961 Short Subjects 963 The Release Chart 964 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, Martin Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Martin Quigley, Jr., Editor; Raymond Levy, Executive Publisher; Charles S. Aaronson, Managing Editor; Floyd E. Stone, Photo Editor; Vincent Canby, News Editor; Ray Gallagher, Advertising Manager; Gus H. Fausel, Production Manager, bureaus: Hollywood, Samuel D. Berns, Manager; William R. Weaver, Editor, Yucca-Vine Building, Telephone HOIlywood 7-2145; Chicago, 120 So. LaSalle St., Urben Farley, Advertising Representative, Telephone Financial 6-3074; Washington, J. A. Otten, National Press Club; London, Hope Williams Burnup, Manager; Peter Burnup, Editor; William Pay, News Editor, 4 Bear St., Leicester Sq. Correspondents in principal capitals of the world. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. Motion Picture Herald is published every Saturday by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., Rockefeller Center, New York City 20. Telephone Circle 7-3100; Cable address: "Quigpubco, New York", Martin Quigley, President; Martin Quigley, Jr., VicePresident; Theo. J. Sullivan, Vice-President and Treasurer; Raymond Levy, Vice-President, Leo J. Brady, Secretary. Other Quigley Publications: Better Theatres and Better Refreshment Merchandising, ecch published thirteen times a year as a section of Motion Picture Herald; Motion Picture Daily, Television Today, Motion Picture Almanac, Television Almanac, Fame. 8 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JULY 7, 1956