Motion Picture News (Apr-Jun 1919)

May 10, i o i o 3011 South Needs Dose of 'Pep' Says Wells In Exclusive Interview Granted MOTION PICTURE News North Carolina Theatre Man Declares Industry Is Losing Four Million a Year Through Blindness of Exhibitors to Their Opportunities — Suggests Campaign EXHIBITORS in five Southern States are losing an annual revenue of from four million to five million dollars, and exchanges are being deprived of at least a million dollars a year in rentals, because of the inertia and indifference of theatre owners toward possibilities for industrial development, according to Percy Wells, owner and active director of five theatres in Wilmington, N. C, and an officer in the recently organized Southeastern Theatre Managers' Association. Mr. Wells made this statement to Motion Picture News while he was in New York last week to cooperate with Willard C. Patterson of the Criterion Theatre, Atlanta, and other officers of the new exhibitor organization in bringing to the attention of the executives of various distributing concerns the objections of the Southeastern exhibitors to the trade rules adopted by Atlanta exchanges. Theory has r>o part in the opinions of Mr. Wells. His success in Wilmington is proof positive that his statements have the merit of being facts, in so far as they concern undeveloped revenue in North Carolina, South Carolina. Georgia, Florida and Alabama. "Four Million a Year" That theatres in these states are losing a certain gross income of at least four million dollars a year, a part of which would constitute rentals and added financial encouragement to producers and stars to make bigger and better productions, Mr. Wells declares is due to the following causes : The exhibitors are not good mixers. They lack initiative and the ambition to progress. They take no interest in local activities beyond the confines of their own box offices. They do not make any particular effort to interest the public in motion pictures. They do not attempt to popularize themselves, their theatres or the industry. They make no pretense of seeking local prestige by any means. " And as a consequence," declared Mr. Wells, " they are classed as showmen — nothing else. It has long been a tradition in the South that a showman was the promoter of a 'hootch' show or a short change artist operating behind gaudy carnival banners with the protests of his victims drowned in the roar of a brass band. " Because of the personal dispositions of "exhibitors, as I have just enumerated them, the motion picture business in mamcities and towns in the South still ranks in public estimation with the dreaded lure of the old-time carnival and wagon show. " There are exceptions. There are exhibitors who operate their theatres according to progressive business principles. They have made themselves and their houses integral parts of the local communities. They are respected by the public. The}7 have gained a prominent position in local business life. They sell screen entertainment just as any retail merchant sells his wares. They are always alert for opportunities to increase their patronage. They use dignified methods, and they have won the respect and admiration of their communities by a brand of ambitious conduct that has placed the motion picture high in public esteem. Percy W. Wells, of Wilmington, N. C " You can get their names from the account books of any exchange in Atlanta. You will find them among the early-run accounts for the best of the better class of attractions that have been released in the last year.' They do not patronize junk productions. The fact that a five-reel feature can be rented for $10 a day does not interest them. They want attractions at S100, or for rentals in proportion, according to population, because they possess the energy, the courage, the vision and the ability to make them profitable factors in their success. " It is absolutely a fact that the average exhibitor in the South is not a good mixer. He sums up his business as a matter of so many seats, a machine that will still 'grind 'em through,' a couple of one-sheet frames, a small reader ad in the local papers and patrons who, in his befogged estimation, will not pay more than ten cents to see a re-staging of the original battle of Chateau-Thierry. "Again, as an average, he is a narrow, cynical individual, absolutely impervious to ordinary forms of argument and conviction that his business lias hidden possibili ties worth thousands of dollars to him if they are dug out of the dark and developed. He is passive in his attitude toward his theatre and all things pertaining to it. The matter, of rental price is of far more importance to him than the degree of qualityhe can purchase at a given figure. "Local civic happenings hold no interest or opportunities for him. That his screen can be made the medium for molding public opinion in favor of worthy local propaganda is unbelievable. And — even though he did relent and permit it, he wouldn't get a bit of thanks or appreciation. Xo, sir ! " Still as an average exhibitor, he makes no effort to popularize himself or his theatre. The same old lobby arrangement of a couple of posters, a reader ad, and ' grind 'em through,' day after day. I'll venture the statement that there are scores of exhibitors in the South who have never used a unique lobby display, and who would dy namite the community into panic if a theatre ad ran over six lines maximum in a newspaper. " There are many communities in the South where motion pictures are still the cheap, tawdry sensational type of five years ago. There are localities in which theatre patrons firmly believe that scratches, oil spots, confusing jumps in continuity due to breaks and hasty patching, and subtitles so shortened by wear and cutting that they cannot be read through are the natural, normal thing. " North Carolina, as an example of development possibilities, is not producing more than twenty-five per cent of the revenue that is there, if only it is sought in practical, progressive ways. In the five states as a unit motion picture patronage is not more than forty per cent developed. The reasons for this condition are those I have just cited in characterizing the average exhibitor." Negro Possibilities Undeveloped The negro element was declared by Mr. Wells to be a source of profitable attention which is being almost wholly ignored in many communities. To prove his claim that negro patronage is worth while and at prices that are charged white patrons, he gave the following figures of admission charges and seating capacities for his theatres in Wilmington : Royal Theatre, eight hundred seats : balcony devoted to negroes has three hundred seats. Prices, main floor and balcony, twenty and thirty cents. Bijou Theatre, eight hundred seats: balcony devoted to negroes has two hundred seats. Prices, ten cents regularly, twenty on special feature days. Victoria Theatre, eleven hundred seats: balcony with three hundred seats for negroes only. Prices, main floor and balcony, twenty-five, thirty-five and fifty cents. Academy Theatre, legitimate house, eleven hundred seats, with a balcony seating four hundred and twenty-five. The Grand Theatre, fifth of the Wells houses, has five hundred seats, with admission prices of fifteen and twenty cents, but caters exclusively to white patrons because there is no balcony arrangement to permit segregation. " The negroes are just as interested as white people in good screen entertainment," continued Mr. Wells. " They are finding the screen a marvelous educational (Continued on page 3012)