Motion Picture Theater Management (1927)

CHAPTER XXIV Expert Advice THE part of this book which now opens, is a miscellany of elements not directly included in motion picture operation, but prominent in connection with it. Some of the topics to be discussed are the names of features already rooted in the more extensive or more ambitious soil of the industry: advertising, color effects, stage production. Others are comparatively new, but none the less tending to permanence, as in the case of refrigeration. Each of them, however, stands out as a distinct realm of initiative in growth ; and they have been grouped here for no better reason than that their individuality makes it impossible to put them elsewhere without subordinating their uniqueness to some consideration not, strictly, more important. These fields of endeavor within the realm of our business have resulted from the amazing expansion which has necessitated the marking off of specialities for the convenience and the very life of organization. When I say "specialities" I mean all that the word implies. Music, for instance, is a department that needs qualified educational antecedents in the director. Few managers could lead an orchestra; unless I err greatly, no manager should. His calling is elsewhere. The same is true in the now highly technical profession of publicity. Specialization, markedly so in large scale operation, is with us. And before taking up the exposition of so many varied matters, I wish to use this chapter as a kind of introduction. I wish to present the matter of expert advice, from both within and without the organization, and to point out the useful, and often necessary contacts that may be made by an executive along a rich variety of lines. In the business of operating theaters, management fre 237