Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1927)

December io, 1927 D ollar N otes in N ew O rgan Edward L. Hyman didn’t wait till old one killed patronage — he got a new one — in time IT WAS A GOOD ORGAN — the one we already had. Nothing very wrong with it — yet. But Edward L. Hyman looks ahead. That is how he keeps the business steadily on the good will side of the ledger at the Brooklyn Mark Strand theatre. He knew that I would be running to him before long to have the experts come and fix up this or that. He knew the tuning would have to be more frequent, the upkeep would cost more and more. He knew that though he already had a good organ, at the same time a new one and a better one would satisfy his patrons even more, give them something to tell their friends about and in this way create new business and readjust his hold upon the old customers. That is the very same reason that other improvements were also ordered, among them changes in the stage, orchestra pit and even in the lobby. MR. Hyman does not think in the terms that some exhibitors use. To him the things that are going to keep business growing, make new friends and hold the old ones, are much more important than the “how can I get along without spending any more money.” It is often sound policy from the standpoint of showmanship, not to wait till we\ have to get a new organ or lose business. I agreed with him. From my personal standpoint I exulted in the idea of the new instrument I knew he had been thinking about. It would certainly be something to be proud of. So — the new organ was ordered. Now I will wager that a lot of organists who read this will wish they worked for a showman like Mr. Hyman. From what I pick up it seems that a good many of the men who hold the purse strings don’t pay much attention to the organ once it becomes a part of the theatre. They don’t consider it as a finely organized, beautifully built mechanism. But it is. However, no matter how splendidly a musical instrument may be designed, no matter how expert may its builders be, there comes a time in its life when it begins to show wear. Isn’t it the same way with your automobile? You don’t like to drive a car that looks antique, that sounds like a boiler factory going full blast ! By GEORGE CROOK Chief Organist, Mark Strand Theatre, Brooklyn, N. Y. As you sit and look at the Show you don’t stop to think an organ is moulding moods by its soft strains but when the picture is over you think you have seen a better show than usual and by that you know George Crook was at that Strand organ. Not because sir. It’s be WHY don’t you like to have a car like that? of the personal discomforts involved. No cause of what your friends will think of you! Well, Mr. Hyman is the sort of showman who makes his audience his friends. From the smile of the girl at the ticket window, right on through the staff of the Mark Strand, there is built up a sense of the importance to the theatre of every patron’s good will and friendship. It’s valuable. It’s priceless. Mr. Hyman intends to keep it. He would as soon have his intimate friends “pan” him and josh him about his car as to have his patrons even think disparagingly of anything he offers them in his theatre. Much rather, in fact, because with intimates the joke would be only on himself. At the Strand it would reflect on a great theatre organization, on the entire personnel of the theatre, on the community standing of the Mark Strand itself. Nothing like that for the managing director of this house. He got a new organ before he needed it. From my personal standpoint I think that is a corking way to go after business. In the first place, it offers the theatre an opportunity to sell its music to a new host of music lovers and to re-sell its progressiveness, its community service, its aliveness, to the regulars. FROM another angle it is good, sound common -sense business practice. Most theatres depend largely, many depend solely, on organ music. If you have the least doubt of the effectiveness of organ music, run your picture through without any music just once. One of two things will happen. Either your audience will lose ninety-nine per cent, of the charm and feeling of the picture or they will tell you that the absence of the organ accompaniment was a godsend. In the first case you will know how important it is to have musical investiture for your film. In the second you will know how important it is to get a new organ. Why wait till the audience snickers at sour notes, till the organist has to do gymnastics to transpose around some bad keys, some silent pipes? And if you don’t want bad keys and silent pipes, it is a lot better to get yourself a new business builder, as Mr. Hyman did, before it becomes a “must”. Being an organist, this may sound queer, coming from me — but look at it this way: the organist of any theatre feels, and rightly, that he is a pretty important cog in the smooth working machinery of theatre operation. If he is encouraged by being given a fine instrument to work with he will strive to live up to his instrument. Otherwise you are not talking about an organist : you are thinking of a fellow who is getting easy money from you, and that sort isn’t really a theatre organist at all. The real organist is a person who takes pride in his (or her) work, realizes its importance to the well being of the theatre. Such can hardly fail to be discouraged when he or she — for there are many competent women manipulating theatre organ stops and equaling the men at bringing symphonic quality from a fine instrument — when such a one, I repeat, discovers that there is no disposition to care what the music is like, in what condition the delicately attuned musical masterpiece is kept, then is a slump. Discouragement reacts against good creative playing and no audience has yet failed to sense lackadaisical music. It doesn’t match the fine products being shown on the screen. Nor does the music impress or please the audience. And there are many theatres today wondering why they have so many empty seats and right under the proscenium stands the answer — the organ. It isn’t sufficient that the organ is good enough today. It must sell tickets next month too.