Publix Opinion (Dec 22, 1928)

ACK KNIGHT EXPLAINS ~ ORIGIN OF PUBLIX MANUAL “During the past few years, so many articles have appeared print quoting various individuals as either stating outright ‘insinuating that they are the authors of the Publix Manual’ | Theatre Operation that I f eel it only fair to mention, at is time, all those who had, in any way, a part in the develop ent of this manual,” declares John T. Knight, Director of! veatre Management for Publix-Balaban and Katz. “Ths manual, the exact title of which is ‘The Training of ieatre Employes for Publix Service,’ is the only work of its nd on record to be regularly copyrighted and filed in the brary of Congress at Washington, D. C. ““Yhe Training of Theatre nployes for Publix Service’ | simply a rearranged edition the original manual which is entitled “The Training of i1eatre Employes for Balaban Katz Service.’ At the time this rearrangement there is nothing of importance in _y way added or substituted. ‘the copyright of this Mgn] the authorship is attribed to Mr. C. E. Willard -of yanson Ogilvie Company, iicago, Illinois, and myself. ‘The Manual idea had its birth the minds of Mr. Sam Katz and . Barney Balaban about eight or re years ago. The oldest list of jjects to be covered in such a jual was written in Mr. Sam .tz’s own handwriting on a piece yellow paper during a visit to Circle Theatre in Indianapolis. th these notes and a few more ‘ide by Mr. Barney Balaban, work s started on a Manual. ‘About six years ago, through : efforts of Mr. John Balaban, a nmittee of Assistant Managers the Balaban & Katz Theatres of icago was appointed, with Mr. _H. Stoll as chairman of that mittee. This committee was ‘nposed of Miles Concannon, Leo ‘land, E. T. Leaper, Max Turner, H. Stoll and myself. The com ~ * (Gp mea na! z Department of Publix -Theatres.| | many nights in getting this Manual Having stepped into the manager-| ship of the.Chicago Theatre, I was at this time promoted to the va-. cancy left by Mr. Marx, that of | Supervisor of Balaban & Katz The-| atres, and I inherited the task of | compiling a Theatre Management | Manual. At that time, Swanson' Ogilvie Company, with whom Mr. | C. E. Willard was associated, was engaged in an advisory capacity | in reorganizing various lines of re| sponsibilities and departments | within our Chicago organization. Mr. Willard and I jointly undertook | the compilation of the Manual en| titled, ‘Training of Theatre Em-| ployes for Balaban & Katz Serv-| ice.’ We worked many weeks on! this and burned the ‘midnight oil’ together—lI furnishing most of the facts and Mr. Willard assisting in compiling those facts in an orderly | logical fashion. However, Mr. Willard, through his study of our) organization, furnished many substantial suggestions which were in| corporated in the Manual. “The parts of the Manual in its | original arrangement which were. covered by all of the notes left for me were used in Parts II and III of the Manual. Parts I and IV were: my own development. In’ Parts II and III the notes furnished covered not more than twenty-five per cent of the material now included in those two parts. After ‘ttee worked for about two mths and finally completed a rewritten manual of about twenfive pages, which was used for period of about a year in the jlaban & Katz Theatres. The jects covered by this Manual re so grouped and classified that xy could and were assigned to lividual members of this comttee to write up, so that the reting Manual was rather a moc¢ of the points of view of the lividual members of this commit ee : “When Mr. Harry Marx, then of lix Theatres home office in New rk, was promoted from Manager ~ the’ Chicago Theatre to Super“or of Balaban & Katz Theatres Chieago, he was definitely asmed the task of compiling addinal material and shaping it into “Manual. Due to the amount of rk involved, development was ty slow and finally Mr. W. K. lander, Advertising Manager Balaban & Katz, was deleed to work with Mr. Marx. iss Elizabeth Powers, former cretary to Mr. Katz, was asmed to do the stenographic work cessary. The method of apoaching the problem of compil=a manual was to clip the variS paragraphs from the old ssistant Managers’ typewritten anual. With the addition of a the B & K Service Manual had} been published the Publix New York office rearranged certain sec| tions and parts of that Manual, and I understand that this rearrangement was done by Mr. E. T. Leaper, at present Manager of the Paramount Theatre in New York. “This rearrangement of the Manual. was forwarded to me inChicago and I handled the publication of it. Manual’s True Story “This, then, is the true story of the much discussed Publix Theatres | Manual and when all is said and done, Mr. Willard and I are the co-) authors of that Manual and are recorded as such in the copyright, filed in Washington. I feel this places credit where credit is due and will clear up in the minds of the authorship of the Manual. | + “In addition to the Manual above discussed, Mr. Willard and myself ples of Balaban & Katz Theatre in conjunction with ings, covering a period from February, 1926, to July 1, 1927, comprise our present methods of instruction and training, and oper w new thoughts, this comprised e work done by Mr. Marx and -r. Hollander. “When Mr. Sam Katz went to ew York to become President of atlix Theatres, Miss Powers rned over to the writer a number ) irty-fi is classifications of ation policies of theatre management. The compiling of ‘Highlights’ was done by Mr. Leo Adams and is copyrighted. ; “This tells the true story in detail. F the happenings in the past, I am justified in going into this amount of detail and in putting myself on record concerning the Publix Manual.” J. A. KOERPEL JOINS MR. FELD’S DIVISION Mr. J. A. Koerpel, former European distribution executive for First National pictures, has been engaged and is assigned to Mr. Feld’s division for preliminary i ite assignment will| Receipts on the opening Saturday showed a 60 per cent advance over | oe is definite > the preceding Saturday be forthcoming. those interested, the question of | are co-authors of a 117-page Man. ual entitled, ‘Fundamental Princi| Management.’ These two Manuals, | ‘Highlights,’ | which is a compilation of excerpts | selected from the minutes of the | Balaban & Katz Managers’ meet| I feel that, in view of the} PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF DECEMBER 22nd, 1928. SELLING POINTS! By RUSSELL HOLMAN ‘Advertising Manager, Paramount-Famous Lasky Pictures) We quote. two comments from Falls stormed Idaho Theatre to-! last Thursday morning and saw one the Film Spectator Welford Beaton, one of the shrewdest, most outspoken and most penetrating observers in. Hollywood: “The output of a studio reflects the atmosphere that prevails on | I enjey visiting the Para-| the lot. mount lot, for the place has a buoyant spirit that is. good to inhale; everyone likes Ben Schulberg and I never hear any knocking. Because such feelings exist on their | — two lots, Paramount and are turning out the highest grade pictures that ever have come to the screen.” Hee che Mr. Beaton’s second coniment: “The most intelligent use of dialogue that I have encountered is in ‘Interference,’ Paramount’s first alltalking picture, and it will be excelled by the dialogue in ‘The Doctor’s Secret,’ if I ean judge; from some rushes that I have seen. I have seen ‘Interference’ as a stage play, a silent motion picture -and a talking motion picture. The one version that stands out as the finest entertainment, the most intimate, artistic and interesting presentation, is the talking picture version, though inits ‘silent.form ‘Interference’ is a fine motion picture.” x ok Ok Considering the fact that “Inter ference” as a stage play ran to capacity business for two years in London and over a year in Broadway, New York, this is no small tribute to our first all-talkie. cay age A theatre manager from Twin Falls, Idaho, writes: “Just closed great exploitation stunt ‘Wings.’ B surrounding country with 15,000 heralds, dodgers and prizes from airplane. Departure and return of pene announced. by whistles and ells.” . Later wire from Twin Falls: “Greatest mob in history of Twin written by)/ night to see ‘Wings.’ bon. It is the manner in which} ithey are combined with other} ‘materials that determines their | -get a beautiful diamond like “In ombed town and’ 2,000 turned? away. Glass broken out of box of-| fice and doors. ‘Wings’ will break: all box officé records. People driving a hundred miles to see it.” ; A good exploitation stunt with | which to build business for the | world’s greatest box office attrac-.| tion and incidentally sell a lot of; extra ad sales. * * : 4 : . ; ed New joys coming in sound pic| tures: Baclanova singing in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” James Hall | (once a musical comedy leading | man, and a very popular one) sing| ing in “The Case of Lena Smith,” | Nancy Carroll singing in “The| Shopworn Angel,” Lupe Velez sing/ ing two Spanish love numbers in| “Wolf Song.” Z| * * | Diamond and coal. Both are} basically the same material—car * nature, their value and attraction. It’s the same with talking motion pictures. All use basically the} same principles. But when Para| mount combines these principles | with brains, resources, superior story and stars who can taik, you terference.” 6 cd OK A young man who will get along: Maurice Chevalier. a * * “The finest. sound picture made! so far.”—Film Daily. ; “Greatest of all examples of this new art.”—Daily Review. “Paramount takes an easy lead in talking pictures.’—-New York World. | Headlines about ‘Interference,’ of course. With box oifice lines at} the Criterion, New York,*to back | up the headlines. | : } \ “ | | Speaking of the Criterion, the home office went over there early ‘run the story serially. EFFECTIVE AND CHEAP of the finest pictures on our this year’s program: “The Shopworn Angel.” We had high hopes for this picture but it has turned out just about five times as fine as we expected. Nancy Carroll turns in a great performance, and Gary Cooper does his best work to date. The last reel is in dialogue with Nancy singing “A Precious Little Thing Called Love.” And how! * * * Walter Vincent, of Wilmer Vincent, writes George Schaefer: “Of all the talking pictures 1 have seen to date, ‘Interference’ is far and away the best. You had a good play to start with, and your cast was adequate. The characters were not yelling to the audience as has pertained in many of the talking pictures to date. I congratulate vou.” (Signed) Walter Vincent. * * * & Stanley Summer, University Theatre, Cambridge, Mass., wires Mr. Schaefer: ““Interference’ proves in every way that talkies have arrived and Paramount is driving the head wagon. It is the most gripping drama I have seen on the screen. People perfect in their parts in both voice and action without exception.. Was amazed at quality and naturalness of voice. Congraulations.” | * * * 'H. R. Mason, Rocky Mount, N. C., and C. H. Arrington, from Goldsboro, N. Cs unite in this wire to Mr. Schaefer: “Congratulations to Paramount on ‘Interference.’ A tremendous advance in the new field.” * * x These men were in New York when we showed “Interference” to the convention and Mr. Schaefer made some hay while the sound showed by slipping them into the Criterion. i | Here is a sample of what ingenuity will do in the Rosetta Theatre, | Little River, Fla., that has no budget for advertising. the lobby display, put in a week before the showing of “Tarzan the. | Mighty,” Manager. N. L. Tower succeeded in getting the local paper to | On the first day of the serial, a live monkey | j and bear were used in front of the theatre as an added attraction. |}. In addition to | BLOCKS TRAFFIC AT THE WORLD’S CROSSROAD Traffic at Broadway and 42d | Street, the crossroad of the world, was blocked a for nearly minutes when Manager twenty Robert | Weitman, of the Rialto Theatre, New York, had his crew of electricians move a full-sized airplane ; from the marquee of the Criterion Theatre to his own theatre across | the street in preparation for the first showing of “Wings’’ at popu ‘lar prices in New York. The great number of people who daily throng this congested center | could not help but become aware of the change in the showing of | this picture and a great deal of valuable publicity was obtained in i this way. No Let-Up in “Abie” Biz 3rd Week, Cincinnati {From Motion Picture News) Cincinnati, Ohio,—‘‘Abie’s Irish Rose,” which had a capacity week on the original booking at the Lyric, and was therefore held for an extra seven days, is beginning its third and final week, with no apparent let-up in attendance. Claude Saunders, special exploiteer for Paramount, came on from New York for the opening, and has been in the city ever since putting on some effective publicity and exploitation stunts, all of which .has helped business immensely, especially since the local dailies have played up Saunders’ activities every day.