Publix Opinion (Dec 20, 1929)

PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF DECEMBER 20tn, 1929 9 PARTY AT HOME OF MARY BRIAN PUT ON RADIO A radio broadcast of a Christmas party held at the home of Mary Brian, Paramount featured -_ player, will be the highlight of the regular weekly ParamountPublix hour which will be out on the air Saturday night, December 21st, at 10 o’clock (Eastern Standard Time) over the national network of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Such favorites of the screen as Jack Oakie, Lillian Roth, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Stanley Smith and Richard ‘‘Skeets’’ Gallagher, the latter dtting as master of ceremonies, are included on Miss Brian’s list of guests and will broadeast their frolic of that evening. The party will be relayed to Station WABC, New York, and then rebroadcast throughout the country. Each of the screen players will contribute to the program. The hour will open in New York with David Mendoza conducting the Paramount symphony orchestra. Then Paul Ash will be introduced as master of ceremonies at the eastern end and will stage his musical acts in the Paramount playhouse, the de luxe theatre of the air. Featured with Ash are such radio favorites as Veronica Wiggins, Paul Small, Dorothy Adams, the Paramount Four and the Paramount popular orchestra. Following this presentation, the party at the home of Miss Brian in Hollywood will be picked up. Press Agents, This Should Stir You! Press agents — the Pagliaccis of show business — _ king-fora-day-stuff —laugh-clown-laugheven tho. your heart is preaking—and other things like that, will get. a hot-jerk or flash out of a clipping Your Editor found in a Tampa newspaper, concerning Wally Allen, Publix Supervisor of Advertising and Publicity for Florida. Says the sarcastic and cruel monster on the Tampa Times: “The early bird gets the zoo.’ — ‘Well, who wants a 700?”—Well, Wallace R. Allen wants a zoo. — Well whadda want a zoo for?—For exploitation, goof! And the story is that: Into town today rushed Mr. Allen with a bee in his bonnet looking for a zoo — with wild animals in — preferably hippopotami. He was crazy for just one hippopotamus, if that must be, to try out the sound effects of a new moving-picture on. He thought it would be a front page story (with art maybe) all about how the hipp-etc. reacted to his brothers’ voice from a mechanical horn, and all that— shed tears of homesickness, and all that. There are lots of hipp-etc. in the picture, which is (no big secret now) ‘The Four Feathers,’ dynamic, dithyrambic, ambic hit coming soon to your Victory, and said Mr. Allen has the imposing title of district supervisor of exploitation for Publix (but he was really doing a little advance work for F. F.) but he found no zoo here.— Then he wanted to advertise in Times want ads, they get results, for someone who might have a pet hippo, but Manager Collier of the Victory thought that would look like a stunt. So Tampa, by having no zoo, lost this golden opportunity, and the sun sank with a sob... SOUTH BEND OPENING The Publix State Theatre, South Bend, Ind., will open December 25. HOME OFFICE DEPARTMENT! Here is the fourth of a series of stories about Publix Home Office Department personalities who depend upon your effort, just as you depend upon theirs. To know and understand each other’s person alities and problems will lighten the burdens of everyone, and make our tasks enjoyable. For this reason, PUBLIX OPINION is devoting an important part of its space to these brief biographical sketches. THEODORE C. YOUNG Director of Real Estate Department To those of us who own a bundle of rent receipts, discussion of real estate means nothing more than a mess of arithmetic, frontfootage, and a vague wish that some day, someone will bequeath some to us. But to Theodore CG. (‘Ted’) Young, director of the Paramount-Publix real estate department, it means considerably more. Whether you know it or not, Mr. Young heads an activity within this company that ‘compares favorably with the largest realty enterprises in America, not only from| the standpoint of capital invested, but in size of personnel, and the intricate record system which must be maintained in order to supervise all the properties in which all associate companies are interested. It grew from a department of two people, Mr. Young and a secretary—and from its inception, has been constantly supervised by Messrs. Adolph Zukor, Sam Katz, Sam Dembow, Jr., S. R. Kent and Ralph A. Kohn. The department has been greatly augmented by additions to the staff to such an extent that Mr. Young, to-day, directs a_ great force of real estate specialists who are experts in every phase of real estate work. Realty Experience Eleven years ago, when the film industry was young, tender, and haphazard, Mr. Young was the manager of the Cross & Brown Company, one of the largest of New York’s realty firms. He handled some matters for Famous Players Lasky Corporation to such a degree of satisfaction that Arthur §. Friend, then treasurer of Famous Players Lasky Corporation, added him to the executive staff to relieve the executives of all real estate worries. Mr. Young was known as an intense young man with a keen “‘traders’”’ instinct, and an intuition for reading the other fellow’s subsconscious thoughts. A zeal for deals that were beneficial to his employers was another trait. He assembled the realty for the present Long Island Studio, a gigantic job of diplomatic negotiations, and also worked out the plan whereby Famous Players exchanges all over the United States, were taken out of buildings that housed other film companies, and given their own individual buildings. He developed a scheme of town-and-theatre survey, which gives an instant and comprehensive picture of everything necessary for a showman-buyer to know and, as a result of this, the huge theatre-chain expansion program that Messrs. Katz and Dembow have been successfully accomplishing in the last two years, has been considerably aided by the work of preparation Mr. Young and his department could quickly offer. Functions Quietly From the acquisition of the S. A. Lynch ‘Southern Enterprises’’ seven years ago, to the newest deal on the fire today, our real estate department functions quietly and serenely —many months, and sometimes years, ahead of the actual announcement that the company is ready for a new activity. “What is the biggest obstacle you find, usually, in making your deals?” PUBLIX OPINION asked Mr. Young. “Getting quickly on a human basis with all individuals concerned” Mr. Young answered. ‘“‘This is a business where mutual confidence is absolutely necessary. But somehow or other, everyone seems to want to be clever, and spend a lot of effort before coming to the main issue. Sometimes it’s necessary. “A case in point occurred six years ago in a New England town. It was in the days when the company needed all of its liquid capital badly, and a troublesome mortgage was falling due. We could pay it only by crippling other company activities. We had to have a renewal. Everybody tried, and tried everything, but that renewal just couldn’t be had. So I tried it. I spent considerable time studying the history and habits of the man I had to deal with. I discovered that he was a golf enthusiast. So, when I went to call on him, I carried a new mid-iron, which I had just purchased. It was wrapped up. When I engaged in conversation, I toyed with my package. Discusses Golf “What have you there?’ my prospect asked. “That’s what I was waiting for. I told him, and boasted about the bargain I had found in that club. We spent the next half hour talking about golf, and he showed me his favorite golf strokes. When we had talked golf for another hour, I reminded him of my mission. It took just five minutes to prepare and sign the renewal of that mortgage—but it took me all day to get away from that golfmaniac. However, the deal was of great value and importance to the company at that time.’’ Mr. Young was born and reared in New York, and took the usual educational courses in school. After some experiences in the inSurance and real estate fields, he attended New York University, where he took post-graduate courses in modern business methods. The New York Building Owners’ and Managers’ Association recently selected him as lecturer and instructor for their organization, and the National Association of Real Estate Boards selected him as the outstanding Realty authority on the subject of theatre sites, and requested that he prepare a paper for their year book. Many Activities His department covers renting, purchasing, leasing and every other phase of the company’s business of property-management. The operations are so tremendous that of necessity, it has been broken up into sub-departments in the SCHOOL TIE-UP SUGGESTION EXCELLENT A suggestion for a special school tie-up made by a member of the staff of PUBLIX OPINION is deemed worthy by Your Editor of being passed on. The idea, in a nutshell, is this. Educational sound films for the use in grade schools are being produced in ever increasing numbers. Most schools, however, do not have the facilities for showing them. By placing your theatre at the disposal of the. school during certain morning hours, the proposal goes on, you would build a lot of good will, inculeate in the growing generation the habit of attending your theatre, get lots of favorable publicity and editorial comment, get prestige which would make future school tie-ups easy, and indirectly you would aid the development of educational films. Expense of the film, projectionist’s overtime, and incidentals are to be borne by the school according to the original suggestion, and no admission charge of any sort is to be made, but no entertainment features are to be included in the showing. The tieup should be nation wide and sponsored by the Home Office. Your Editor has amended this suggestion to show a. favorable box-office increase. Get the principal of the school to promote a picture among his pupils. After the showing of the educational film, the entire school would stay to see the regular show at box office rates. Such tie-ups effected regularly during the year would raise the box-office average considerably. | Information about educational films can be obtained from the Educational Film Department of the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York. SSS e————e———E—E—E—E——t ized again so that in each section of the country is a district representative of Paramount-Publix real estate department. The activities of each of these district representatives equal those of the largest realty operator in the state where they operate. Collection of facts, figures, maps and photographs, concerning every community in America, is Mr. Young’s hobby. He has a fireproof vault in which are thousands of looseleaf volumes. Each of these contains. the aforementioned data on every city, and Mr. Young is constantly adding to each book. If you know anything about your town that he ought to have, he’ll be glad to get it, and if you can offer any helpful suggestions about your own operation, from a realty standpoint, Mr. Young will send Home Office, and then decentral-! you a nice fat cigar. ANOTHER PARADE FOR PUBLIX No more parades? Not on your life! Here’s one for the “Gold Diggers of Broadway.” Taking a tip from Publix Opinion, manager William Collier of the Victory-Tampa, Florida, got the colors flying and the band playing and let the town know what a treasure his theatre had. No expense to him. Here’s to bigger and better parades! sre RE I f A i ty t i 7 | i t neces pera eer epas