Publix Opinion (May 16, 1930)

6 : PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF MAY 16rH, 1930 BOSTON MEETING OPENING ADDRESS! NO BOSS IN PUBLIX BUT YOUR CONSCIENCE, SAYS MR. KATZ “There’s is no boss in Publix but your own conscience,” declared Mr. Sam Katz in the opening address of the New England Division meeting in Boston last week. The petty, clap trap officiousness which permeated show business in former years is religiously avoided in Publix, he said. — In his talk, Mr. Katz dwelt on the development of the New England division and Publix generally, paying a glowing tribute to everyone connected with this growth. His complete address follows: : a Mr. Katz’ Speech ‘I think it is just a little bit over two years, if I remember correct_ly, {sometime in January of 1928, when we came up here last and held a New England meeting. It ‘was just after Mr. Gray had passed on, and the division was thrown into our lap. I remember very distinctly at this time our mission was to try to come to New England and sell the boys in the di-. vision, if we could, the idea that the New York office consisted of a lot of fellows trying to work as diligently as they were asking you to work and to establish an acquaintanceship and a friendship that might result in what I think we see before us today. | So much water has passed under the bridge in these past two years that I hardly know where to begin in outlining that in its relationship to where do we go from here. ; The Circuit generally two years ago consisted of about 400 theatres of which the New York office operated directly less than half of that number. We thought we had quite a job at the time, and I believe these figures are somewhere near right, we ran about 200 theatres or less directly out of the New York office. Our slogan, however, among ourselves was that if we did our job well and properly the time would come and come quickly when: that number would be multiplied greatly and with it commensurate opportunity and rewards for those who participated in that development. Sometime during last summer, I would say along about last June »theatres out of the New York of‘fice, possibly a few less than that. Then the company decided to acquire its partnerships, its larger outstanding partnerships, and such other circuits as might fit in to the company’s picture, and in a wholesale manner were taken over the Finkelstein & Ruben Circuit in ‘the’ Northwest, and the Great States Circuit in Illinois, a Circuit “sout-in' Salt Lake City, one in Ne‘jvada, the Dent Circuit in Texas, ovand some lesser circuits. A total wapproximating 500 theatres was “taken into the organization within ag period of three months. | Activities Doubled Most of these circuits, nearly all of them, were taken over for di \ “rect operation from New York, so that over night, so to speak, the activities of the company were more than doubled and of course -many times more than doubled in the organizational requirements because they were spread all over the country at great distances .from New York. The boys took their coats off and made up their minds that the company had spent a lot of money to acquire these Circuits, and that they were going -to justify the company’s investment and also warrant further de velopment. A really splendid job was done. ‘I remember the trials and trib ulations of those three months, whether they used or July, we. operated about 400; the Saenger Circuit in the South, | and you can well appreciate that every Circuit we bought was over bought on film because each Circuit was protecting itself from socalled invasion from producers and buying everybody’s product it or not. There was not a single Circuit which had adequate advertising machinery, there was not a single, Circuit that had adequate management supervision, and the theory seemed to have been that they spent their money in directions away from close knit operation rather than diverting those funds into close knit operations and taking a chance that they could so conduct their business and keep it safe. To January ist of this year most of this work was absorbed by the boys and we thought that we were ready for a breathing spell when other activities in the industry necessitated the speeding up of further acquisitions, and from March ist of this year until the present date, approximately two months, we have again taken unto ourselves nearly 400 additional theatres which\were not in any way connected with us, in other words, we have not had our finger in the pot at all anywhere, so that your Circuit today consists of something in excess of 1,400 theatres operating in about 40 states. That, briefly, is a sketch of what took place by way of expansion in numbers of theatres since we were here last. I know that almost anything that I might say from this point on that subject must necessarily be anti-climax to what those figures in themselves tell you. ‘There is no division, as a division, which in and of itself reveals the company’s growth and expansion as does your own New England division. You know what your division represented here two years ago and you know what portion of New England it covers today. None of these things are accidents, but they are the result, _ fundamentally, of a belief on the part of the officials of the company that the boys that make up this department are justifying this capital expenditure which has/ taken place in the past two years, and that the company may feel safe in the. further expenditure of its capi staying power of you men. 4s I think of this division and think of the jobs that were held by a number of you boys two years ago and the responsibilities that have accrued to you in these two years, it is almost like an Arabian Night’s dream. Mr. Fitzgibbons was new, he had had experience, ‘but nothing of course on this seale. Branton was located out in Minneapolis on a rather indefinite assignment, Cuddy was plugging along with a house or two, Zorn. was in Poughkeepsie, Cruzen was in some other small town in New York State, Sternburg was just about finding himself. Of the newer district managers Chatkin, I think, was still at school or had just about left school at the time, and so the story goes, and you can' well imagine how I feel talking with you when I realize that today New England represents about $25,000,000 of the com pany’s money and projects by the million are tossed easily into your laps. Our job, as a whole, seems to be just beginning over and over Job Just Beginning I tal because of its belief in the — and over again. I think that the department as a department is running at about 70 or 75, or possibly 80, per cent efficiency, which rating is very good in view of its rapid expansion. The job that has been done up here to date has been gratifying from more angles than one. We thoroughly enjoyed the tremendous amount of good will that has developed in the territory.:. That has been outstanding, we feel, and we in New York all the time feel that we have a pretty general and definite belief that we are properly represented in the communities. — Secondly, this division has made more progress than I think any division in America in establishing a relationship between distribution and thetheatre departments. While between the seller and buyer, even though within the same company, there must necessarily be differences because viewpoints and perspectives of the problem must necessarily be different, I have felt that in this division there was a fine relationship and this division really has set the standard for better understanding in all departments of the company. I want to take this opportunity to publicly express my appreciation of the efforts of Tom Bailey on the ground, and the really fine, wholesome support we have got from George Schaefer in his understanding of what we thought to be our theatre problem in New England. I am sure that it is just that co-operation which took place in New England that resulted in that fine understanding that exists in the company today and which understanding led to a change in the corporate name of the company from Paramount-Lasky Corporation to Paramount Publix Corporation. It had to have a beginning, and its beginning was here in New England. That is permeating the entire organization, and everybody within the company for the first time since I have been with it is shooting for the same new mark. It is very difficult for me when I talk with you at a session like this to get as enthusiastic as I should like to, because with each increased dollar of investment, I see an increased amount of responsibility to those in charge, and realizing the almost fragile nature of the make-up of our department, the very sensitive type of organization that it is, I rather incline to admonishing you all of the time, and almost preaching, of your responsibilities to your company and the necessity for every increased effort and diligence in your work. | | Know Your Organization | You are all familiar with the component parts of your organization, I hope. You start with an idea of going somewhere, this town, that place or the other place, and you begin with a real estate survey, and then you go through planning construction, and then you touch management, booking, advertising, manpower, and you touch a very wide range of departments, until you finally get up to the production department, so that your organization is a greatly varied affair and requires a great many varieties of mind and talent, and the holding of those groups together so that they really function easily with each other and keep them from rubbing elbows, makes the net make-up of a theatre organization almost a fragile affair, I mean, when it can be kicked over and disturbed easily unless we have a realization of the necessity of holding our manpower tightly together. I am illustrating that to you to try to make the point of having you study your organization and having you familiarize yourselves with it, so that you may give to that organization that co-operation which I am sure you will realize is necessary when you have fully 000-0 0+-@ 0+ @-10+--@-00OOO CO -O-28+-O-$O+-O-1 0 OO O-+62-O-1O2-O-2 0+ O-18°O-18+S181 O06" “With every increased dollar of investment I see an ‘increased amount of responsibility to those in charge.” © °-@ 9B o-O-* 0B e-@-9O-O-G9-S-O+OO: SH” 00 e-D-O+-S-9OeB+ O+-O-2 Os-S-0O°-O-2OsOO s-S-O:-O1O:-O8s-S acquainted yourselves with the make-up of this organization. I said the other day in New York at our cabinet meeting that the only boss that I knew anybody had in this company was his own conscience. I know that that is true in the home office. We have no snoopers, and I never hear any private information, nobody ever buzzes in my ear about this fellow or that fellow or the other fellow, unless it is to tell me something good. We religiously avoid the cheap, petty claptrap that this business used to be so full of, and I believe to a greater or less degree that that permeates throughout the entire field, and I hope that as long as I am identified with this work the only boss that we will ever have in this company will be our own consciences. I am impressed with the. orderliness of this division. I like the manner in which Messrs. Branton and Cuddy, with all the detail I know they have, find time to keep me and the other executives in New York intimately acquainted with the detail of your operations and your work. The reports that I get on my desk each week from this division are fine things. I have a nice, clear picture of your activities as clearly as I can have without actually having been in the towns and seen the theatres, and I know that we in New York feel that we know all about New England, and that is due fundamentally to the orderliness with which this division conducts itself and the transmission of your information to us, and with the coming in of each additional executive we find that same procedure prevailing. I was considerably impressed with Mr. Chatkin’s first weekly letter, which showed training, and I felt that Mr. Cuddy had really spent some time with Mr. Chatkin in training.him to write the kind son. We charged Throughout the entire country approximately this same procedure ‘has taken place, the procedure of expansion. It has opened up so many opportunities, and is opening up so many opportunities that if ever a group of fellows had a great chance to get somewhere in life it is right under your nose at this very minute. Typical, however, of the type of policy that we have tried to pursue, we are going to avoid, as we think we have avoided in the past, taking the line of least resistance just because it might serve our purpose momentarily to do so, In other words, I am going to be perfectly content to make much less money in any given district or division rather than to hustle men in there before they are seasoned, or before we firnily and honestly believe beyond a question of a doubt that the fellow can go somewhere from his next post, and we just do not put him in there as a stop ap. I make that point for this reaIt has been necessary to — shift men around considerably in these moves, and I do not want anybody anywhere laboring under any misapprehension as to why we chose this man or that man or any other man as contrasted with this man, that man or the other man, and I must repeat what I think I said to you before to illustrate this point definitely: in New York, who are responsibility in the first instance, and transfer that to you, have had, we believe, a great deal of patience and: belief in every fellow that is tied in with us. Mr. Fitzgibbons told me last night that only six men were dropped in New England out of the organization that he found with this here, in over two years. That average prevails pretty much throughout the country, and I know that you have been with it long enough to appreciate the patience that you must have seen us have with each and every fellow’s development in this company. No Overnight Geniuses | We have had no overnight geniuses, and I am very thankful for CO re RT eS CE ae ea OP A that. I do not have so much use for overnight geniuses, and we have bided our time and waited, we have taken very much lessened results out of a given situation, as you well know, than were in those situations, for a long time, until you grew up to them. Nobody ran anybody ragged because a given town was in the red for a long time, and if we had I know that this personnel would look a whole lot different in this room today from those who were in New England two and one-half years ago. done with you is to express in that manner great confidence in you, great respect for you, and a willingness to be as patient with you as you would choose to have us be. In return for that we ask the same thing, we ask you to be just exactly that patient with us, no more, no less. We ask you to hold for us the same confidence and the same respect that we hold for you, and that when a move is made, when a man is transferred here, or another one there, believe us and believe in us, that as we gee the situation, we are exercising our best judgment with only one intent, and that is the best interest of everybody. of a picture that we might understand. I get that from Mr. Cruzen’s letters, and I have gotten it from Mr. Spragg’s letters. That is a most essential point, the orderly operation and the) orderly thinking of your business. Netoco Circuit In the last 60 days you have taken unto this division the responsibility for the management of the Netoco Circuit. I say ‘“‘responsibility” because I want you to appreciate it in just those terms. We bought a half interest in that Circuit with which we assumed the management, and wherever you take on a half interest you take on a greater responsibility by far than if we had purchased it completely because those men, probably with their life’s work in there, have turned that operation over to you in the belief that you will do better with it than they had heretofore done themselves. It is a compliméent to your organization, but more important than that, it is a great responsibility and I want to request that no effort be spared to give to that partnership everything you have got. 2 So, what I think we have We have also consummated a deal for the Goldstein Circuit in New England. That you are tak ing over 100 per cent, and your: responsibility there is suggested by the capital that the company put into it, and to those of you who will be charged with the supervision of that addition, I want you to know that we paid a great deal of money for it and that the division, or that district, must yield far greater returns than it has in the past to justify the capi- tal invested in it. I can honestly assure you that your organization has no politicians in it. I can definitely assure you of that, and as far as I am concerned, I will crucify the first politician that shows up in the home office or the field, or anywhere. I have no use for them, and I think them lower than rats. There isn’t anybody in this company going to promote anybody because of any personal equations or personal interests. I do not (Continued on Page Seven)