Publix Opinion (Jun 13, 1930)

NEWS OF GOOD WARMS N.Y. ~ (Continued from page Six) that they have a complete sympathy for your problems, and reasonable understanding of them. One thing travels faster than anything else in the home office— it’s magic, the manner in which it happens—as soon as one of you fellows does a good job somewhere and it improves the situation that you had last month, it finds itself running through every desk around the home office, just like magic. Very few of you I have met, and yet I’ feel I know most of you. I think I could reasonably discuss with you your general characteristics in relation to the manner in which you conduct your theatre, because this information flows into: the home office and there is not a day passes in which Mr. Schneider, or one of the other division boys doesn’t come to my office to emphasize the. development of this boy and that boy and that boy. ‘LI want to leave you, if I can, with the feeling that you have got a fine company and that you have got a lot of human beings in it and that what is probably the most important from your standpoint is that you have got a genuine opportunity to get somewhere. If you don’t, it is you and nobody else who is to blame. I don’t mean to say we are perfect. We make some mistakes. Everybody does. But they will never be mistakes & \ PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF JUNE 13ru, 1930 thing that we should, and see if we can go home from here with the fullest realization that we have all worked. hard. You have worked real hard, you have been driven hard, I know that. Let’s see if we can’t just accelerate a little bit the activities that we previously gave to our job, and justify this enormous thing that you have and properly are entitled to ask for,—this additional lead that I have tried to picture to you. Now, in all of this huge progress, and by the very nature of our business, the spotlight is thrown on us more closely than) it is thrown on most any business. The very fact that the spotlight is thrown on us so closely can either be very favorable or unfavorable to us. needs to it. And when you have become that orderly thinker, I will promise you now that you are going to look at yourself in the mirror and say, what am I going to do with all of this time I have on my hands?” Then, boys, you are ready for the next step, ready to take on more work, and when you do the next job, the multiple job, in that fashion—multiple work from then on is a cinch. ther District Manager or Division Director is easy, because thinking in multiples and thinking in multiple problems comes naturally and normally, if you have that proper foundation and those proper fundamentals. “Holy Smé6kKe, I mean becoming ei Your Districts Managers are Responsibility to Community If there is any worry that I have about our business, it is this. I realize that we pass through our _ doors more people per day than probably any institution in our respective communities. We cater to women and children; we darken our theatres when «we project our pictures, and we therefore as sume a responsibility to our community greater than that of any other enterprise, in my opinion, in the commun of intent, they will be mistakes of judgment, and a mistake of judgment can always be remedied and rectified. So I repeat, and: you, must bear with me if I repeat myself, as I am full of the story of Publix: the opportunity is given to so many fellows, and opportunities are waiting for you tomorrow, next week, and from then on. At the present time Paramount Publix has about sixty-five. or sixty-six theatres in Europe. We have gone about our job quietly, no brass bands, and the net result is that we have these sixty-odd theatres in Hurope. The foundation is reasonably laid now to earry out a duplication of what has taken place here. There are some nice theatres in Paris; I think we have six all together in France and five or six in Spain; a couple of nice theatres in London and we are building in Manchester, New Castle and Leeds and have a nice theatre in Dublin. We have a theatre in Amsterdam and we have theatres in the Scandinavian Countries. We have just opened successfully a theatre in Sao Paulo, South America; we have theatres throughout Central America and we think we will con| summate a transaction in Australia. If I stay away from you as long the next time as I have this last time, I will undoubtedly be telling you a story of foreign development, of' consummated foreign development, that, I suppose, at the present time might sound’ like an Arabian night’s dream. Almost anything I might say would be anti-climax to the progress and scope I have enumerated as actually having taken place in relation to your own opportunity. Must Grow Slowly We will grow at least as fast as we deserve. I hope, for all of our sakes, that we don’t grow any faster than we deserve. It generally isn’t fair to those who put their money in with us. Let’s think of this picture I have outlined to you, think of it seriously. Let’s each of us reduce it to our own individual self, take genuine stock of ourselves, really and honestly appraise ourselves and see whether we are making the contribution to this ity. Now, all of this thing I have pictured to you, by the nature of our business, as I said before, can be kicked over pretty quickly and pretty easily. GOOD WILL IS NOT EASILY ACQUIRED, IT IS EASILY DISSIPATED. And the thing I want you to do for me personally, is let me feel all of the time that you are watching your theatre, and that your conduct in the community is of such character at all times, that the whitest spotlight can be thrown loose and all it will reveal is something good... I am no prude, and am not referring to anything that . might be interpreted in that fashion at all, but I am _ asking you to have a _ very awakened conscience of the character that this business requires more than any other. If we do that and do our jobs right, in that direction, we will take the ~ most important place in these communities by virtue of that performance; we will minimize hostile legislation; we will minimize many of the evils that are directed against corporate interests’ opera| tions. We will become, and can become, a part of each community family so that they are glad to have us there, and so they won't rise in arms, as they are doing in other interstate enterprises. Leave Money In Town | The very fact that we serve entertainment, rather than something tangible, enables us, by proper performance, I know, to take the place in each community that will make our investment safer, better and more desirable to the people of that community. I haven’t any fear whatsoever, if we could meet these anti-movements, on an open and shut fair basis, as to our real, desirable entity in the town. The ratio of money we leave in each town, the proportion of each dollar you men pay back, is such that you know we leave a very substantial portion of each dollar in the town that we get from the town. Let us, then, by our conduct, by the conduct of our theatres, j,and by our personal conduct, by personally becoming a part of each community, so emphasize the value of Publix, that we become the desirable entertainment center there. When you have gotten to the point where you think in orderly fashion about your theatre, you have broken down each phase of that job and given everything it coming to New York and after each District Manager’s session, I know those boys who have been there have left New York, I believe, with more improved impressions than those they may have had prior to their time of going to New York. I remember Mr. Lever and Mr. Irwin in the last two classes; they were the only two that came out of this division. As your District Managers keep coming to New York and participating as they do in the home office, and becoming a definite part of the machinery there, I know they will bring back to you boys a more intimate picture of the things I am trying to tell you generally. Lauds Mr. Lasky Last week turned another mile | stone in our history, and possibly the most important one. It was with a considerable sense of satisfaction that our. present company, Paramount Famous-Lasky Corporation, as it was known for fifteen years, decided that our performances justified a change in \the corporate name of the com pany, and changed it from Paramount-Famous-Lasky Corporation to Paramount Publix Corporation. It was a great fine thing for every fellow in the theatre department, because it placed the stamp of approval on our efforts, and in that connection it. is of interest ‘to tell you the type of men that you have at the head of that company. When Mr. Lasky of his own volition, suggested the , change, and the dropping of his personal name from this company’s title and substituting Publix, he did so, as he said at.the time, because he felt that the company was much more important than any individual’s vanity or ego in seeing his name in print. It was about as big a step as a human being ever takes. Mr. Lasky served his apprenticeship, he is well fixed financially, .and about the only thing he probably had to perpetuate, the only thing he had to strive for was the pride of accomplishment and glorification of his work. Yet, when he realized the size which the theatre department had grown to, he voluntarily suggested the change in the corporation name of the company. It was a pretty big thing to do, and I was very happy, of course, because I felt that added another reason for my telling you that this was a regular kind of a company, manned by regular kind of people, and that the last vestige in the way of anybody’s progress to any position in the company was Out, because Paramount Publix Corporation is nobody’s title, and nobody’s name. Its President can be anybody who deserves it and merits it. It removed any feeling that it was a privately owned enterprise and, automatically, the doors are open for anybody. Formerly, distribution and ourselves got along like strangers, and hostile strangers. That is all over, that is completely out, and now they, ourselves and everybody are going to bat for the same net dollar. We know it speaks of progress that is tremendous in its scope, because when we unloose the combined activities and combined efforts of everybody throughout the world in production, distribution and exhibition for greater net results for the company, I know what is going to come. ‘ : Doing both of those things, selling exclusively on percentage and limiting the number of pictures at this time, and being prepared for what may come, involves additional cost all the time. I have assured the other departments, that we in our , key centers are going to talk and make greater efforts on behalf of our Paramount products this coming year than ever before, and that out of every key center we operate, our copy and our story will: read ‘‘Paramount beyond any question.” I know we have all tried to do that, but from now on, much additional thought must be given to that, because, boys, those pictures are paying you boys, and these pictures are being planned so that we may have resources with which to get more theatres and with which to build our business. It is not a favor we are doing anybody, it is the first obligation we have to ourselves, it is selfish when we think that every Paramount picture be MR. MANAGER! His Example? \ Do YOU Consider Mr. Katz Successful Theatre Operator? Would YOU Like To Emulate He Tells YOU How HE Got That Way! Read Every Word O£ Mr. Katz’ Speeches! .| efforts. given greater thought and greater selling efforts than ever before, so that there can be no question as to your activities radiating over your surrounding country. Build M anpower Just as we are talking here about building your youth so that your chief usher is being properly groomed to become a manager, your studio is doing identically the same thing. When you go through that stock company you will find half a dozen girls; you — will find three or four expensive — young dramatic artists, girls being groomed to come along with Ruth Chatterton. In other words, your studio realizes this. A bad picture can not be passed to the other exhibitor any more and by the time we turn in some red figures ~ on a bad picture, there is nothing funny about it, so you are going to co-operate and synchronize your If you do they can’t help but sell for better results. I want you to take at face value the things I have said to you. I have no apprehension whatever about facing you next year and the year after and in the years to come and having to retract any of the things I have said to you because, as I said before, that is the way we feel. si In conclusion, I want to repeat this just once more to‘you: have all the faith in us that we have in you, feel the same kind of friendship and all the reasons for good friendship that we feel for you. If I have made any impression on you of the sincerity that I honestly feel, carry that down right to the . janitors in your theatres, get them together and, tell them that you have met with the home office through me, and if this. meeting means anything to you, sell it down the line. Give everybody to understand fully and unequivocably that our chief aim, after returning what we must on the dollars invested in this business, is the continued development of the fine honest, honorable, human relationship between all of us, Denver Highlights May 23, 1930 When I got to New York the top salary in the home office was $225.00 a week for one man. They dropped from there very fast. It is with considerable pride and I can honestly say the only vanity I have about this entire thing is that this same group of boys fitted into their jobs, grew up and measured up to every responsibility that was given them, __ and are carrying the load of our tremendous investment. 2 The important characteristic of. all of those boys, and that goes for the boys in the field equally as well, is that I personally have never had a clash with them. They have been ready to jump anywhere, go anywhere, do anything. They are real soldiers in the army and are ready to take the jump wherever it is necessary. Your company is growing rapidly and that’s how it desires to grow, providing all of us can measure up to this increasing responsibility. ' A business consists of men. It moves in ratio to the de velopment of all of its men. One of the things that’s fundamentally in my mind on this trip is my hope that when I finish talking with all of the groups around the country that I shall have sufficiently .impressed each and every man with his company so that he ' might honestly reappraise him (Continued on page Eight) 3 ENS eeesee gee hap Rig eran ee eae — re 4 | | Ber pare eee