Publix Opinion (Aug 15, 1930)

PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF AUGUST 15rx, 1930 3 WEIGHT SCALES TO AID THEATRE INCOME So successful has been the byproduct idea as originated by Mr. Katz and developed by Max Schosberg of the Candy Sales Department, that weight scales will be installed in all theatres in an extension of the profit producing program. The scales, one of which is pictured below in this column, are a completely new design, found by Mr. Schosberg and his associate Bruce Powell after months of investigating. Machines are modernistic in make-up, and will be colored to harmonize with surroundings. In view of the fact that a great many scales are now being manufactured for use in Publix theatres, colors will be made to conform to conditions. By special arrangements just concluded with the International Scale Company, theatres will not be subjected to any charge for the machine. Plans for their installation throughout the circuit are now being drawn up. Seale renders weight on a printed ticket for one cent. In addition to weight, ticket contains fortune of patron and, on the other side, a picture of a Paramount star. In addition, a mirror on top of the machine is marked off into units measuring height. At each side of the scale, hooks so arranged that they seem to be part of the design, afford patrons an opportunity for hanging coats, hats, etc. NEW SCALES! New model scales to be installed in all Publix theatres according to announcement of Max Schosberg, head of the Candy Sales Department. t ANOTHER GEM! } Although “Manslaughter,” with Claudette Colbert and Fredric March, continued to pack ’em in at the Rivoli theatre in New York, urgent need for playing time made it necessary to open ‘The yes of the World,”’ another great picture based on the novel by Harold Bell Wright, at that theatre on Thursday. John Holland, Una Merkel and Nance O'Neill are featured in the cast of the new picture which is the story of a@ young artist and a beautiful girl. It tells of a dangerously fascinating society woman and her efforts to break up the romance of, the ; young couple in order to ob$ tain the artist herself. j © 00-010 + O+0+0+ 0+-0-+0+0+ 0+O+ 0+ 0+ 0+ 0-+0+0+0+-O+0"-0+0; NOVELTY SHORT IS GREAT FOR LABOR DAY In view of the tremendous success attained by the Byrd short “Back Home,’ the Publix Music Department is, preparing a special Labor Day novelty short. This novelty is titled ‘Our Song’ and is described as “A Tribute To Labor.” The subject will be on the order of the Byrd short and from all indications will receive even better audience reaction than that fine reel, according to a bulletin issued by Burt Kelly, head of the short subject department. It says: “The title song, an original number composed for the occasion by the writers of ‘Back Home’ is rendered by a chorus of twelve male voices (off stage) with the verse sung by a soloist. The background is devoted to scenes of labor of all kinds, harvesting, thrashing, factories working, machines moving and with a superimposed symbolical figure of ‘Labor’ who is shown breaking the chains that tie his wrists, and striding forward. Against this background the words of the song stand out. “This is an excellent Labor Day subject and is ideal for all types of houses for the occasion. The song has a particularly catching swing and the action of the background is both fast and exciting. Great care has been taken in its production. “In the deluxe operations it is suggested that the subject be placed immediately after the newsreel. In other houses, particularly those having no overture, it should be used to start the program in place of the overture. : “The subject may be well tied in with your ‘Special Labor Day Program’ campaign. Time is approximately five minutes.” 0-010 0-+0r-0-+0" -10+-0-+0+ 0+ Or 0+ 0+ 0+ 0+ O18 0-1 0-O-10+ 00+ 0-1 0* OOO $ £0 --O-+0+-0-10+-0-+0100-O-10+O-0-O+0+-0-100+ 0-0-1 O+0+ O18 O90 010+ O10O20 OO Alert Manager Saves , Loss of Store Rental A hard-working Publix manager had an opportunity recently to be of real assistance to the Real Estate Department, reports Morris G. Leonard of the Midwest District office of that department, in Chicago. Harry Potter, manager of the Granada Theatre, still at work at 2:30 A. M. on Monday, Aug. 4th, observed a tenant in the commercial portion of the building, whose rent was $500 per month and two months in arrears, in the act of moving out his fixtures. Telephoning Maurice Glass of Leonard’s department, he thwarted the removal of fixtures valued at $10,000, assuring payment to the company of rent arrears amounting to latives. ‘PUBLIX WANTS NO FAKES’! Advertising principles set forth in this full page newspaper ad by u large Chicago agency, are exactly in accord with those which Publix always has advocated and practiced. The sections marked in this treatise on ethics are duplicates of warnings which repeatedly have been issued to everyone in Publix against fake or salacious advertising. A. M. Botsford also often has cautioned qgainst the misuse of super UBLICITY PAGES are todsy toting over-heavy loads of bokum and bombast. The trail of the cickster is becoming an easy highway over which unscrupulous advertisers are rushing to elusive Yukon, A gre work is being undone; -the precious achievement of honest adver= tixen who have labored for yan, by means of expensive public print to build up enduring faith in worthy Amerian products, is being garbled and debauched by ballyhooens: Quackery in advertising is being allowed to revive the old discredited patentmedicine humbuggrry, because selfdeceived advertisers are still prupid enough to believe that « gencrous share of. the public can be fooled all of the time. ‘The spirit of Barnum survives in such extayaganzas as theto— —cigarettes that are boisterou:ly prochimed panacea for 'phytical and tocuil torments— —+oaps that are supposed to quickly “pansform ugly faces into vaions of baury— —fodds that are advertised a3 cures for every discase known to man— —toothpastes chimed to magically conrart eld bone into new parl— cosmetics sure to metamorphose prunes into ptrionalitia— —caw moving pictures furiously, funted as “absolutely the greatcit American advertising must mend its ethics or lose public ,confidence —infcrior automobiles that are dontended to be superlatively better all details than ral an— rare, propaganda which wes fake fear as an impelling {actor— —chap imitations heralded ay “the world’s best”"— * —and hat, but not leat, the pur chased testimonial, a new form of genteel bribery, by which the cu-, pidity of notoricty-scrking endorscrs “is exploited to a public not ta gullible as some wiseacrrs anuine TL to be. TMAY BE A TRUISM that the AL mote-ridiculous some things are made to appear the more they will be talked aboot—just as a ‘potteit’ on a hilltop may get more of the world's attention than a violet on a mossy bank; , yet it is not the kind of attenuon thir Gteates the desire to powess, ~ ‘There are no soft colors on the mounte+ bank's palette__He shouts only in high key. Allof his fleasare elephants. And bis dmall facts become fallaciey by distortion andkemggeration, ie misuse of superlarives 1s 2 crime in* advertixing. let it be set down here that rdio ebatinuity carpics itt Tull share of the oHending buffoosay. This modernixic hocus-pocus is not a “noble experiment.” Though it may have temporary-tuecescs, it is a costly way to achieve palay rewlts. And the tragedy of je is that it really deceive few except the fogged advertiser himuelf. Packard automeblo, Atwater Kent radios, Goodyear tires, Fisher bodies, Swift’s bicon, Sheaffer pens, Hcaz beans, Grucn watchei, Quaker oats, Ford can, Mimeographs, Kodaks, Coa Cols, Jello—the list might be made tiresomely fong-—have never attempted to shanghai public consideration witha ~bait of buncdmbe; and they hase done thoroughgoing jobs without curavagant expenditures, The Amaicin public needs no defenve ¢, agunst the inplicd indictment of ite intelligence by the*chap methods of misled advertisers. It Laughs in its ample sleeve at the antics of the burlequen, rirn ‘discusses them with its tongue in its check—aid as a buyer keeps its own sagacious counsel. UT THESE THINGS would be lirde concern of oun did they not tend to bring all advertising into disrepute. . The fint uikof sound American business is to maintain the faith. Every tricky, everreaching advertisement that appears in public print tx just 29 much drag ta pregras—and harm te all honest odversisng, Advertising must be lieved. It is too fine and urctul a force in the werld today to be rutted to bunglers. And beildes, silly advertising 11 expensire, ‘There's a better way, And.there is no dearth of good cnfomen tp do the better job. Bur uscally. they dop’t pound desks, make pink promises, send representatives wha they are not wanted, or pack a load of bokum. and grandest moral triumphs of the 2c Pittsfield Tower "Such substantial institutions 2s,thore which produce Campbell's soups, The Glen Buck Company Advertising American advertinng must “de-busk” itself or lose public confidence, Chicago ROBERT SLOTE|NEW QUARTERS DIES APTER OPERATION Robert M. Slote, 37, manager of the Hastman theatre in Rochester and one of the most capable showmen in Publix, died at the Memorial hospital in Cumberland, Md., where he had been taken a month ago following an operation in Rochester for the removal of a kidney. Mr. Slote, who is survived by a widow and one daughter, was born in Hoboken, N. J., and received his education at New York university. He served in the army during the World War, following which he joined the Metro Film Exchange in Washington, D. C., as salesman, booker and manager. Later he was engaged by the Crandall Theatres Co. in the same city, first as salesman and then as assistant manager. Mr. Slote became interested in theatre operation and accepted control of the Strand and Apollo theatres in Martinsburg, W. Va. In 1921 he became manager of R. M. Slote $1,000, and placing the company/the Strand theatre in Cumberland, in the advantageous situation of|which post he held for eight years being able to quickly relet the|prior to his affiliation with Publix premises. OFFICES MOVE about a year ago. His first assignment with this organization was at Rochester, where he served until ill health made an operation The district booking offices in}necessary early in July. As soon Cleveland, Ohio, have been moved |as in|trip, to the Paramount Exchange, he was strong enough for the he was taken to Cumberland the same city, at 175 Hast 23rd in a wheel chair and fought a los l Street. ing battle in the hospital there. . FOR ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT Recent growth and expansion of the Publix circuit has brought about the removal of the Home Office accounting department to larger quarters in the new Herald Tribune building on West Fortyfirst street, in New York. Various units of the department originally were scattered on separate floors at the Home Office. Space allotted to uem became too small and cramped with addition of extra personnel necessary to handle work multiplied by the acquisition of the Comerford, Reade and other circuits. “Not only have we added to efficiency by the location of all the units in larger quarters, but we have effected a substantial saving because of the difference in rental values of the space occupied,” said Fred L. Metzler, comptroller, in liscussing the move. Originally the payroll department was on the fifth floor of the Paramount building, the film rental accounting unit was on the ninth floor, the accounting department files were on the sixth floor, and the general or main unit was in the “well” on the eleventh floor. Now all units are assembled on the twelfth and thirteenth floors of the Herald Tribune building. The new quarters are lighter and less cramped and there will be ample room for the Publix-Great States accounting department, which will be transferred to New York from Chicago on August 16. Rental value of the fifth floor space occupied originally by the payroll unit in the Home Office is $4.75 a square foot. The new quarters cost only $1.75 a square foot, even a cheaper rental than that of the eleventh floor “well,” which housed the main unit. Nearly enough saving will be effected to pay the rent of the new FIGURES PROVE DANGEROUS PUBLICITY (Continued from Page One) jumped alarmingly with the publication, in newspaper ads andpublicity stories, of the news that a $25,000 cooling plant had been installed. Not only was the actual cost of the installation exaggerated in the theatre’s advertising, but .he ads were not rendered one whit more effective by a statement that the plant cost $25,000. The important point was that the theatre is now refrigerated, and not thesum of money the company is supposed to have spent to accomplish that end. Difficult to Remedy It will be most difficult, according to Mr. Young, to effect a reduction of the assessment jump on the theatre, for it came just at a time when taxes are being increased, and when municipalities, etc., are experiencing some difficulty in making 100% tax collections. “Whatever advantage there may have been in advertising the amount of money spent is not worth the increase in taxes that we will be obliged to pay because of the exaggerated report of the remodelling cost,” said Mr. Young in discussing the matter with Mr. Botsford. Not only is the advertising of remodelling and improvement costs bad practice from a taxation standpoint, Mr. Botsford pointed out, but it is also in conflict with the standards of truth in advertising to which Publix rigidly adheres. The temptation to exaggerate figures, no matter to what degree, is so strong that Publix will feel safe from the liability of inflation only when figures are left out of advertising entirely. Another Danger This also applies, said Mr. Botsford, to a danger which has been pointed out before—the publication in newspaper stories of extravagant salaries and expensive habits of motion picture actors. Such stories should be rigidly suppressed, he: said, in the first place because in the majority of instances they have no foundation in fact, and in the second place because they set up a dangerous reaction on the part of the public. “A measurable decline in the boxoffice popularity of a number of stars,” said Mr. Botsford, ‘‘can be directly traced to exaggerated stories of their prosperity and extravagance.”’ To the category of don’ts in Public advertising practice, therefore, the publication of improvement costs is added. Results, achievements are to be stressed, rather than the expenditures which brought them about. COURT SENTENCE PLUGS PICTURE A Brooklyn magistrate found in “Manslaughter,” which he saw at the Rivoli, New York, such a powerful argument for traffic law obedience that he sentenced a woman offender in his court to see it when it came to the Brooklyn Paramount the following week. Practically all New York and Brooklyn papers carried the story, and as the judge had his details, including playdates, correctly, it was excellent publicity for the picture on its current run at the Rivoli as well as on its coming showing in Brooklyn. The sentence passed by the magistrate was meat for the columnists, and U. P. wires -kroadcast it all over the country. The judge, incidentally, saw the picture at the Rivoli on a pass from Publicity Director Maurice Bergman of the Brooklyn Paramount. ——— —————— quarters. Mar. Metzler’s office remains in the Paramount building, with those of Marion Coles, secretary of the corporation, and of Montague Gowthorpe, cost control executive.