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March 30, 1940
SHOWMEN'S TRADE R E V I E W
Page 25
March 30, 1940
Just Around The Corner
An
lOMES the Spring nouncements of new season programs will soon fill the air to keep those who are businessminded completely show-minded and oblivious, more or less, of the haunting redolence of the good earth, emerging from its period of frosty confinement, and oblivious, also more or less, of the songs of birds and the perfume of buds and blooms. Comes also the announce ^^^^^^^^ ment that television is to be intro B^^^^^^M duced on a big scale for homes.
As Spring is the harbinger of the hot and tough months of mid-summer, so too is announcement season the call to arms for the big parade of showmanship tricks to arouse public interest in new product. As for home television, that gives rise to the question: if it's here for the home, can theatre television be far behind? (Of course, large-screen television has been around some time, is soon to be displayed in an improved form — but before it comes along on the grand scale there's much to be done by business and management after the engineers have gotten their marvelous device out of the laboratory.)
What to do about the heat and humidity which once made theatre operation a nine-months business, the theatreman knows full well. Comfort against both heat and humidity is to be had by means of manufactured weather.
But television? There's one to challenge the invention and resource of showmanship's best brains. Home television probably won't raise any more hell with theatre attendance than radio does now. That's an assump
EQUIPMENX
and
MAINTENANCE
tion, of course. But a fair one on the grounds that while there's no place like home, there's no substitute for the theatre when it comes to dramatic entertainment.
As for theatre television. To be prepared is one thing — and a very good thing. But a lot of theatremen could go stoney broke waiting for television to come along while they just marked time and stood pat on what they've got in the way of house comfort and presentation efficiency.
So comes the Spring! But it's not going to change one bit the job the showman has to do in order to live for another, and still other Springs. He will see more of 'em; be healthy as a result of proper nourishment and physical well-being resulting from having what it takes to buy food and pay rent, and he will welcome more Springs with greater glee if he just sticks to his job — booking his pictures with care and intelHgence; selling his shows aggressively; keeping his house in tip-top shape in every respect of furnishings, equipment and maintenance.