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December 9, 1939
SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW
Page 35
PRESENTS
December 9, 1939
You Takes Your Choice
A MONTHLY
Section
DEFINITIONS of showmanship are as varied as the winds that blow in any conversation concerning it. You takes your choice: is showmanship the art of giving the pubhc what it wants? Or is it the art of making the pubhc hke what you give 'em?
Don't take too long to make your choice. It doesn't much matter how you decide. Actually everything comes back to the same point no matter how you slice your phraseology. Because the public's got to like your show or your showhouse or there'll be no show and the theatreman must please the customers if he doesn't want to fade out of the picture business altogether.
What the public likes is what the public will pay for — and you can make 'em like what you have to offer if you offer the things they can and will like after they have sampled them. And right here is where the theatre itself becomes just as important as the pictures out of Hollywood. The biggest attraction ever turned out will be a better show if it is presented properly, in the proper surroundings for enjoyment. You can't make the poor picture good — but you can make the good picture even a better show. And don't think the style of presentation, the quality of your theatre and the character of your hospitality as expressed in the physical make-up of your plant and the service rendered, hasn't lots to do with the kind of business you're doing week in and
maintenance
week out. Over the long haul it is your showmanship that tells the story more than the quality of the pictures (provided there is at least some quality to the pictures you book) . We mean the answers to the questions: why did I make a profit, or why did I show such a loss? are to be found not so far from home as the theatreman himself, being human, is willing to admit.
If you can't control the quality of productions, you certainly can control the quality of your theatre. Maybe you can't turn your house into a palace, breath-taking in its beauty and entrancing in its luxury. But it can be a clean, well ventilated, kept-in-repair place. A place that shows it is for the service of the living by showing the signs of life manifested in constant improvements, no matter how small. The small improvements all add up and the theatre whose equipment is replenished on the installment plan is, as a matter of fact, more alive than a brand new theatre, because for all of its shiny newness that house may soon become dull if its operator allows things to take their course. It's surprising how fast wear and time can take the shine of newness off things.