Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1944)

OBSERVATIONS The industry's participation in the Red Cross drive, which takes place the week of March 23-29, will be conducted on a highly efficient, well-organized basis, judging by the manner and speed with which Joseph Bernhard, Chairman, is setting up the machinery for the event which, it is certain, will have the active and enthusiastic support of theatremen. The men serving with Bernhard represent the best in talent and energy for the job. They will help immensely. We say they will help, because in the final analysis the success of the drive will be measured by the efforts that the theatremen make in taking up collections in their theatres. * * * No matter when will be the effective date, nor what the precise amount of the new admission tax, the theatreman can be reasonably sure of this: the increase will be an increase that must be paid at the box-office. The only sensible thing for the theatreman to do is to scale his admissions to cover the full amount of the new tax. Attempts to absorb any part of the impost (even for purposes of obviating odd-penny scales) ultimately will create a more difficult situation for the theatre owner who tries it than that problem with which many will be faced in getting higher prices now or in the very near future. If it is essential to avoid the odd-penny admission prices, it were better to add odd pennies to the admission than to set the scale on a basis of absorbing a part of the tax. There are many situations where the increase in admission prices, even of a few pennies, will cut into the gross attendance of the theatre. But, apparently, there is no hope of getting a tax differential into any bill to relieve this situation. In the majority of theatres, however, the public is getting much more for its money at the movie shows than at the counters where any other commodity (essential or otherwise) is on sale today. As soon as the amount and effective date of the tax becomes known, the theatreman would do well to start immediately to condition the public to the increased prices. A good advertising and publicity campaign in advance will prove a tremendous factor in gaining acceptance of the new admission scales. * x * Ed Kuykendall, writing in a bulletin recently issued to MPTOA members, delivers a precisely well-aimed poke at a vulnerable spot in the handling of the decree-revision proposals as drawn up by the distributors. The nature of the proposals, which have been under study by the Department of Justice, remains theoretically unknown to the trade press — the text not having been made available for publication. It has been submitted for consideration to the officials of accredited exhibitor organizations. But since the rank and file of exhibitors are the ones who are most concerned with what they will get in a new decree package; and since, in America, the majority opinion of a large mass of interested plain people historically has proved superior to the opinion of a select few (no matter how sincere and able), valuable time might have been gained and constructive action indicated by allowing the rank and file an opportunity to study and evaluate the proposals in the light of their own practical experience and knowledge of conditions affecting the buying and booking of films. * * * Maurice Bergman, Universal's Eastern advertising and publicity director, gives us a definition of showmanship which will be oft-repeated. "Showmanship," Bergman said in an address at the AMPA luncheon in New York Wednesday, is "doing the absurd thing at the logical time." * * * In the same address, Mr. Bergman pointed out that there is a lack of institutional advertising by theatremen. That's a point on which this page has long been in agreement. It is true that there is not enough of the institutional type of advertising by theatres. But there are many exhibitors who are institutional-advertising-minded and most of them frequently inquire why the industry as a whole is not more institutional-advertising-minded. Some of them point out that the distribution branch of the industry is not institutional-advertising conscious; otherwise, say these showmen, there might be some institutional copy in the consumer advertising displays placed by the distributors in general magazines and newspapers. These showmen claim that even a series of slogans, agreed upon by all distributors and to be used concurrently in all such consumer advertisements would be a help. A series of slogans of the "movies are your best entertainment" type need not take too much space away from the allotment for the illustrations and producer, star, writer, etc., credits, and they could do some good.