Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1944)

October 21, 1944 SHOWMEN'S T R y\ D E REVIEW 7 Wolves at the Door Forewarned, but not forearmed, theatre owners in many sections of the country are becoming conscious of the one big threat upon which their own organizations should have been concentrating all along — that threat being the tax situation. It appears that action is being taken on a matter that should have been Target Number One of united exhibitor action within the borders of a single state or area for some time. The news reports from Michigan and Kentucky indicate that exhibitors there are likely to be a bit ahead of the stage that is known as "locking the barn doors after the horse is stolen." In the Wolverine State there is a move on to permit cities by legislative action by the state lawmakers to impose excise taxes. You know what that would mean for theatres in many cities of Michigan. There is evidence of action by exhibitors there which is to be applauded and is hereby recommended for emulation throughout the country. Michigan exhibitors are receiving copies of a speech by Ray Branch at a recent Allied meeting which speech calls for action on the tax front by exhibitors. In Kentucky there has been formed an organization of exhibitors whose primary objective (up to now at least) is co-ordinated effort to put the exhibitors' story before the state legislators. In the lower house of the Kentucky legislature there was passed last spring a tax measure that would have boosted to almost 40 per cent (federal plus proposed state impost) in taxes on every theatre admission. The measure was allowed to die in the senate — but it was a narrow escape — and apparently Kentucky exhibitors are now aware of it and are trying to get together a united front to meet the menace that no doubt will appear in full regalia for a feast of tax income at the expense of the exhibitors. The picture industry is better than fair game for the tax-hungry poHtico. It has been thus since years back. The tax problem of the immediate future is not less but more serious than at anytime in the past. Each individual theatreman has a big stake in this battle, and each and every one should take the matter to heart and remain conscious of it. With full realization of what higher taxes mean to the business of the individual, maybe there will be a disposition among the theatremen to get together in their own districts and states, rather than sitting back and expecting that they will be saved by some nationally conducted, wave-of-the-wand stunt. Such disposition and tax-consciousness is the only thing that will bring the theatreowners into a needed cohesive movement to meet the menace. Sharpen Up Showmanship There is news of great victory by our fighting men in both the European and Pacific theatres of war — and high encouragement for the feeling that the victory is m sight. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of war to be fought and we on the home front must not lose sight of that. There is a big job looming for this industry in the forthcoming Sixth War Loan campaign. You theatremen, as usual, must do the hard and availing work of assistance to the Treasury in the widespread sale of War Bonds. That the job will be well done by the showmen, goes without saying, but the valiants who have and again will carry on relentlessly and at any sacrifice in time and personal effort deserve similar action throughout the field. For the sake of their fellow showmen, all theatremen must put a shoulder to the wheel in order to make this big job a success. Now is the time to sharpen up that showmanship for bang-up results in your bond campaign. * s; ^^ And speaking of bang-up showmanship, we hear of some plans that will beat the drums for Roy Rogers and his new picture's first run on Broadway that will be a job of show-selling and star exploitation to capture the imagination and stir the admiration of showmen. Republic has given Roy Rogers about as perfect a handling — during his growth from cowboy player in modest westerns into one of the foremost popular figures of the screen — as can be found, we think, in the showmanship chapters from Barnum to Herbert J. Yates and his colleagues of today. Prosperity Notes The film industry will be financially in a most sound and solid position in the postwar era, according to J. Cheever Cowdin. The theatres will hold on to their current large patronage after the war is over, predicts Col. Jack L. Warner. Coming in one week, two such encouraging prosperity notes are not without the quality of thrill, so to say. For the theatre field, what Col. Warner adds in his prognostication is a note worth pasting in your hat. Quality presentations, he warns, will be necessary to maintain a theatre's prosperity. Any temptation to cheapen the shows will put the theatre on the road to poverty. —"CHICK" LEWIS