Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1946)

18 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, February 9, 1946 The Brass Tacks of Efficient Management: Serve Them and They'll Serve You (Continued from Page 17) found it necessary to accept partnership with a bigger and more financially sound company. As time passed the big fellow started making it a little tougher and tougher each month and finally determined on forcing the partnership into receivership in full confidence that his company would get the court appointment to supervise the theatres founded and nursed to popularity by their little partner. The little fellow told his troubles to his stockholders and they in turn passed the information and their recommendations to men of high judicial connections who also knew the little fellow as a fine and outstanding specimen of local citizenship. When the big fellow exposed his cards he found the deck stacked against his usurious maneuver and was flatly told, by authority he could not question, that if he went further with his plans they would name the little man to the supervisory post. That partnership still stands in its original status and it is one of the most successful in the industry. But the only thing the little fellow can thank for his "near miss" from being left out in the cold is GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS. Having No Government Trouble Now let me tell you another from the other side of the tracks. One of the larger chain operators practically controlled a city where a few small theatres still struggled against the almost insurmountable opposition. Instances were frequent where the little chaps badly needed certain pictures — to play on the days when they had a chance to make best profits — where all available prints were scheduled for use in theatres in other towns belonging to the big chain. The big man heard of their dilemma and instructed his booking department to, wherever possible, change the out-of-town programs so that the desired films could be released to the little fellows. This kind of treatment eventually brought the smaller men to the conclusion that cooperation with the chain was far more to be desired — and promised happier conditions — than opposition with the result that fine, new theatres now grace the sites of the old "dumps" and the little fellows are full-fledged partners in enterprises of which they and their communities are justly proud. This big chain is having no Government trouble and is threatened with none because of GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS. You're going to need public relations of the highest order to combat and defeat — or at least get a good truce out of those before-mentioned things that threaten in 1946. To those listed in previous articles I'd like to add a couple that are just getting into stride in public print, the reduced Federal tax bill recently "hoppered" in Congress together with the well-laid plans of municipalities to levy on admissions and the published intention of Standard Brands to deliver home entertainment on a national scale to the druggists and grocers they serve. Let me say right here that all of the tax and competitive effort being contemplated is not the outgrowth of malice. A goodly portion is just considered good business by the commercial firms, and the men responsible for the tax planning are — to a great extent — unconscious of the harm it will do your business and the burden it will place on your customers. And, that's where (if your public relations horse is well trained and in good condition) you can show a clean pair of heels to the pursuers who would deplete your bankroll and ride home to new glory and added revenue. If the grocers and druggists have been properly inoculated with your GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS they will tell the Standard Brands representative about your theatre and suggest that the shows be exhibited on your premises during ofiftheatre hours. They'll be selling the efficiency of your equipment and the comforts of your theatre. After all — if you've done a good job— you're their pal and they don't want to hurt you. So-o-o, you find yourself being paid for the use of your premises during a period when they would be idle and basking in the always desir ■ able position of giving the folks a free show to say nothing about the opportunity to display the trailers on your coming attractions. Will Oppose the Ordinance If the folks are made aware of what it means to each family's pocketbook to defeat any discriminatory tax measure directed against the theatre and not other business, they will militantly oppose the ordinance or whatever form in which the tax is presented at the polls. And (again, if you've done a good job) if municipal heads are made aware of the fact that your business and its customers absorbed the excessive Federal 20 percent tax as a wartime duty, and with the same spirit with which you and your patrons bought war bonds and stamps, they'll be hesitant about laying the town's budget deficit on your doorstep and find fairer means of raising the needed revenue. In your own files and in your own memory you have every possible kind of ammunition with which to slay the hordes that threaten your continued success and profits. But, you have to do something to ready your attack — to soften the opposition walls against which you will have to direct your fire and GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS is a super-softener. One more example of what GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS can do and how important that branch of modern business has become and I'll quit harping on the subject. Everybody remembers the extremely bad public reaction to the published reports of Standard Oil's embarrassing cartels with the German controlled I.G. Farbenindustrie. For a while it looked as though the American public would avoid Standard' Oil merchandise as though it were labeled with the familiar skull and cross bones. The company regained public favor quickly by calling its salesmen of? the road and training them as public speakers familiar with all details of the company's foreign connections. These salesmen took Standard's story to service clubs, women's clubs and other appropriate groups and succeeded not only in covering the smear but reversing public opinion by laying stress on the excellent war job the company was doing. I said I'd quit after that but a letter just laid on my desk serves as such an excellent illustration of what theatre men can do to endear themselves to the people of a community that emulation is recommended to every theatre manager everywhere. Cahalan Cited for Activities The letter comes from F. J. Cahalan who manages the Magnet Theatre in Claremont, N. H. The town is pretty tiny (the only Atlas I have at hand gives it a population of 12,144) yet Cahalan has done a public relations job that is certain to take top prize among the many big and little theatre operators of my acquaintance. Briefly he holds the following honored civic posts and has engaged in and excelled at the following civic activities : Chairman, Claremont Red Cross Disaster Relief and Civilian War Aid. Chairman, American Red Cross Blood Donors (and he made five personal donations to the blood plasma bank.) Chairman, Public Service, Office of Price Administration. Director, Claremont Chamber of Commerce. Member, New Hampshire Legislation 1945-46, Rehabilitation Committee. Member, Hospital Advisory Board. Chairman and sponsor for funds for War Veterans Memorial Home. Chairman and sponsor raising funds for Xmas presents to service folks. Sponsor of movement to get New Hampshire National Guard home after 3 years overseas service. Conducting personal correspondence with servicemen and leading participant in War Loan Drives. Now, Mr. Reader of this article, is there any one of the above posts that were not available for you or that you can't successfully fill? You tell me who you think is the MR. BIG of Claremont and what chance there would be of anybody or any group doing anything that would hurt the theatres Mr. Cahalan manages? And the reason: GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS. Just take this guy Cahalan as a model and see how closely you can come to hitting his stride.