Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

6 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 15, 1949 World Series Proving Ground Events Offers New Problems But Serve as Experiment For Large Screen Television The World Series wound up its theatre playdates over large-screen television in five United States cities 'Sunday leaving the experimenting exhibitors who pioneered in this field with several problems upon whose solution will in large measure depend the success of such events in the future. The exhibitors who tried it for the most part were enthusiastic and frank to state that it was an experiment. None would commit themselves as to future events though the Fabian Theatres, whose Fox in (Brooklyn booked the series, declared that they would continue to experiment and "test this new medium of theatre television as an adjunct of the film business. As important events 'become available," the statement continued, "we will theatre televise them and get some more answers until we know finally how to utilize it best." The event marked the first time that a group of theatres has participated in a pool with radio interests. All theatres received their video image from a pickup made by a pool of networks and television stations, in which the theatres participated and for whose support they paid. How they worked can be illustrated by the Brooklyn Fox where the events at Yankee Stadium were sent by DuMont over microwave to the telephone company, where they were picked out of the air and transmitted to the Fox over specially treated telephone lines. The Ebbetts Field games were handled in the same way excepting that CBS handled the pickup. Under Expectations Careful opinion leaned to the view that the attendance in four of the five cities — IBoston, Brooklyn, Chicago and Milwaukee — was under expectations but that still attendance in all towns but Milwaukee was good. The same opinion considered that several things had been learned technically about handling such events, especially that images could be picked up from remote points and displayed with good definition, even though the result was below the standards of motion picture projection. In Scranton, Penna., the signal was brought in from a distance of over 130 miles for showing at the Westside Theatre. But at the same time two important points arose in connection with the showing of these large-scale events in theatres. The first was whether it would be in the future economically profitable for theatres to show such events when they could be seen at the corner bar and in the home, and whether if the event must not be exclusive, it is going to do anything big at the box-office. 'U' Out of Series Universal this year turned up as the only major newsreels which did not carry the World Series. While the company had no official statement it is understood that the Baseball Commission banned Universal from the park because last year its subsidiary, United World, made the Universal clips of the classic available to home movies. Looks Like Series Tickets So Chandler Squawks The tickets printed by the Pilgrim Theatre, Boston, so nearly resembled actual World Series tickets that Baseball High Commissioner "Happy" Chandler telephoned from New York and told the theatre the tickets must be changed. The surprised management immediately complied with the "demand" and had new tickets printed. The second problem was pricing. Both of these questions are important. Neither was conclusively answered by the recent experiment. However, an indication of how the answer may come is again available in Scranton where Comerford's Westside, unable to advertise the event because of contractual regulations, found that after word got around, the house sold out. The Comerford house was the only public place in iScranton where the event could be seen. The admission was 30 cents for the event alone, compared to the $1.20 to $1.80 admissions charged in other cities. "We didn't have a complaint," declared Comerford's J. J. O'Leary, over the reception of the signal. "We must have turned away 1,000 Sunday." Over-Priced? A little more support to the theory that the games may have been over-priced is seen in some scattered comment in Brooklyn and in, the action taken by the American Theatres in Boston and the St. Cloud Amusement's Tower and Oriental in Milwaukee. The AT'C house in Boston started off with admissions of $1.25 and $1.80 but when business did not meet expectations it trimmed prices on 500 second balcony seats Friday to 85 cents. The Tower and the Oriental, Milwaukee, both of which were out of the way houses and both of which were limited to 9 x 12-foot screens on the RlCA system, trimmed their prices Sunday from $1.25 to a total of $1, tax included, with children at 50 cents, tax included. iFabian's iBrooklyji Fox held its $1.20 price on week days and boosted it to $1.50 on the weekend. This compared with a week-day matinee of 55 cents and a weekend matinee of 85 and 95 cents. The Balaban and Katz State Lake at Chicago, charged $1.25 and used the Paramount intermediate system. The attendance figures also tell a story. In Boston over 3,000 saw the telecasts at the Pilgrim during the first three days. The customers brought a baseball atmosphere into the theatre with them, as was also noted elsewhere and the house received no complaints over the show. The innovation of the house in serving box lunches proved what an observer called a "tremendous success." RiCA was used. Football? In Chicago almost 10,000 saw the games through Saturday and the audience reaction is best judged by the fact that the customers were heard to ask if the pro football stampedes of the Bears and the Cardinals as well as the nonpro events of colleges like Notre Dame would be shown. The management has announced no definite football schedules, but there's a feeling that the pressure for them is on pretty strong. The Chicago telecast which used Paramount's intermediate system lost part of the seventh and the opening eighth innings presumably because of the time it took to refill the film cabinets and trailed about 20 minutes all the way through due to the system. But it presented a clear picture which the audience liked. In Milwaukee, the 21,110-seat Oriental and the 1,587-seat Tower, got off with its houses about two-thirds full. The attendance on the second day was poor, due to rain and the fear that television reception would be bad. There was also a rumor of a break in the television cable, which may have had an effect. The attendance on the third day was better at both houses. On the (fifth day the receiver at the Tower went bad as the first inning was about to start and no images were available during the first one and a half stanzas, though the voice continued. On that day this house and the Oriental were about three-fourths full. Both bouses are in the residential area. Stopped Several other iMilwaukee theatres had planned to show the series on home receivers in the lobbies but reportedly stopped after the downtown Telenews was threatened with a law suit by the 'St. Cloud Amusement Company subsidiary— ^Orto — which threatened to defend its showing right at the Tower and the Oriental by law suit. In iScranton Comerford's J. J. O'lLeary found the results in the 1,800-seat Westside "very good." "We were very agreeably surprised," O'Leary told 'Showmen's Trade Review, emphasizing that the events had been experimental. He added that the house had no plans for the future but said the past telecasts "at most times were exceptionally clear." In New York President Si Fabian, whose Fox in Brooklyn presented the series, and who is an enthusiastic pioneer, confined his remarks to a formal statement in which he said the matinee receipts during the series "added up to four or five times those we could have expected for the regular film features during this period, including a 'booming concession 'business." Faibian also found the image and the sound quality of the RCA system, good. In Baseball Talk . . . "Theatre television hit something 'between a double and a triple in the recent World Series," his statement opened. "Although we would have liked to hit a home-run, a complete sell-out, theatre television showed potent hitting power in the matinees. Without it we prolbably would not have had a chance to get to first base." Also clothing his expressions in baseball terms was a citizen of Brooklyn who was dawdling (Continued on Page 8) No, No, No Franklin County, Ohio, officials this week halted construction of a drive-in by the F&Y Company and Academy Theatres on the Ackerman farm near Columbus on the ground that such an operation would violate the county's zoning laws. Voters had approved a zoning plan which would limit construction in the area to farming or residential purposes.