Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

26 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, December 10, 1949 Theatre Manstffement Gmde to Modern Methods in the Administrative and Executive Phases of Theatre Operation FOR BRIGHTCR SHOWS Pointers «tt ProiecUon an4 Sound Public Relations— What, How & Why Just about a month ago I sat in an audience listening to a number of orations on public relations as the high point of industry problems, by such notables as TOA's Gael Sullivan and Herman Levy, MPAA's Francis Harmon, Paramount's Louis Novens, MGM's H. M. Richey, RKO's Leon Bamberger, 20th-Fox's Al Lichtman and many, many others of equal and lesser prominence. They were all on hand for the Memphis meeting of the Tri-State exhibitor's clan. From the multiple recounting of the Chicago meeting and the TOA Los Angeles convention proceedings, I got the impression that the germination of the industry public relations program and its embryo, which is still aborning, was accompanied by labor pains of distressing severity, and that the most vociferous applause from the rank and file was puny recompense for the effort. While Lm in the forefront of the cheering section and willing to take the biggest megaphone on the lot and blast my lungs out for what's been accomplished, I still can't help harking back to an interview of some two years ago with Maurice Barr, who does the public relations job for the exciting Paramount-Richards New Orleans office. When I asked for details about the duties of his job, Maurice replied: 'Well, as I see it, public relations is just determining the common-sense thing to do and doing it." I'm inordinately happy that all three branches of this industry have finally determined thaf the common-sense thing to do is to inject ourselves and our business into the inner family circles of our customer groups and assume an unselfish, even altruistic, attitude in the performance of deeds pointed toward the public needs and welfare of our communities. If louder cheering is the power needed to make the public relations program move faster and impregnate the industry more thoroughly, let's all do a "Fog Horri Clancy." Explains How to Determine Your Public Relations I.Q. One thing I noticed was that it remained for an inconspicuous fellow — not as to his physical proportions but as being important to the convention — to be the only speaker that didn't assume that everybody present had already taken a post-graduate course in the fundamentals of public relations. It remained for another New Orleanian, A. E. Chadick, executive vice-president of Motion Picture Advertising Service, to explain how to determine your P.R. "IQ," why good public relations was essential to long-range success, how it differed from publicity, and the reward to be expected from its proper appl ication to theatre operation. Chad conducted the primer class needed by so many present, and then went on to take the listeners through grade school and fit them for the advanced discussions of the others. It was unfortunate that only a handful of exhibitors were present at Chadick's early morning session. I'm sure that, had they heard his rudimentary remarks first, they'd have gotten considerably more from the professorial oratory that followed during succeeding days. Before embarking on the what-is-it and how-to-go-about-it explanations of Chadick, let me give you a bit of the fellow's background, because he's had more opportunity than most to intelligently study and observe from both the objective and abstract position. Way back in 1922 I first met Chad when he was manager of the Strand Theatre in New Orleans for the old Saenger Circuit. Later he major-domoed the opening of the Saenger when that theatre was rated as the fourth most beautiful in the world and became city manager of Saenger's New Orleans holdings. He joined the late Bill Johnson of MPA as a salesman and worked his way to his present position. He travels all 48 states, meeting with individual and group theatremen and individual and group merchants promoting interest in screen advertising. With such experience you must admit he possesses every qualification to speak authoritatively, since his comments represent a combination practical experience in the theatre and the studied observation of a vitally interested spectator. What follows is a combination of quotation, paraphrasing, summary and personal interpretation of Chadick's remarks. To begin with, public relations is not, as most seem to believe, an imperceptible something (Contmued on Page 29) * This series copyrighted and must not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission from Showmen's Trade Review, Inc. Maintaining immaculate cleanliness in the projection room is the first requirement toward doing a good job of projection. Dust on optical elements wastes expensive light. Dirt in sensitive sound switches or contacts leads to noisy sound. Dirt in the aperture scratches the film, putting noise in the sound and streaks in the picture. Oil out of place rots rubber insulation and leads to breakdown. If projectionists have time to keep their equipment in perfectly clean condition and fail to do it, they are not doing their job; if they do not have the time, management should allot it to them. • Failure to keep projection room spare parts up to generous inventory requirements is the falsest kind of false economy. Surplus parts won't be wasted; they'll be used sometime. And they are not expensive. Investment in them is merely an insurance premium against the risk of having to refund a theatre-full of admissions because some $2 part is not at hand. • Similarly, when some component of the projection equipment shows signs of wear, indicating that bye and bye it will need to be replaced, it is very false economy to wait until the thing is almost worn out before ordering a new one. Should there be some delay in delivery, the part might wear through completely before the new one arrives. There's no harm in having the replacement in the theatre for a while before it will be needed. Projectionists can insure their show by placing such orders in good lime; managers can insure the show by okaying those orders immediately. • No manager can tell what any item of projection equipment cost his theatre merely by looking up the record of the price paid for it. The original price will not reveal how much the item cost to maintain dui-ing its useful life. Shrewd and well-informed buying becomes very difficult unless the theatre keeps complete maintenance cost records in addition to purchase-price records. • When you see a friend after a period of absence, you may observe that he has changed, or grown older, etc., but such changes are seldom noticed in a person one sees every day. You see your picture and hear your sound every day. Have they changed for the worse so gradually that you haven't noticed it? Both projectionists and managers will benefit by occasional visits to a competing theatre; preferably one that offers Grade A picture and sound, and then returning as quickly as possible to their own theatre. The patrons, shopping about from theatre to theatre, have constant occasion to make comparison, and if theatre personnel never does, patrons may become strongly conscious of defects that manager and staff never noticed. • First-rate theatre sound is of far higher quality than anything the average patron is ever likely to hear over a radio, through a phonograph or from a juke box. It is therefore an asset to the theatre (as something the average patron cannot secure elsewhere) and as an asset well worth maintaining in topnotch condition.