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THE UNIVERSAL WEEKLY
3
Quit Using Dope!
(No. 65. Straight-from-the-Shoulder Talks by Carl Laemmle, President.)
HE heart and soul, lungs and liver, backbone and stamina, brain and brawn of the moving picture business today is THE SCIENTIFICALLY BALANCED PROGRAM. Let that fact sink so deeply into your consciousness that it will never get away from you !
The exhibitor who is building for the future as well as for the present ought to do some serious thinking.
He ought to see by now that every time he indulges in so-called "features" he is spending his money for fluff that will never get him anywhere or anything. Exhibitors this very day are paying, say $25, for the use of a feature for one day, AND THEIR TOTAL RECEIPTS ARE NOT AMOUNTING TO FOUR-FIFTHS OF THAT AMOUNT. I hear of such cases day after day, week after week. They are pouring in from all sides.
The so-called "feature" has fallen of its own weight. It has been so overdone that it does not interest the public any more.
What the great masses want todav is A PROGRAM OF VARIETY. They" want a program that is SCIENTIFICALLY BALANCED. And there is only one such program on the market. It happens to be the Universal, because the Universal is one great big organization with one directing force. It is not hampered by having to make up a program to suit many manufacturers. It makes up its program to suit the PUBLIC.
Every Tuesday night the eastern staff of the Universal looks at 28 reels of film, constituting the entire program to be released FOUR WEEKS FROM THAT
NIGHT. If they find too many comedies, they cut out some and substitute dramas or something else to give the program a proper balance. If in the 28 reels there are two stories along somewhat similar lines, one of them is pulled out of that week's program and set for another release date. In this way, and only in this way, can a program be SCIENTIFICALLY BALANCED.
The instant you "shop around" and pay a fancy price for some so-called "feature" you not only destroy the perfect balance of the program, but you spend a pile of money that does not come back to you. There are three things that you could do with that wasted money, either of which would be better than your present plan.
First, you could stick it in the bank and let it sweat for you. Second, you could spend it in advertising your theatre, either in your local newspaper or for posters or in whatever way you thought you could get the best results. Third — don't fall dead when you read my third suggestion — you could go to your exchange man and paralyze him with surprise by ACTUALLY OFFERING HIM MORE MONEY FOR SERVICE IN ORDER TO CEMENT HIS GOOD WILL FOREVER AND EVER. Instead of fighting with him every time he is forced to ask you for something, you could co-operate with him in such a way that he would be justified in fairly breaking his neck to RETAIN YOUR GOOD WILL AND PATRONAGE.
Of course this sounds like crazy advice. Whoever heard of offering to pay more
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