Variety (Sep 1946)

22 PlCTtJBES W«'«lne8«lay, Si'ptemlier 11, 1946 Circuit Theatre Managers Gripe At H.O.'Regimentation'; More Ki Vs. Checkers, % Pix. Admish Hikes By Hayden Talbot ■Minneapolis,. Sept 10. Like Napoleon's lust for cotiquost being responsible for the invention : pi one of the greatest boons man- . Jiind hag ever )^^^o■i^^n—when, to pre^ vent his armies ftort, freey/Wa: to deatK .in. the: Alps as -they, marched to devastate .Italy, some senilis made the firSt suit of unriorwear—so, may- be, good may come, to the motioa: pirture business out . of' the: evil yclept World War II,.. A. weefc. ^of hedge-hopping through: Ohio has in- spired this thought; , .. 0; . More than in any other part of the country thus iar visited youth is io the lorcto this state Which, Missouri to the'.conti-ary, : still lays claim to being the birthplace of. Presidential timber. At least, a greater .number of film houses throughout Ohio .are staffed by ex-GIs than elsewhere. And you don't need the.old naan with, the scythe to iewiihd you . today's 'Big Sleep' outgrossed 'Night ^and throw his weight about as if he were ttinhini^ the whole house Jiiitiselt .; ■ "But this was by no'means the: whole story; To my astonishment I presentiy : di-'-'covered this - checker was being cheeked by a second checker. 'what could this pos- sibly mean except disirvist ol their own. men by the dL^tribiltov who hired this second, checker'; FraiilUy it made me .sick. And . for folks ,W*ho.. offices split us up: into: downtown ! <;io,v.t place such .. a high ■ value: ■oil and neighborhood categories, . and that old-fashioned; cpmniodity-- .that. xv-oi^d. seem to.be thftl. 1: say it 13pla,in honesty-there s atvother ,ang e would seem: to be that ijdvisedly.J Sharp enough f"^:.^^'^" */ ° Perhaps, the day . will- come when | see. It's the futility ^of ^th.s dottle the seats those big-shots occupy will I checking system. An>'body .with-hall . be Mled with men from . town^ like | an eye can see. how easy it wouKl Canton—and all this senseles.<! regi.. 1 be for both checker.s to be crooked, mentation Will be tossed.r Olit:: theq And you woiildn't get anywhere :if I window : ■ , i vou hired a third checker to check . -■■; ■ , ■ . ; , (he firsf two. 'Yoii couldn't be sure . "A^ for \double features I . hate . ^^^ wa-^h't a 'crOok; ^tpo.: ^The whole : '•em.'-But here again we are victuris > ^^..^^ is beastly, nauseating. , ■ of a DoliCv not of our making, ine ■ ■■ ' ■ it . 1- er^il^lhis house does not do ^^^\^^^^ own booking. For what may ■ be discovereci: we avenge oood and sufficient reasons he uses l.age pictures.OHt of,the eighty,month, a booker in Cleveland-and plays;! we play. It: means:, ^rn disgusted ^ what this booker sends along. So,! With human natlire; pne-quarter ^f When: it suits the booker to ,have us [ my working time. . As. I said, th s plav a double feature program-we ; may prove I m overly idealistic. But Record $16,870,400 for 1945-1946 Registered by 27 LA. First Runs dawn,' prepared to, swear he -nowr 'puUed this linc of talk with a ha-.d- to-sell independent. They all do it, and always have done it.' .: ,:; ;; "I can understand the producer of a . really big picture feeliivg ,he lias the right to demand something ■ Los Angeles, with |l,262„'i()(l. House extra out ot the .tiiibsequeivt riin : also occupied same spot for 1944^4,'! houses, and: jiv nVy' owiV:,ca.';e I'nv, even . larger gross of pi epared to pay more, for a picture i $],352,00p. Loew's State, also in .sec- Hollywood, Sept. 10. New record gross of $ie,87(),400 was registered by Los Angeles '.\ys{^ run theatres during the 194C-4fi sea- son. Take was the highest ever hit (pr deluxe operntion here. Leading money theatre was the plav it. He seems to disregard the'[perhaps you can Rgm'e if a dilfererit ^ ■ - "'way. Maybe, if enough gu.ys like me decide we won't stand for this fact we have done exceptionally well with a single feature when, o'ccasion- aU.y, we are allowed . to offer our patrqhs tifis kind of bill. But I, am convinced we could win on a coh- punk i,s ,toraorro,w's big Shot;. I* >s, , j.j^|^^^^^|j,jy ^..^.^gj^ [^^^^^^^ policy, and then, without apology -the views of . jj j .^^^ j^^. ^^^ay : tffls. .would be. the some of these youngsters are .given j. ^^^^^ assumption e.verybod.v s.: 3: chiseler: something w'Ul be ddrie about it. .Not. until/ sowething; is dpite;: ican .hohe.st: meii' get the stench . of this foul suspicion out of their nostrils." place in this week's group ; picture., Indeed, to the fellow who .can see. further than the end of his hose,, the significance of. these kids' sizing iip of the present and. future state of- aftaiis pic-wise will btrike home forcefully. ' SO let, yojuth take a bow. IntroduCihg Donald Maxwell, as- sistant vitiapagrr; ,of ; Warners' Ohio . theatre, Canton: ' : "What gripes me is theatre circuits not tivittg *en on the scene a free hand to operate a house the way they think it should be run. As things are, when circuit executive^: say a house must play a double-fea-:: -ture bill it plays a double-feature bill. ;.They. do it although they know phiy a single feature policy permits a quick enough turnover for a pro°- itable week. Much more important, they do it although they know pa- trons will line up^ at the boxol'fice to sec a good single feature—where- as, they'll stay away enthusiastichlb- when they hear the suppor'.ing film "While 1 was in the service ad- mission prices were .raised, but there will be no further increases. I per- sonalty ha ve he.:^rd:; ho- squawlcs from patrons .since my 'reti.irn last June, but at ..the: time of the price boost there were plenty. As I see it, it's .sound business to make your cus- tomers feel they're getting belter value for their money when they line up at: the boxoffice than any- where else. With the cost of. every- thing else going up you.caiii:create a trehiendous amouti;t .of. goodwill by . refusing .tb -get .aboard the irifla.tioh band wagon by a/further price, boost. ."'I'm: sure I .speali: lor, our patrons when I: say I'd like fewer and better pictures. If We could'have sueees-; f ion of product, like 'Saratoga Trunk' which packed 'em in a.s a .single fea- ture. I'm convinced everybody con- cerned would be happier. As it is, I think current pictures are of poorer quality than the prewar product. In spite of this, more and more sec- bf a double bill is a .stinkerpo. Can ' ^^jj : gj^^g are: being bracketed you imagine anything crazier tlian playing 'Caesar and Cleopatra' for 126' minutes, and then kickin.a in with a second feature? But duals are a set policy in the Loew. house in , Canton, and-the Rank picture; ^^-asn't allowed to alter that policy. :.■ :. ""you don't have to have been in the army to know the value of elasticity in changing your tactics to meet changing conditions. If the New York big shots would allow the man on the spot—in towns said big shots probably never will see in the whole course of their lives—to deal With his situation in his own way, everybody Would betiefit. Surely it .can't be good bu-siness to run a show 3.% hoiirs When it means only three houses, a day, instead of four. ■ ."Anptiier thinf. 1 disagree With : those: N qi-'"'- ed. I'n 'VARiETyi Who said their busi- ness improved during strikes in their towns, I've had a look at our books, and I can see how labor trou- bles in Canton; definitely hurt our business. It was all right for a short ' time, but; after the men had been -out several weeks ,our diminishing trade: told its own story. , No wise opera- tor Welcomes a strike, even if tem- porarily it does get him extra busi-. ness. In the long run it's. .bad medicine.''; . \„:;' ■■;■;,■'- ■ Nabe-Downtown Partition Is N.G. for Small Towns Hear another youngster, a wide- in' -the ..percentage category. And here I come to rhy biggest gripe. Claims Film % Deals All Based on Suspicion "On the face of It, when a dis- tributor demands we play his pic- ture on .percentage terms it ; mearis he do.esn't believe' we're .giving him a square deal—no, rriatter how much we offer in the way of a flat rental. Ingrained suspicion is at the very heart of the percentage racket. It is ba.sed on the proposition exhibitors are crooks. My Contention is no business can prosper permanently unless, it. rests ,on a. .foHndatioji of .mutual trust and confidence. In any other bii.sine.ss. if a man is a crook, he'." out on his ear the minute he's found out. In any; other business you proceed on the assumption the other fellow is on the level. Certainly you get trimmed how and again, but never twice;by the same erook. Why ■ .shouldn't the' niotion picture busi- ness operate on ,- the same asSum'p- ■libti? ; ■;■, ■: ■■. . : ''How ■ .unwhplesorne , percentages are-^ho.w suspicion breeds suspicioni : —-can be'.easily proved, Perhaps .1 ' am qveriy i idealistic. : Perhaps the things I learned in the army make me unduly optimistic about the practicality 6f runhini the picture business on trustful: lines. Btit I'd like to hear, .somebody try tb jus- tify one ijhase of the V percentage eyed idealist also recently out of .-"ystem which, so far as I know, has . array .uniform, W. Wolfarth, man- never: been, publicized, ■ "I'll never forget the first per- centage picture we played after I got out of the service. In came a ager of the Dueber theatre, Canton: "This 999-seater, only four years old, is properly rated a neighborhood house, but I'd say a good one-half i loud-voiced guy with a cigar stuck ot its regular patronage consists of in the corner of his mouth and an people who live the other side of air which obviously was ihtended to downtown, After all, in a town the impress me with.his toughness. It size of Canton, I don't see the point of differentiating between downtown and neighborhood houses. Except for the picture business subdividers, everybody else considers Canton a neighborly town where neighbors didn't seem to occur to him some of us young fellows had had a couple ot years of being up against real tough guys looking for a .split-second chance to toss death in your face. Anyhow, it developed he was a meet as often downtown as in their ; checker. This, I discovered, meant own part of town. It isn't,like New i he would clock in everybody who York where Times Square is taken paid to go in. It also meant he over every day In the year by visit- ; would take the number of the first ing firemen from far distant places, ticket sold, and the number of the But the men who run this business , la.'^t ticket .sold. More important, as - their N ew^yorl^kyscraperJ|^was^^ it meant he'd Distrib Defends Attacks, Justifies Double-Checking ,; (Soilie.; tinie ;;taler* this slashing aiiaek oil 'pgrcWtiiges 'it-h.s. countered »io (itfle decree of effecVmeness by riit O;ia,spo?cen: [di^trib'uiot iahose exposition of the -nefarious tricks to which crooked exhibitors resort seemed to justify the double-check- ing system up to, the hilt. But the coirtiriiiil}/ o.f thi.s clirotiicle t.s not to be inierrnpied by insertions of fads out of their chronological .order.1 : • ; So next in the batting,order is AI Polou,)iis, vveteran: manager of: the Orpheum. Akron: ,. ;■ , "I've been in the business 35 years and I don't; know anything about it. All I know is we little fellows .get our ears squeezed all the time, iThey .squeezed 'eni last year, and they squeezed 'em 35 years ago, and tliey'ro doing it now. The only diflferehce,: is they've ,im-.: proved their, technique; Now., they give an e.^tra twist ;>vhich htirts. a. lot more. than anything, they . did fornierly. .■ : ■■■■ ^::./ "For two years I have not played one '.percentage; picture, but next week I'm .playing four Paramount pictures on percentage—because I have to. But I've taken an oath they'll be the last percentage pictures I ever play. Why should, a; sub-r. sequent rilri , hOu.se have to pay the same percentage a first run house pays with all its benefit of exclusiv- ity and anything from 21 to 60 days' protection? Anyhow, I flatly refuse to do it. Outside this exception, I buy where I can. My business is of ; a kind permitting me to make money on a flat rental basis. I know the type of picture my patrons like. I. know how much I can afford to pay for them. I get 'em at a right price, or I buy somewhere else. "As for the distributors' gripes about the skulduggery of us ex- hibitors, it's time somebody told the truth., The truth is the distributors do everything they Can, to make crooks out of all of us, I, couldn't count the number of times a bunch have come into. this office ahd sat around, my -desk—the high-powered big .shot of the exchange, his divi- sional manager and the salesman ,fp,r, this area—ari:,, intimidating gang whose; objecl is as-plain asthe;nose on your'face. They want me to play their product on percentage. I tell 'em no dice, and then they start to work on me. When I come back with a few remarks about the ex orbitant figure they're a.sking they tell me to be my age, and get wise to. myself. Eventually ,, they': come out into the open and: tell me to do what every other exhibitor is doing —tvtn in any kind of report on the weekis business I like. "Vou don't have to take my word for this. Look Up the court records of more than one of the recent actions where distributors have charged exhibitors with falsifying their returns. You'll discover the exhibitor has tried to square him self by saying the distributor told him to make those returns add up to whatever gross he liked. Natural ly the court has ruled this out as irrelevant and immaterial. All .the same, I'd like to meet a distributor, from the. exchange manager up Ot: Of this, kind than for ordinary run- of-the-mill stutf. But there's no need of percentages. It can be done on a flat rental basis;" Arid here's Emanuel Stutz, mari- ager of. the New Mail and the. Lower Mall theatres; in Cleveland, each a 700-sealer. ' "Hollywood naturally plays up attendance figures;to make it appear as it most of America's 140;000.000 inhabitants spend most of their time in movie houses, but the truth is something very different. In my opinion more than half the total population . Of this counlr.v .have no use 'for pictures at all. What; I'd like 'to see happen would be for the j mont - and Wilshire Government to forbid' regular pic- total gros!!. turegoers entering a movie ;house anywh^!)r.e viir ; the couiitr.v for . one solid week; Only people who never go to the movies would be ad- mitted that week. If it could be done — and properl.v adver- tised — I'd be there with a . good, sized bet record grosses would be piled up all over , the place. And irorn;; this I draw my own moral. 1 say the big shots are loo darn smug. ond place the. preceding .season, took place spot i,i 1945-46 with $1,- 205,200. This was under. 1944-4.V take of $1,282,300. Orpheum repeat- , ed on two sea.sons for third place, hitting $1,184,000 during 1945-46 as compared with $1,274,000 in 1944-45. Difference here is due to swing; to straight first-run film policy and dropping of stage shows in June. Top gross for any of the day-date combinations was rung up b,y the;; Chinese, State and Uptown with .V2,- 472,800. Second wa.s the. Warneis unit of three theatres, reaching x'l ry. solid; $2,461,700: Third was the. Metro . unit of Los Angeles, Egyptian. ,Bel- wHi) ¥ .i7!i,500; .Three big money pictiii-es iliiring the; season, in order, were "The Out- law." $470,000 for 11 weeks in tlie Music Halls; "The Bells of St. lyiary's." $442,400 for nine week.s at Pantages and HiUstiect; and "Leave Het to Heaven," $305,600 for five weeks at the Chinese, Stale and Up-; tOw.n. .■ too well satisfied with things as ;-Big Sleeps' outgrossed 'Night and they are. It's great so long as; this ; Day > former house record holder, sellers' market keeps up, but it . i„ ihe first two hours today, opening isn't going to be so good when the ' day. , I am confident we will hit a bump comes. "Incidentally, when the ; sltimp. comes what a grand .thing, it Would be if that idea of mine could- .be. ptit in operation. ' Says Lero,v Kembis. gerierat n'lan- ager of Associated Theatres, operat- ing 33 houses in Cleveland and northern Ohio: "With the increased cost of living we've increased prices in all our houses—With a minimum of protests' doing; this, if they were on the part of patrons. However. I. imoney'.'. Is snow black'.'" ■ .see no; possibility of further in creases. : . new high this week with Ihis one. 1 believe the present happy siluatiou wiir last; for two, three,, four- yeai'.s.; It's hard to tell. Nobody knows what labor is going to do. This is an in- dustrial area, and everything <le- pends on what labor decides to do, "As for exorbitant percentages. I know operators who a few years ago started with one house and now operate 20 theatres. Would they be losing' ,' . Says Martin Smith, president of,, i the ITO of Ohio, and seerilary- "Independent exhibitors certainly | treasurer of the Smith & Beidler want more pictures, but not at the ; Circuit, with headquarters m 'I'oledo: cost, of quality. What wc want is ' more and better pictures. As tor ex- cessive milking ot pi'oduct by ex- tended runs, it is a widespread evil. This is especially true ;ot the really good pictures; But these are by no' means in the majority ot present day product, With quality as spotty as it is there Is; no question about pef- centages being exorbitant. As, for there being many percentage pic- tures, my answer is—one is too many. Business is definitely not up to wartime peaks, and is nowhere near what we. could, be doing, iC we could get the product: How About Chain Stores With Buying Combines? "I don't like this bidding proposal. As for buying groups being declared illegal. Uncle Sam would certainly have his hands full if he clamped down on us. What about chain .gro- cery store.', 5-and-lO-ccnt stores!, or- ganized groups in every branch, of trade? Organized buying is the, order of the day. Every branch of industry is doing it. You're not going to regulate it out of exi.stence without disrupting the natipn's en- tire business structure," • Says Nat Wolf, zone manager for i wartime peaks. In the neigh- Warner Brtts: theatres, ;'w'iti^ head- houses it was only fair, dur- quairtcrs in Cleveland- I ing the war, but its on the, uptrend "We've just given prices a pretty "°*' Subsequent run houses down- good hike in the past few weeks, and are not doing as well as fhir- Product Milking Hurts Subsequent-Run Houses "The double feature policy is too deeply rooted here ever to be changed. But it producers don't make morfe pictures soon many houses will have to try to get along on a single feature basis. As it is there is excessive • milking of product, and it most definitely hurts subsequent run houses. Generally I'd say the quality ot product today is better than it was prewar, but .oome of the pixers have not ' kept step with the others. So when ; percentages are considered, ihese . tacts should be taken into account, j Certainly the dislribulors arc de- manding rnore and more, and it looks as if even the sky js'ii't the,; limit. In the old da.ys of block- booking the percentage picUire was the. exception; today the trend is towards; nothing else but; Worst thing about the pre.sent situalion is:; there isn't a .chance of gellhig. a sleeper. But I don't believe there'll; be any court battles in this area. "Business downtown- is generally, good and is holding up to iust nn- I've heard no .squawks. But I fore see no further increases at the mo- ment,.; Incidentally, it should .be borne in mind this area is definitely a single feature territory. It is the settled policy of the better class neighborhood hou.ses as well. As for :ri,ew .theatres there may be anything from six to 10 new houses building within 12 months in this area. We. have one new one now in the course of construction, and others planned. A; new. Drive-In was opened last night. There Will be two more next Epring.,Quite a'number of new ones were opened this summer. And all of them are doing well. "As for shortage ot product—there is plenty. Nobody is suffering from lack, of pictures. That's nonsense. I definitely think the quality ot post- war product is bettor than ever be- fore—because our business is better. ing the war, and business, generally is tapering pff; This, coupled w ith : increase of operating co.st.s, i,s the independents' biggest gripe. No serious manpower trouble has hiim- pered me, but returning Gls would rather go into jobs where they don't have to work nights, Sundays and holidays."' As for this bidding busi- ness, I can't see how it: will ever work. Anyhow, something of much more .immediate importance i.« the artificial shortage of pictures which has been followed by an equally arti- ficial shortage ot print.S. The quality of these prints lately has been lousy. But the big fellows .have discovered they can make as much out ot 26 pictures a year as they used to make out of 52, and they're saving on prints in the same way." (Next week: Detroit, IndUinut'oii-'^/ South Bend and Chicago,)