Variety (Dec 1946)

20 PICTURES Wcdncsflay, December 4, 1946 Southwest Patrons, With 'Bigness' Complex, Demand Douhle Features; Drive-Ins Face Sti Competition K.v IIAVDEN TALBOT El Pr.so. Dec. 3. WBon the stiite of the Uiium. is the- ■subject of -tKe' Presidential Hddross. to those joint sessions ol Congress'it is to. be assunied at least passing reference will be hiade to the vast stretch of territory rciughly desigivateri the Sptilliwesf, , but it's a fiootl bet the (•Ipsest scrutiny of tjie Congressional KocorH will not dis- close any mention of what seems to this scribe the one. lact of outstand- ing importance (SO far as the pic biz goes V Which makes, this part of [ the couijtry unique. . From : Sau D.iego through ; Yuma, Phoenix, Flagstfl fi:' Alb pquerque, to Paso, the' 'onis 'Ss'orttiwhile^.quality :of ahy gi\-cn thing setiiiis to be-^size.. By one and all, lO-gallpri hats;: and 3-inch-thtek T-bone steaks are con- sidered the only headgear and chow rating approval.i' So obviously a single-feature policy hasn't a dog's chance from the Pacific .to. .the Rip Grandfe 'But: this: dSvOtilS^ a: small . part', of .the ■difl'6re.hce between ■ the Soijthwest and the . rest of these United' States. Boff pop Sales II sales of popcorn and candy bulk larger in relation to b.o. takings, it. is not this phase of exhibition in the Southwest which makes it dis- tinctive. It is the enormous trade done in soft drinks. Becau.se figures can be made to prove anything it; is Understandable why peoplB are prone to sliy away from statisticsj but in this case there can be no question about the gargantuan thirst of moviegoers in this and region. The important point for the trade to consider is its failure thu.s far to appreciate and take advantage of this pMdigious appetite which only ' size can satisfy. tSize to be trans- lated into terms of quantity of product.). Not to indulge in odorous com- parisorii but rather to stress an in- sufficiently realized fact, your roving reporter directs the. attention of pro- ducers and distribs to a group of ate what a big percenfii.t,'e. of mPV^ie-; goers in the Southwest are Mexicans. Without: .'eni I'd haye to eli'se dowit:. Thi.s goes.ifor every house front El Pa.so to Sail BiSgo. It's bocatise of this demand for quantity, bubble gum is such a favorite here.-You get a bigger stick—that's all,. So, among■ a lot of other things, we offer those. 'kid.?--at special Satiirday morning showings-—a prog:rain of 14 cartoons and a serial for He. Maybe you I think it ought to satisfy 'em—but not a chance. They try every dodge they can think of to stay in the theatre for the regular show fol- i lowing the special rnatiiiee.. |: "I thought I knew my Mexican. I It's certainly a fact he goes. sti'ong for name bands, for instance. So, when I put on 'Stage Door Canteen," I thought I was safe in playing it as a single.' And so I starved to death. But did I learn my lesson'.' I did not. Along came 'Song of Beriia- dette'—and again I billed it as a sin- gle. This time I couldn't see how I could lose. Within a stone's throvv are seven Roman Catholic churches and four Roman ; Catholic .schpols.-; They might as, well have' :been a million miles away. Talk about ab* sonteeism—I couldn't have done worse if! I'd promised every patron a dose of polio. Mexicos, Fed Duallers, Okay Upped Tix Tabs "So long as you give 'em double features, however, and, so long as you and was held over a second week. This is.no gripe. I mention it only to show how a big organization can put it over the little fellow •*\'liose overhead is loo big, even if he had equally good hypo idea.-i, to allow him-to 'Put tiver :a liatnpiUgn' like this. l^rite Factors ■ •'Another tiling which so far no- body -Secnis to \vd\c talked about in this series of: yAiiiKTY articles :i.'i the efreet ;qn the small operator when the chain bouses in a situation boost prices. W;hen it happened here we went along with the Inter- state houses, aiid boosted, our prices equally.: ■ Whether operatiiig costs in our case: justified the boost te besid« the point. The point isfr Whew the slump conies—we can re- vise our prices do'wnwards and not be hurt. In my opinion it is . the reason in many situations why far- sighted operators ha've boosted prices. It's insurance against the time when it will again be neces- sary to offer the public a special hi- ducement to see a picture. You can't do anything . in this direction, more eflecti've than by lowering prices. "How we view the future is be.st indicated by the fact we've recently put up a new marquee, laid new car- pets and installed a new .screen last Week. Oui" booth equipment is in first class shape, but the quality of prints we've been getting recently is not so good. Reissues, particular- ly, are often out of focus. As for quantity of product we're getting along pretty well with what we can buy. Although operating costs are definitely higher than even a year: ago we don't anticipate an,Y further price houses raise theirs. "Of course, cost of the picture is the biggest single item in. ah)' the- atre's operating costs. ' For a second- run house to have to play on per- centage terms is wrong because, the picture has had. the juice wrung out pf it by the first run house before we lending up to as much as six roonths are definitely exctwive. Against this, extended runs don't hurt the picture Wiien it reaches us. We go on the basis if it's been good enough to rate an extended run it will be good enough, to attract paying busi- lie.ss when we get it, After all, ours is, a .upecialized .clientele. People who conie here in tliftir caivs alntost al-, ways are epuple.s with . children whom they don't want to leave at home. Also they don't be;lie,ve ;in taking tliem indoors in: a theatre. So most of them pas.s up the ace films at the downtown fir.st run houses— when .they, know they, can see, tho.se pictures at the -Drlve-In, if they wailf .■ "The quality of Gutrent prints is not as good as prewar becaui^e there are not enough prints being made. I see they are blaming labor condi- tions in Hollywood for this shortage, but 1 believe it was a deliberate policy instituted long before the present strike. The shortage of prints is as artificial as the greatly reduced amount of new production. All of it is the result of producers discovering the fewer pictures they make the more each -one will gross. This in itself is enough to account for the increasing amount of 16m product, although to date we have not had any opposition in this re- spect. No Rowdyism ''Finally, there's one small item about , Driye-In theatres which should encourage newcomers '-who want to get int<) the exhibition end of this business. They'll never: be bothered by the trouble theatre op- stick to the kind of pictures ggj it por all subsequent run houses they want-rthe kind flrst run houses pictures should be on a flat fpntal other situations wouldn't play if | basis. Still, our percentage is pretty in they were paid—you pack 'etn in. Boosting admission prices doesn't bother 'em. Only:last May we hiked our prices from 28 to 30c. for adults and for kids from 12 to 14c—without a squawk from anybody. This is worth noting when, in ;1941,: the priceswere 22 and 11c. "We were threatened w'ith 16m opposition when the city decided to more knovvledgeable gents engaged j .^i-y combat a wave of juvenile de in the manufacture of a relatively ; ijnquency with free showings in the new brand of soda pop. Now H's a j pgyij^^ . rpjjj^.gg . .^g^^^^^^ enough cinch the colored water they w-ere . ^^,i^,,Q-j:},^^jj,g tf,v^ attempting to per.suade thirst-slakers authorities. So dowri I went to to .sample had no outstanding d's-| tinctive flavor to give it superior j appeal. As for high-pressiire .sales i campaigns, the absolute limit - of Euper-superlatives and enticing litho- graphs had long since been ex- hausted by long established concerns. None the less, the special brand of soft drink has stepped in a.nd landed 99% of alt the pop biz done in the Southwest. How? By putting the stuff in an appreciably bigger bottle than any other outfit ::u.s6s; And here's the fu:my part. Those selfsame kids and adults who in- stantly transferred their buys from their former favorite brand to the new drink — , solely because they could see they were getting more the City Hall and raised. a little polite hell, pointing out what the movie houses of El Paso were al- ready paying in taxes and asking if the politicians wanted to put us out of business. It didn't take a lot pf argument to get them to call off the scheme.. , "But those are things of minor im- portance. What 'Variety can do for exhibitor^ in this part of the coun- try is to elnphasize the fact we need I more and more 'B' product-^and I have no interest in class pictures. An intelligent business man wouldn't try to sell high heel slippers to a postman; why should Hollywood producers kid themselves the South- eratOrs frequently find mounting to . aoni ajuivii^-.v I nightmare proportions-. btirnt car- boosts:^unless,,the Interstate,] ^^^^.^^^^^^^ seats anS all the/other forms of vandalism. There's nothing in a Drive-In theatre for rowdies to deface." Paradoxes and contradictions have come so thick and fast during this trek, they've come to' be things'to. be taken for gftintedi So, ih spite oif the foregoing, there is nothing ex- ceptional, about the .following flat dCniaV of the, necessity of , a double- feature policy in the Southwest. Hark to George L. Tucker, city man- ager of Albiiquerque Theatres, Inc;— ''Our" patrpns are and always will be satisfied with a single-feature: program. They, expect nothing al.se here in Albuquer<jue and we intend to stay with this policy, except in our house playing westerhS; ; "As compared with lS40 feusine.ss in our area is mtich better, and 1946 will coine close to being as good as 1945. For 194'?, with this cbntinued flow of fine pictures, I expect a ta- pering off of bu.siness. I do not ex- pect, however, Hollywood to lessen low. As for checkers, we have no ob.iection to them. "As for auction bidding we've had no practical experience with it yet. Ofi'hand it doesn't make sense to me. Seems like a case of putting the shoe on the wrong foot. It may be all right in the present sellers' mar- ket, but it won't always be a case of buyers fighting to get product. The day must come wnen pictures will be sold, not bought. Then an exhibi- ter will know where he stands. In thus situation, for instance,: :X 'can judge pretty closely how rfiuch any given picture will lake. So 1 can judge whether that picture js a good the superior quality of films they've buy at the offered flat rental figure, i been making during the war, and McCann-Erickson Will Handle Enterprise But No Other Pic Acct. Enterprise Piroduclions was landed Monday t2) by McCaun-Elriekson agency after two months during :which more than halt a dozen flgc'i:). " eies competed foi- the contract'; IjOew-Einfeld are planning an ad- vertising budget of more than $2,000,000 to cover six relea.ses dur- ing the coming year. Deal marked the first time that a film company has openly solicited presentations from- several ad agencies. Unusual stipulation in the pact was that McCann-Erickson agree to handle no other picture coijipany thaiV En- terprise. . This is in direct conira,st to oper- ation ot,advertising policies of other film companies ■which largely con- centrate their ad expenditures with a few top agencies, such as Buchan- an, Foot, Cone & Belding, DonohUe & Coe. McCann-Erick.soi'l services no other picture firms domestically, but does handle Columbia's export advertising. ' First release by Enterprisse will be the Harry Sherman- production "Ramrod," followed by "Arch of Tri- umph," Other releases Will be "The Other Love," "Burning Journey.' "Wild Calendar" and one unnamed film which will mark a .screen come- back of Norma Shearer, : Agency veepee Marion Harper W'ill handle . the .Sccbunt in New York while California veepee Burt Cochran will be home office ac- count executive: Agency personnel in all departments will be increased on the Coast to handle the new ac- count, , • for their money—seldom drain the I west wants any part of the 'Cluny bottle. Movie house cleaners all along the line will tell you there's almost always a swallow or two left in all of them.. , Crarited the Southwest is sparsely populated and, from the distrib.s' Vife'Wpoint relatively .uniropprtant, the fact remains San Diego has 30 theatres,; Phoenix 17, El Paso 10, Albuquerque 11, with another dozen Brown' type of picture?They ought to take a tumble to themselves and turn out the product most wanted by a big slice of this coun- try's moviegoers," The Opposition Says H, j, Barnicoat, manager of the Crawford theatre, Ei Pa.sd: —' "Like every town in Texas, El Paso is sewed, up tight by Interstate scattered-through the smaller towns Theatres. The six Interstate houses of the territory—a tot^l of 80 or more. The point hasn't to be labored: here have top run contracts, playing a feature from seven to 10 days, with if the area is worth an intensive j a move-over when business war- sales campaign by a soft, drink mer- chant it's worth the serious consider, ation of makers of pix. In this con- nection it is not without significance to note the prevailing trend in Holly- wood at the moment >is to 'reduce the number of B releases—in the case of some of the majors to cut them out altogether. rant.s. Clearances are not, however, excessive, running from 30 to 45 days. We are particularly well oil in t-his operation inasmuch as we have second run contracts with three .major companies protecting us. On the other hand, a factor I haven't seen mentioned in-your arti- cle in 'Vakiety is the disadvantage The one shadow falling athwart of the little independent when he: is the Southwest exhibs' future,'as they | up against the much bigger exploi- express it, is'the steadily decreasing ! tation resources of a chain outfit like supply of this type of pix. But, at | Interstate. that, it's not a deep shadow, So long j "'What they did with 'Holiday in as they can get passably good prints. , Mexico' in an example of what I they don't care how old the reissue .mean. Here was a Hollywood musi- is—so long as it's a two-gun action tf,c average exhibitor would play thrjlleri ' Quantity Bariralns ' Listen to some of them. To give place aux dames, here is Mrs. D. E. wlatson, owner of the Mission theatre in.El Paso, who observes: . "It's the Mexicans who love quan- tity. Aiid distributors don't appreci- as such—but not the canny publicity boys of Interstate. Right away-^ because they know thi.s territory— they saw their chance to cash in on the title. Out came screaming ban- ners leading the Mexican to believe If you say I can use this as a basis for my making a bid for it, I say it is not the same thing. If you get it,; you know you've bid more than your opposition—aiid it's bound to make you want to kick yourself for having offered too much." The new Drive-In theatre on the outskirts of El Paso—a type opera- tion not heretofore covered by this fact-seeker—is operated by Pack & Oakes, for the. owner, :C. H. Richter of Corpus Ghristi. Here is the gist of a joint interview with Pack & Oakes: Drive4n Biz Perks On Single-Pic Policy "This is the sixth Drive-In theatre; of our chain and the most recent to be opened, having .started business la.st .June. Although when we started operations, .showmen in El Paso prophesied our folding after a few weeks we find business not only good, but steadily increasing. Hav- ing a single feature policy we are satisfied with the quantity of prod- uct available, and consider the qual-: ity of top bracket pictures as good, as prewar. "For the benefit of newcomers to the busines's who think a Drive-In mu.st be the easiest way in the world to get rich quick-^thinking as they will of the small capital investment required as compared with a regu- lar theatre and the lower operating costs—let us undeceive him. The big point about all Drive-In theatres is j the much .stifTer opposition they have to contend with than, .say, an ordin- ary neighborhood hou.se. We have to attract business away from not only the first run downtown theatres and the neighborhood houses; we've aiKO got to (xompete with all forms of putdoor attraction)!. "All the (lamc we have had enotjgh txpcri<;nec in thi(i line tit rxhihltloh to knov/ v/hKt v/c'r«' up iii'iiiniit ■ and an h'lilt'.'i ii':(:orsi'mv,]Y. in our situ up through this year. "I anticipate in 1947 a great in- crease in operating costs for the ex- hibitor, especially in the brackets gf employees; We hate to think this will be so because we definitely do not want any admission price increase. But the whole trend is upwards, and the price of entertainment to the public cannot economically be the only stationary item. "In these circumistances it may seem strange, but the fact remains we have for some time contemplated an extensive building program. When this program is a fact Al- buquerque will have the seating capacity adequate for its needs. As it is, thi.s fast growing city is defi- nitely underseated.. ';As for what's wrong with produc- tion standards, the only fault I find with current product is too much footage in the better pictures. Holly- wood is to be commended for the; fine pictures of high quality pro- duced during the war, and I defi- nitely feel this degree of quality will not be lowered. ' ■ ;, . "We find producers' pres.<!bOoks entirely satisfactory. In fact this is one phase of the business exhibitors must agree has been magnificently handled these pa-st few years. Mak- ers of these pressbooks have cer- tainly been on their toes, their work as good as has been the work of the producers '' Educate Public Continued from page S that used to- cost 15c, and that all other forms of entertainment, in- cluding ball games, bowling alleys, etc., have upped their prices to the cvistomers, 'When Balaban pointed out that films were still the cheap- est buy, the cabbie admitted, "I never thought, of it that way." Pointing out the same facts to the general public via a large-scale m- stitutiohal ad campaign would prob- ably elicit, the same favorable re- sponse from' the public, Balaban thinks. It's recalled, in line with this, the mass institutional campaign carried out by the indu.stry several years ago that revolved about the slogan, "Movies Are Your Best Ent- tertainment." Exhibs throughout the country tied on to that one. and the same could be done now with a new campaign. Balaban, who raised his Saturday and Sunday admission prices at the Roxy from $1.20 to $1.50 tops for the prcem of "Razor's Edge," declared he should have taken the step a year ago, pointing out he'd lost as mueh as $500,000 by waiting this long. "If the customers get what they want, they'll pay any price," he said, add- ing that "good will only holds .so long as we give the public what they want." the picture 'was as Mexican as chili j ation, fcriyi'i'/v/. v/f dw/t find p^-rccnt- coil came. Hesult: It packed 'em in*) age* txci'mvf, but t^U'itmnats ex* Sistrom To Produce Next Durbin Starrer Hollywood, Dec. 3. Next starrer by Deanna Durbin, whose producer - hu.sband, Felix Jaek.son, recently moved off the lot, will be produced by .Toseph Sistrom for Universal-International. Originally the story was "Up In Central Park," But lack of Techni- color commitments voided the start of that venture. The picture, what- pvcr it happpns to be, is slated to .iitart in January, with or vvithout color process, I 'Canyon'-'Killers' I Continued from pace 3 .ass, 12 weeks with a $415,000 chunk of it coming from the 11-week run at the Winter Garden, N. Y. Perform- ance has been spotty, probably be- cause of a dearth of marquee names, and while some spots have garnered ■ heavy coin others have only paid, off middling-well, ■ _ ; Heretofore, - top grossers in .U's past 10 years , have been Deanna Durbin 'warblers. Best of these have netted the compan-y some $2,500,000 apiece, domestically. Distribution setup then was not as good, sales execs say, and added factor is the higher admission scales in folce everywhere. Revamping of sales contracts for single selling (inder the decree should mean a .sub.stantial buildup: of grosses on U's top pix in the coming year, according to company ofiCicials. By pacting with exhibs on specific films, company can insure ample playing time in all-important first-runs, a situation not true this year with block-pix deals. "Can- yon," it is said, suffered in a number of situations because the film was sold on terms which resulted in it being pulled before the cream ; was off. RKO'S EEGULAR 30c DIVVY RKO board of directors last week declared a regular quarterly divi- dend Qf 30c per share on compimy'.s outstanding common stock. Melon's payable Jan. 2, 1947 to holders of record on Dec. 16, 1946.