What's New? (Jan 1953)

4 Page 5 WESTERN MEETINGS to meet so many of you men who have moved up to managerial posts since I was here last. “I had the opportunity of visiting most theatres in Vancouver, and it’s not hard to see why you are considered among the best showmen on the circuit. Because I don’t regularly get around to your theatres, I see things that to you may be commonplace. “Every theatre I visited was | = a bright, clean and : 5 » active. I got 3 the feeling that > ° 4 something was 5 going on all the time that the managers just don’t sit in their offices, but they are a vital part of the theatre’s operation. This just wasn’t a show put on for our benefit. It couldn’t happen that way. Your staffs, for instance, are particularly well groomed and seem to take a genuine interest in the patrons. “As a stranger, I stood at the head of the aisles of several theatres looking around and immediately usherettes tried to show me to a seat. I watched a candy attendant in a suburban theatre take several minutes to satisfy the wishes of a tiny customer with a nickel to spend. The youngster took quite a time to decide what would be the best deal, and the candy girl never once showed impatience, but instead offered helpful suggestions. “The type of service I saw in your theatres is Public Relations at its best. It’s worth more to this company than all the full-page institutional ads or big radio programs I could devise. “In my travels I visit a lot of theatres, and I’m a crank on a couple of subjects besides advertising—cleanliness and courtesy. I can tell what kind of a manager a theatre has by the way a girl answers the ’phone and by the way the cashier acts. It was a pleasure to see such clean theatres as you have here and such attractive staffs in well-kept uniforms. J. R. NAIRN Fine Advertising Dept. “You are particularly fortunate in Vancouver to have such a fine advertising department. Beverly Clark and her assistant, Les Pope, are turning out exceptional newspaper advertising. If any proof were needed the fact that film companies are constantly requesting the art work from Vancouver to use in theatres elsewhere would be sufficient. Your sign shop, too, under the able direction of Bill Baillee, is second to none in Canada.” Using film slides to illustrate his point, the speaker stated that Famous Players managers all over the country were doing a fine public relations and advertising job day in and day out. The importance of entering campaigns for the Quigley Award and the Moving Picture Digest Showmanship annual contest were stressed by the speaker, who also discussed several important picture promotion ideas. Nairn stressed the importance of our employees entering and winning advertising campaign awards. Managers were urgently requested to send in proofs of activities, including human interest stories. The western theatre executives went all-out in their efforts to provide the proper atmosphere for the meetings. In Vancouver the meeting rooms in the Hotel Vancouver were decorated in showmanlike fashion by sign-shop boss, Bill Baillie. Charlie Kirby provided the exceptional decorations for the meeting rooms in the Hotel Fort Garry, and at the Palliser Hotel in Calgary the decorations were created by Jimmy Bird and his sign shop crew. Thank You! Our thanks to Leroy Chown, Calgary; Charlie Doctor, Vancouver, and Harold Bishop, Winnipeg, for the outstanding job they did in preparing the minutes of the meetings held in Western Canada. They all turned in outstanding jobs, for which our thanks and appreciation. Congratulations for the arrangements at the meeting are due Harold Bishop, Ed. Newman and Bill Novak in Winnipeg; Frank Gow and Maynard Joiner in Vancouver, and Ralph Mitcheltree, Ron Menzies and Paul Cordell in Calgary. DONEY HELPS VARIETY A four-column picture in the Daily Mercury of Guelph was obtained by Ted Doney, manager of the Royal theatre, for the presentation of a cheque for $815 to R. W. Bolstad, chief barker of the Variety Club, Toronto, and vice-president in our Famous Family. The money, to be used for Variety Village in Toronto, a school for crippled children of Ontario, was raised through the presentation of a midnight show in Guelph. The picture shows, Doney, Bolstad, a representative of the musicians’ union and 2nother theatre manager. The show combined efforts of theatre employees, musicians and entertainers. That’s the heart of show-business! BOLSTAD SEEKS INFORMALITY IN WESTERN MEETING DISCUSSIONS Speaking at the western meetings, R. W. Bolstad said: “I am sorry, as I know you must be, that Mr. Fitzgibbons was not able to join us at these meetings. He had really looked forward, as the rest of us did, to making this trip and having a chance to visit with you once again. As you know from reading the trade papers he has been terribly busy these past few months endeavouring to find just how the motion picture theatre, as we know it today, is going to fit into the entertainment pattern of tomorrow. We are confident that the pattern is beginning to take shape, and as these meetings proceed we hope to be able to tell you more about it. “At the last moment Mr. Fitzgibbons found that he had to go to Ottawa, and it was necessary for him to reluctantly cancel his trip out here. He has asked me to convey to you his regrets and his good wishes. He is confident, as we all are, that with the manpower Famous Players has, backed with substantial financial resources and good properties, we will find the right pattern for the future for all of us who are devoting our lives to this business. “Our Canadian economy has been undergoing a phenomenal expansion. Since 1940 our foreign trade has grown by more than 200%, and our gross national output has risen by more than 90%. These figures are in constant dollars. They measure the real advances that have been made in physical terms. As our population increased only 21% during this period there has been a real improvement in the Canadian standard of living. As a concrete example of this there is today one automobile for every five persons. In 1940 there was one automobile for only every nine people. Our people are living in better homes, they are better clothed, their schools and churches are better. They are even going to the movies more often than they ever did before. For example, in 1932 the average Canadian went to the movies only 9.4 times. Last year, the average Canadian went to the movies 18 times. This average figure, of course, includes the very young and R. W. BOLSTAD the very old, the sick and the well, those who live on farms, the cities, and in the arctic wastes. If you were to break these figures down into individual cities and towns you would find that in many of them the average person attends the movies as often as 40 times a year. Last year, for the first time in our history, the theatre business in Canada became a $100 million business. Expresses Confidence “Now these are rather cold statistics, but even in their coldness I think they convey to you and to me a sense of confidence in the future of our country and the business we are in. Certainly that business will change in your time and mine. If you would see other transitions look at what happened to the corner grocery store which gave way to the super-market . the dry goods store which gave way to the big department store, and even the livery stable which was transformed into the garage. Look at our own business which went from vaudeville to silent movies and vaudeville to elaborate stage presentations and movies and then to talking pictures in black and white and then to color. With each of those changes our business became a bigger and better business. Now we have before us the new invention, Cimerama and other 3rd dimensional movies. We also have the great possibility of bringing, through Telemeter, or some other pay-as-you-see system, the movies directly into the homes of our patrons. I say to you, as Mr. Fitzgibbons has said so often these past months, the future is greater than ever, “We want you fellows to feel that this is our meeting. We want to discuss many subjects, informally. If you have a thought or an idea that might be helpful to your fellow-managers please let us have them. Only by doing that will each of us get the greatest possible benefit out of these meetings.” ANOTHER .USE RULERS! Yet another use has been made of the free Lowney rulers provided through the co-operation of ‘Theatre Confections Led. Murray Lyneh figured out a way to move his slowselling chocolate bars, He put an elastic band around a ruler and a chocolate bar, and offered both for 10 cents. Result: no more slow moving chocolate bars,