What's New? (Sep 1955)

Page 8 AL HARTSHORN — A PROFILE ‘TEMPORARY POSITION STRETCHES 30 YEARS Al Hartshorn, 47-year-old manager of the Regent theatre, Oshawa, after an enforced stay at the Hamilton Sanitarium, has just left the San. When Al started as an usher, it was as a temporary job of two weeks. It stretched to 30 years. A study of those 30 years will show that Al’s background would provide one of the best curricula of study in showmanship available. A glance over the variety of jobs he has had in theatres, the teachers under whom he has worked, the places he has been, his success as a theatre manager, should be an inspiration for aspiring theatre managers. Accidental His entrance into the theatre business was accidental. He was an usher at the then Pantages theatre, now the Imperial, Toronto. It was supposed to be a temporary job for some holidays. Those years with Famous Players taught Al something of theatre management, gave him a love for the theatre industry and a conception of exploitation. “No exploitation is any good,” said Al, “unless you can give the person with whom you are cooperating, something in return.” “If you just walk into a store and fast-talk the merchant into a deal, slap-dash up his window and walk out,” he said, “you are going to feel like an awful heel the next time you walk into his store, even if it is to make a purchase.” “You have to have something positive to sell the merchant. You can help him; he you. The merchant is always looking for new ways to sell his merchandise. If you have a positive idea of how to help him, he will welcome your aid,” Al said. His Best Al’s best exploitation job was the one he did for “Love Finds Andy Hardy,” while he was manager of a Hamilton theatre. For it, he won a prize from MGM. Fences were posted, balloons were dropped over the main intersection from an airplane, the whole town was sniped and contests, based on Mickey Rooney’s popularity, were run. Al fondly remembers the use he put a whole downtown corner fence surrounding the building under construction. For 10 days, various seg ments of the picture’s title were put up on a big white sheet. The segments didn’t go up in any order, thus arousing the curiosity of the passerby. Al said his method of dealing with exploitation in pictures is to “first look for the angles in the picture. Certain pictures obviously lend themselves to exploitation.” His definition of exploitation is “you plan out something in which you do good for your theatre, and something good for the merchant.” AL HARTSHORN The recent promotion with Timex Watch on “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” was one of the best examples of this type of exploitation, believes Al. “Tt gave the merchant an avenue of sales, while it gave the exhibitor an opportunity of exploiting his own merchandise,” said Al. “With this type of promotion, the theatre manager can return to the merchant, and be ready, willing, and able to ask for further promotions.” Variety Teachers Al learned his lessons from a varicty of teachers. They included the circus-type of promotions from Fred Schaefer; the art of detail from Morris Stein, Eastern Division General Manager; the art of persistence from Dan Krendel, Ontario District “B” Supervisor; and organization from Jack Arthur, now executive producer of the CNE. Before entering the theatre business, Al had travelled throughout He did a variety of jobs, and one day, while the U.S. with an uncle. holidaying he went into the theatre. He ran into a friend of his, who was then head-usher. He asked Al if he wanted to work in the theatre for a couple of weeks. “I wasn’t fussy at working. But it stretched into 30 years,” said Al. Ned Miller was manager, Maurice Doyle treasurer, and Bob Knevel took over later. Just before the theatre changed to the Imperial, Morris Stein became manager. From him, Al learned the importance of detail. The necessity of thoroughness was all-abiding with Mr. Stein. Al rose through the ranks of the Imperial theatre staff, becoming first head usher then chief of service, staying there until the stagepolicy was abolished. Fred Shaefer, a man who loved the practical joke, gave Al his first opportunity at exploitation. He also taught Al how to handle crowds. Although Al had grown up in downtown Toronto, “I still had a queasiness about handling people. Fred knew the right way to handle them.” Early Work Al’s first experience with exploitation with Fred was the distribution of heralds, window cards and billposting. In those days it wasn’t just a case of putting out a few window cards. The service staff would put up a thousand onesheets, 2,000 window cards and 20,000 heralds. If was the job of the service staff to look after this job, said Al. Al recalls the fights that the service staff would run into in competing for bill-posting space. Many the fights that were had between the competitors, posting over each other’s paper, and the fights ‘were quite sticky, fighting with paste brushes and paste,” Al grinned. During the winter, paste froze, making it impossible to put the sheets up with it. Instead, water would be thrown on the sheets, freezing and acting as a glue to hold them against the boards. The sad part came when the sun shone. Under Mr. Stein, Al became the specialist he is today at making tieups with stores. He arranged windows with such different Toronto stores as Heintzman’s, Eaton’s. He developed it more when the theatre begin bringing in name stars for the stage-shows, as personal appearances were arranged at the stores, etc. It was a big and good staff with which Al worked at the Imperial. But while he gained a lot of outside experience on the theatre’s time, he learned the operation of the books on his own time under Bob Knevels. This extra-curricular activity resulted in Al being appointed assistant to Dan Krendel at the Tivoli theatre, Toronto. One For Ten “Boy, did we ever do lots of exploitation in those days. I learned from Dan the art of spending a dollar to make ten. This was the true art of exploitation,” recalled Al. Typical promotion of that worked by Krendel and Hartshorn was the promotion of stuffed African animals from the Royal Ontario Museum in order to exploit a jungle picture. The animals, which took Al four days to obtain from the Museum, were used as lobby displays and window displays. “Dan and I were willing to try for anything. When it looked impossible, we did it,” smiled Al. Al moved to the Family theatre, Toronto, latterly the Lake, after his stint at the Tivoli. Then he took over as house manager of the Palace theatre, Hamilton, under George Stroud, where he was for four years. Eight Years A stay of eight years in Sault Ste. Maric, where Al opened the Orpheum theatre, followed. He managed the Algoma theatre, later, as well. Then in 1947, Al was made manager of the Regent theatre, Oshawa. When Al moved to Sault Ste. Marie, he was lost when it came to newspaper ads. That was one phase of showmanship he knew nothing of, but he dug in with the assistance of the advertising manager of the newspaper, and learned. The ad manager, as a matter of fact, became one of Al’s closest friends. As a result, whenever Al needed space in the newspaper he received it. A reciprocal arrangement was developed between the two men, and Al never had any trouble with the newspaper. Besides the Andy Hardy prize, Al won the “Blitz for Fitz” contest for the eastern division, won first prize for Ballyhoo, plus a very special prize, his wife, Helen. They have one son, Paul, 13. —Harry Allen Jr. ~~ 8 2 eeewy