Wid's Filmdom (1920)

Real Showmenand Why There is valuable information for every exhibitor in the country on “How to Be Successful Though an Exhibitor” in a review of the methods that have enabled N. H. Gordon, of Boston, to achieve his present status. Twelve years ago Gordon owned and managed one small house. It required approximately four years for him to obtain a substantial start toward success. During that time he carefully formed the policies and methods upon which he bases all of his achievements. Today he is the executive head of a circuit of more than 60 first-class theaters. He is a financial power; a bank director; owner of the First National Exhibitors’ Circuit franchise, and the exhibitor who took a special feature attraction, while it was being played for maximums of one and two weeks in other big cities, and put it on in Boston for twenty consecutive weeks at prices which topped $1.50 a seat. The business acumen which actuated Mr. Gordon in this accomplishment which has shattered all precedents for duration of runs and admission prices, is the one that is the underlying motive in everything he does as an exhibitor. It amounts to an unshakable confidence in motion pictures. Gordon began his career as an exhibitor on the proverbial “shoe string” for finances. In that respect he was not unlike a dozen or five thousand other motion picture exhibitors of twelve years ago. But it is the things Gordon has done since then that comprise a guide to growth, prosperity and community importance for other exhibitors who have the ambition and possibly lack the secret of the way to realize it. “How did you do it?” he was asked. And Gordon replied: “First, by realizing early in my experiences as a theater owner, with one small house, that I would need assistance to enable me to realize my ambition for a big circuit in New England. To build up my interests with nothing but the profits from one theater would have been a long, tedious process. I felt that some other exhibitor might not feel the hesitancy I had about a partnership with capital, which would mean a division of profits. So I overcame one word—my hesitancy. . “Tt seemed to me that the folks who had surplus money, made in other industries, and who might become interested in motion picture theaters, would be more agreeably disposed if they were personally acwith the man who submitted a proposition quainted It has seemed perfectly natural to me al to them. ways to associate with influential men. their acquaintance. I always replied truthfully to questions about my business. I never hesitated in my confidence in the business. I was building for the future during the early years, and my chief asset was a fast growing personal friendship with worth-while business people. “Four years after I opened my small house I found my big opportunity to enter Boston as an exhibitor. From that time on it has been chiefly a problem in restraining ambition so that it did not get out of step with resources available for development and extension work. | “I think that every exhibitor, no matter where he is located, or how big or small his theater holdings may be, should consider himself an integral part of his community, just as important as the clothiers, bankers or merchants in any line. He should have a genuine pride in his business. Membership in local civic bodies, commercial clubs and even representative private clubs and associations, is a valuable point of contact with municipal affairs, and it gives an exhibitor position, socially and commercially. Then, when he wants assistance, in any form, to build a new and larger house, or to extend his holdings into other communities in the territory, he has a great asset in his local acquaintance.” One important feature of Gordon’s policy for the operation of his theaters is his refusal to recognize precedents or what the other fellow does. He is a convert to pioneering. Here enters the most recent example. Gordon has given the industry of his refusal to consider the facts of what has been done as having any bearing on what can be done. By his willingness to cut away from things conventional, he has made money on productions long after exhibitors in other territories have ceased to run them. When First National released Mary Pickford’s “Daddy Long Legs,” Gordon decided that the industry had gone beyond the point of one and two weeks’ stands as the maximum. By the use of showmanship he proved his theory to be a fact. More important still, he demonstrated that exhibitors can charge prices that are almost the equivalent of those for legitimate road shows. : For twenty consecutive weeks he presented “Daddy Long Legs” in Boston at $1.50 top admission. And during the five months’ of its run he did not have a week when the net profits were more than twenty per cent. below those of the opening week. I cultivated |