Boxoffice-11.04.1950

Family Merchandising
Urged by Coke Chief
William J. Hobbs, Coca-Cola president,
addressing the TOA convention. At his
side, K. J. O'Donnell. convention chairman,
and foreground. Mort Blumenstock,
vice-president and advertising and publicity
director of Warner Bros.
HOUSTON—Exhibitors were urged to get
going on an effective merchandising program
aimed at building business on the
family unit basis by William J. Hobbs, president
of the Coca-Cola Co. He presented the
success his own company has had in the last
13 years of merchandising its product on
a family unit basis through its carton-ofsix
as indicative of the limitless promotion
potential in the family unit.
"By merchandising to the entire family
unit we have found a way to get more sales
at lower cost," he said. The theatreman can
build his volume, too. by developing his promotional
program on a policy of attracting
the entire family.
He said the drive-in operators were the
first exhibitors to take full advantage of
family merchandising. The drive-in, he
pointed out, has increased from 1,100 theatres
in 1949 to 2,400 or more in 1950. "How
come?" he asked. "Drive-ins are tough to
build, difficult to maintain, and financing a
drive-in at the bank requires more collateral
than the acreage and the sound posts. The
obvious answer can only be that they make
money."
"With the drive-in. your industry has come
into a totally new merchandising era—family
merchandising, multiple-patron merchandising,
multiple selling.
"Call it what you may, the plain dollarand-cents
fact is that the drive-ins are merchandising
to units of at least three people
while closed theatres are still merchandising
to only one person. If nothing else, that
means one drive-in theatre promotion dollar
is doing three times the amount of work by
closed theatre standards."
He advised exhibitors to think of their
theatres as civic centers. Among other things,
he added, this means careful scheduling of
pictures to take full advantage of family
theatregoing. "But is not the first step before
you promote the product—promoting
your theatre? After all, your theatre, too, is
a product. Your patrons must buy it before
they will become regular patrons."
He gave this definition of a good theatre:
"Someplace my kids can go with my complete
approval."
That kind of a theatre is a family friend.
Golden Clarifies
TOA Convention Report . . . Cont'd.
Ruling
On Construction Curb
HOUSTON—Nathan D. Golden, head of
the motion picture-photographic products division,
industry operations bureau, clarified
to delegates at the TOA convention the National
Production Authority ruling which last
week placed a ban on new theatre construction.
He made it clear that if one has started
to pour or place footings or other foundations
or incorporated permanently in place
additional building materials in a theatre
which is being remodeled, such building may
be finished and is considered as having commenced.
Golden said that "maintenance and repair"
in no manner is affected by the curtailment
order; nor is there any limitation
on the amount which may be spent for
maintenance and repair. "Maintenance and
repair," he said, "means such work as is
necessary to keep a structure or project in
sound working condition or to rehabilitate
a structure or project or any portion thereof,
when the same has been rendered unsafe
or unfit for service by wear and tear or
other similar causes." He added that maintenance
and repair does not include any
building operation or job where substantial
structural alterations or changes in design
are made.
He cautioned that anyone starting construction
which is not on the prohibited list
at present, but which does not further the
defense effort, runs the risk of being unable
and gets the family business. It is a place
where the entertainment is absorbing and
rewarding: where the estabhshment is well
run: where the management is courteous
and helpful: where the refreshments are
top quality.
"Schedule for the family, advertise and
promote to the family—make your merchandising
dollar work for multiple business."
It was this shift in Coca-Cola's merchandising
from single bottle sales to family multiple
cartons which shot sales from 8,000,000
cases of cartons of four in 1937 to over
360.000,000 cartons this year, Hobbs said.
New national treasurer of TOA is J. J.
O'Leary (K), Scranton, of the Comerford
circuit. He is shown with Alfred
Starr, Nashville, Tenn., who is chairman
of TOA's concessions committee.
to finish the building under the order.
Golden recalled that during World War
II not a single theatre closed its doors for
want of materials to put on a presentable
show, despite "rough and rugged" times.
"And," he concluded. "I want to assure you
that it will be my desire to do anything
possible to maintain this record."
Theatre Supply Dealers
File Protest to NPA
HOUSTON—Ray Colvin, executive director
of the Theatre Equipment Dealers Ass'n,
filed a protest with W H. Harrison, administrator
of the National Production Authority
over its order restricting the sale of theatre
supplies and equipment.
The following telegram was dispatched:
"On behalf of the Theatre Equipment
Dealers Ass'n, whose members must sell to
the motion picture industry all equipment
and supplies nece.ssary for the operation of
the theatre in our United States, we desire
to be heard relative to order M-4. The
sale of new equipment for new theatres
represents approximately 60 per cent of the
total business done by our members. Loss
of this business spells bankruptcy for our
members as well as increased unemployment
within our branch of this industry. We request
relief from this order and would appreciate
a hearing for our committee."
Look Awards in 1951
To Honor Exhibition
HOUSTON — Look Magazine's Annual
Awards in 1951 will pay tribute to motion
picture exhibition as well as to fUms and
their personalities. So announced Vernon L.
Myers at the TOA convention.
Myers, assistant to the president of Cowles
Magazines, publishers of Look, Quick and
Flair, brought to the exhibitors a visual story
of the penetration and local impact of motion
picture advertising in national magazines.
He gave facts and figures, illustrated
by means of color slides, on the readership
of Look. Life and the Saturday Evening
Post. This combination, he said, reached
more than 46,000,000 people of ten years or
older. Breaking these figures down for specific
cities, both large and small, he showed
the extent of the magazines' coverage of local
markets in relation to their theatre audience
potentials.
In pointing to the editorial attention these
magazines give to motion pictiu-es and their
personalities. Myers called this a "regular,
powerful and compelling stimulation toward
the development and perpetuation of the
moviegoing habit," He also said that the
preselling of motion pictures in advertising
placed in national magazines gave added
value to the local expenditures and efforts of
exhibitors, making them far more resultful.
iOXOFFICE November 4, 1950 23