Boxoffice-March.10.1951

[alco Chain Starts
Profit-Sharing Plan
From Southwest Edition
LITTLE ROCK—M. S. McCord of Little
Rock, vice-president of Malco Theatres, said
that the firm has started a profit-sharing
incentive plan for its 700 employes in four
southern states. The profit-sharing plan is
in addition to pension and group life, sickness
and accident plans which have been in
effect for Malco employes for many years.
All Malco employes become eligible for
sharing in the profits after two years' service.
McCord said about 300 of the firm's
employes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi
and Kentucky already are eligible.
McCord explained the plan: If profits
exceed a certain formula figure, all eligible
employes receive a percentage of their base
salaries at the end of the year as dividends.
The percentage will be the same as the
percentage by which profits exceed the
formula figure.
In other words if profits go 10 per cent
beyond the formula figure, each eligible employe
will get 10 per cent of his base salary
as his share.
Of Malco's 64 theatres, 41 (and 480 of the
700 employes) are in 20 Arkansas cities and
towns.
Production of TV Sets
Ahead at a High Rate
WASHINGTON—Output of television sets
may be expected to continue at a "fairly good
rate" as new ways of using substitutes for
critical materials are developed, the electronics
industry told the NPA Thursday (1),
but added that they would like a clearer
picture on availability prospects.
Meeting with William H. Harrison, defense
production administrator, and Manly Pleischmann,
NPA administrator, to discuss the
availability of electronic materials and equipment,
industry members said that to date
military requirements had not impaired
civilian production to a great extent. TV
set production in January was about 650,000,
they said, but added that they have exhausted
their inventories of cobalt. However, industry
spokesmen stressed that they have already
achieved great savings in the use of
critical materials, including cobalt, in the
production of radio and TV sets, and that
engineering conferences are continually going
on in an effort to develop conservation
measures and substitutes for the materials.
Swift Show Postponed
OMAHA—Swift & Co. was to have taken
over the Orpheum Theatre here March 6-9, but
postponed the engagement due to the death
of Eugene T. Rainey, Swift manager here.
Swift rented the city's largest theatre for
the premiere of the Sv/ift film, "Big Idea,"
and the operetta, "A Waltz Dream."
Frank Hill to Manage Drive-In
GREAT BEND, KAS.—A native Great
Bend resident, Prank Hill, will take over
next month as manager for the Cheyenne
Drive-In in Hoisington. At present he is
manager of the Midland Theatre in Hutchinson.
Good Housekeeping Rated
No. 1 in Theatre Success
From Central Edition
CHICAGO—"There is no substitute for good
housekeeping," Alex Manta warned managers
attending the annual two-day session held
in Chicago recently by the Manta &
Rose's Indiana-Illinois Theatres. Held in the
Blackstone hotel, the meeting featured tallcs
by Manta and Jack Rose.
Enlarging on his "bad housekeeping" theme
Manta emphasized that rudeness and carelessness
by theatre personnel can kill the
finest of advertising campaigns or civic cooperation
movements. According to Manta,
"Hollywood can make the finest productions,
the distributor sell them nationally to the
public and the theatre manager in turn can
sell the attraction to a fare-thee-well on the
local level, yet all these efforts can be knocked
into a cocked hat by impoliteness of staff
members. If a patron's well meaning suggestion
or complaint, either in person or by
phone, is given a quick brush-off by the
manager or his subordinate, you cannot offset
it by hobnobbing with, or knowing all
the bigshots in town, proving that being a
'showman' from the selling, exploitation and
civic cooperation angle alone is not enough.
NO SUBSTITUTE FOR CLEAN THEATRE
There must be strict attention to good housekeeping,
cleanliness, maintenance and to service
personnel at all times. Even the best selling
efforts are no substitute for a clean
theatre, clean restrooms, proper temperature,
good ventilation, a comfortable seat in good
state of repair, good sound and projection,
a word of greeting and pleasant service."
Referring to "sound and projection and
effect on same by television in the home"
Manta pointed out that when sound was
first introduced in motion pictures, patrons
readily distinguished between good and bad
sound. The reason for this was that people
had radios in their homes and were sound
conscious, having learned during those earlier
years the difference between amplified sound
as in radio and the old phonograph or gramophone
recordings. In other words, they used
the radio reception in their homes as a basis
of comparison with sound in the theatre.
"Now because of television in the home,
people are even more conscious of sound
quality than ever before, since television
sound is better than radio sound, because it
is FM, and free of man-made noises and
static, as compared to the AM.
PATRONS PROJECTION CONSCIOUS
"Also because of television sound in the
home people are projection conscious perhaps
for the first time. Heretofore, they accepted
good, fair, poor or indifferent projection
as a matter of course, not having a
basis of comparison. With home television
the average person tries to tune in the
clearest, sharpest picture possible. Therefore,
he is certainly going to be critical of theatre
projection. Not only by the greater size of
our pictures in theatres, but also by the
greater clearness and sharpness as well as
the high quality of our sound due to lower
and higher range than the average television
reception must we maintain our superiority.
We only kid ourselves if we do not keep our
projection in tip-top form at all times." In
closing Manta said: "In the light of all this
we ask managers to re-examine themselves
are you a showman in the full meaning of
the word?"
16mm Theatre Video
Is Shown to Military
WASHINGTON—The new 16mm theatre
television system, manufactured by General
Precision Laboratory, was demonstrated to
representatives of the military services here
Tuesday (27). The equipment has already
been shown to the industry in New 'York and
other places.
Using the equipment, company representatives
working with Defense department officials
produced a 20-minute training film
in 14 hours at a cost of under $500 a minute
running time. The company claims that
this is less than half the usual cost and a
substantial reduction in production time.
Military use of the system, which is similar
to the Paramount TV system, in that the
televised action is put onto film and then
projected onto a large screen, need not be
limited to the making of training films, according
to the company, although this would
be the most immediate use. Films projected
on the big screen could be viewed by larger
numbers of servicemen, and prints could be
made for showing in other camps, at other
times.
The new equipment, sized so the projector
can fit into the projection booth of most
first run houses, is expected to cost around
$25,000 complete, the same price anticipated
for the Paramount system. Operating costs
will be about one-fifth of the 35mm system,
and certain performance advantages are
claimed by the company. Critical materials
have been avoided wherever possible, and the
company expects to be able to produce somewhere
between 35 to 50 complete sets in 1951.
Raibourn Says Old Films
On TV Could Hike Values
NEW YORK—Use of
old films now in the
vaults of major companies for television could
enormously increase the book values of these
firms, Paul Raibourn of Paramount told
the Association of Customers Brokers at a
meeting held recently. These films are
listed at $1 each. If reissued for TV use, he
said, it would be possible for one company
that he knows of to raise its book values by
about $4 a share.
Raibourn qualified this statement by saying
that there was at present no likelihood
that this could be done, because of objections
which would be raised by James Petrillo,
musicians' union head.
The topic of Raibourn 's talk was "The
Incredible Tale of the Changing Amusement
Industry." He criticized film critics for showing
definite leanings toward foreign fUms
in preference to the American product.
British Censors Viewed
1,785 Films in 1950
WASHINGTON — The British Board of
Film Censors reviewed 1,785 films in 1950,
and classified 1,550 as "U," for universal exhibition,
and 234 as "A," for adults and minors
if accompanied by adults, according to a report
by the Department of Commerce. Three
hundred and twenty films were found objectionable,
but most were amended, and only
five finally rejected. One of the rejected
films was later allowed under a new license,
called "X," for films from which children
under 16 will be excluded.
BOXOFFICE :: March 10, 1951 61