Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-05-31
The Passing Show
The Passing Show
Movies Fire Biz Guns
Best Pictures to Flow Through Summer
In Effort to Recopture Lost Audience
By Joy Cormody

By Joy
Moviemakers and exhibitors
will go cunning this summer
for that lost audience. They
will do it with their biggest,
best and most expensive pic
lures.
All this is in marked con-
trast to practice in the old and
profitable days. Then it was
the custom of the industry to
accept summers doldrums
as inevitable, to lure as many
patrons as possible of the
streets with such bait as go
degrees cooler inside" and let
it go at that.
Productions representing ex-
travagant investment of talent
and money, especially money,
were withheld from the sum-
mer market then. The high
est artistic aspiration of both
producers and exhibitors was
represented in the picture de-
Scribed as light summer en-
tertainment." Or, in the Ian
gauge of the true zealot, Ideal
summer entertainment"
Others Still ReIox
This standard may prevail
in television, the loathed rival
of Hollywood, with its summer
requirements for the so-called
'big shows" of the more active
seasons. It may hold for pub
fishing houses which have al
ways granted their public
three months vacations if only
for the sake of taking an
equivalent period of rest for
themselves. The theater, of
course, surrenders almost as
completely to the assumption
of unadulterated human friv-
olity. limiting itself to roman
tic farces and lifting musicals.
The luxury of conforming
to this standard is much too
expensive for the movies in
1858. The industry, therefore,
lights up the balmy eve of
summer with such of its crown
Jewels as Shane" Titanic"
young Bess," Man on q
Tightrope," THE Juggler,"
1.-THE Star" etc.
Human refrigeration, or 80
degrees cooler inside, plus
popcorn and candy bars, have
become minor ingredients in
the recipe for recouping the
movies old popularity.
New Processes Coming
It is not merly a matter Of
closing in on rival entertain
ment mediums, television
especially, when these are de-
faulting on quality. The COM
ing Of new process films,
third-dimension, wide screen,
and the like is even more of
an influential factor. The
studios are pretty heavily
stocked with standard produc-
lions and the Storerooms will
have to be cleared Of these
before too much time elapses.
TheaterS in all parts of the
country are being adapted to
Sd and wide-screen films.
The Warner and Ambassador
made the change to accommo-
date their current hit,
Shane" which was adapted
to wide-screen showing in
New York. The effect upon
the public here, as elsewhere,
was immediate and impressive
to theater arrangements.
Public Is Sold
That the moviegoer is sold
on the new processes, even If
critics remain skeptical as is
evident In the success of the
first two SD pictures in the
same two theaters. These
two, ''Bwana Devil" and
blouse Of Wax" resembled
nothing so much as the work
Of frenetic camera amateurs.
but they proved that the pub
lie Is clamoring for still
another Change"
In Shane" this depart
ment's favorite picture Of
1885 so far, the new wide
screen process is matched up
for the first time with dra-
matte merit. BY thus adding
quality to novelty Shane"
might very well be the biggest
money-maker of its year as
well as picking off a number
Of prizes, as it inevitably will.
This would earn for Director
George Stevens credit for the
rarest miracle in movie
making, namely, the best and
most profitable picture in one
Swoop.
It would also speed up the
theater conversion process
which will dictate, in turn,
getting older-type films to the
market place as quickly as pos
sible without reference to the
season.
And Color, Too
Another form Of obsolescense
that threatens to overtake
studios which lag in releasing