LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Television Over There
SIR.—In the first four months of last year in America the market value of United Paramount Theatres stock fell about 20 per cent., while that of Zenith Radio and Television rose about 120 per cent. Although these figures are rot untypical. the immediate conclusiot. that TV is booming at the expense of the cinema is not true. The film industry's slogan, to which Professor D. W. Brogan refers, " Movies are better than ever," was coined largely to counter the effect of TV. 1 agree with him that the slogan is not enough That the pictures themselves will have to improve is illustrated by the rise of " art houses," where foreign films of outstanding quality are shown ; these have gained rapidly in popularity amongst those who are tiring of the Hollywood stereotype. A few years ago there were only 15 such cinemas the whole of the U.S.A., but no.v there are well over 250, and this has hit the " traditional " cinema. The American drive-in theatre has also caught on, and this, too, has hit the conventional ones.
But what I believe to be the biggest blow to film exhibitors has been the rise in the American cost of living. Two film renters charged their research branches to get out statistics of exactly how TV was causing a shimp in the box-office takings. It was found that in New York, the biggest TV centre, the cinemas were doing fairly well—better, in Tact, than in Chicago or Los Angeles, where TV was not so advanced. Los Angeles recently suffered a 22 per cent. drop in cinema box-office takings ; the exhibitors of Indianapolis, Denver, Minneapolis and other cities where, at the time of the surveys, TV was unknown, also complained of had buisness. l he real reason for the slump was shown by the surveys (which were never made public) to be that, in cities where the lifting of rent-restrictions had led to a sharp rise in the cost of living, cinema attendances &caned, and thi.., was almost irrespective of whether the city had TV or not.- In comparatively enlightened Ncw York. for instance, the rent restrictions were maintained, so. despite the large number of TV transmitters mere, the cinemas did not fare too badly.
TV must inevitably affect the pattern of American social behaviour. But my belief is that it will depend as much on the economic factors as on the respective pulling power of TV in the home and the film at the
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