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Show . -ONCeOVER ; Movie Houses Seeing the Light , I By H. I. Phillips 1 THE movie theaters are on the spot where vaudeville once slept. What to do about video is ;j their big problem in many areas, . jl and there may be a historic step in ;! the big deal whereby three movie- !i house chains, Loews, Paramount '. and Fabian, purchased exclusive video rights to the Louis-Savold ' heavyweight fight. It is the first ij step toward getting the picture fans i but of the living room and back into j the theater. If it can be done with a boxing bout why can't it be done with football, baseball, the Ken- tucky Derby, a Kefauver probe, an ! ; Acheson "Information Please" pro gram and even, ultimately, with a j top musical, the Ringling circus, a political convention or an all-star Broadway drama? ' There is no getting away from , i the fsct that the moving picture , as a novelty or special treat ' has been largely kayoed by video. Every home in many sec- tions of the country is a movie J theater, making it possible by i a twist of the fist to get more 'j action and variety in the living ! room in one night than you can .get in the averag- movie theater in a week. At home you can ; see the pictures in your paja mas. You don't have to stand for those mile-and-a-half credit lines. And if you don't like the I attraction you can get some- thing else without calling a ! taxi, fighting with the house i manager or writing a letter of indignation to Variety, i ! Home sweet home has everything j: the cinema palace has except the ' ' j long stairways, the big lobbies, the ! ; militant ushers and the buttered j popcorn-. For generations the Ameri- i can home had to go to the theater. ;i , the ball park, the football bowl and ; i , .1 ; the boxing arena. Now these places have come to the home. And a lazy public has taken as a good break the opportunity to be a playgoer or sports fan without getting off the couch. The movie theaters are where vaudeville was when pictures came in. The difference is that they didn't get such a long warning. Video has come roaring out of the wide blue yonder like a bat out of Hades. (Incidentally, (In-cidentally, a bat out of Hades must put on quite a performance, and we would like to see it televised some evening.) Vaudeville was slow to see the menace and was dead before it realized it was sick. The movie men are swifter to get the danger signals. Video fans are in a way a great "captive audience," taken prisoner around the home and fireside. If the movies are to survive they have got to stage the greatest recapture in the history of war and peace. And they know it. The amusement world will be watching the telecasts of the heavyweight heavy-weight fight in scores of movie theaters. If the cash customers turn out in force it will mean bigger and better mergers with television. But suppose the fight ends in a one-round one-round kayo? Brother, the movie house operators had better have something good up their sleeves 1 RACE CHART STUFF Campaigner . . , Always trying. try-ing. Othello ... Set for killing. Short Circuit . . . Has had blowout. Halley . . . Yes and no. Scotch Wine . . . Short. The Reef . . . Sticks out Cigar Maid . . . Persistent sort. Eecess . . . Closes fast. |
