Leaders All — Arthur S. Kane, Opening Ten-Cent Picture Theatre on $159 (1923) 🇺🇸

Leaders All — Arthur S. Kane

Because he was one of the first to glimpse the future of the screen as an entertainer of the great public and consequently its opportunities for advancement; he began at the bottom and absorbed the knowledge that in the film business comes most surely through contact as exhibitor with the public and as exchangeman with the exhibitor; throughout his career he has brought to his associates high character as well as marked ability.

Opening Ten-Cent Picture Theatre on $159

Arthur S. Kane tells how Crawford & Talbot in one year saw that investment grow to $1,000 profits weekly

Let’s sit in with Arthur S. Kane at his office in Forty-fifth street and listen to a story of sixteen years ago. It is a tale of St. Louis, but it might well have been any other city.

The president of Associated Exhibitors told of the beginnings of the Lyceum theatre, when Messrs. Crawford and Talbot invested $159 in the property and opened a picture house.

Of course that sum was not the total amount of money that was involved, but it did represent the full cash expenditure at the beginning. Then the house had to make its own way.

It was probably the first motion picture theatre in the country which charged as much as ten cents admission.

But it is worth noting that before the house had been in operation a year the partners were dividing a thousand dollars a week.

Then just in case that is not enough for a starter here’s another. A theatre was built in St. Louis costing well into five figures — perhaps $40,000.

The exchange which at the time controlled the film supply for the territory also owned a theatre near the new structure.

When the new-comers began to talk about service the exchangeman was dubious. A three-days’ supply of pictures was costing on an average of $10 a reel, and the distributor didn’t see how he could supply the new house without pinching his own.

Nevertheless the exchangeman was willing to consider the difficulty in which the builder found himself. He could supply film to the new house for $25 a reel for three days provided also he was given a 25 per cent interest in the new theatre.

Careful consideration was given to the proposal. It was accepted. The only reservation made was that while the exchangeman would be paid cash for his films the unexpected partner would be asked to take his share of the profits from the box office receipts, the interest to be paid for out of them.

The property developed into one of the most valuable in the city.

It was an unusual background, scholastic and business, that Arthur S. Kane brought with him into the film business when he entered the exchange of O. T. Crawford in 1907.

Born in Iowa, the lad’s family moved to Topeka when he was eight years old. With one exception lasting three years he remained in that city for twenty-seven years.

In 1905, after attending Baker University, Baldwin, Kan., and Washington College, Topeka, Mr. Kane went to work on the State Journal in Topeka, an evening paper, as reporter.

The three years referred to were spent in Kansas City, the greater part as sporting editor of the Times. Then came the urge to take a partner for life, and with it the desire for a job on an evening newspaper.

Mr. Kane returned to Topeka as a writer for the Star, where he remained from 1897 to 1900, and following that he was for two years city editor of the Capitol.

In 1902 Mr. Kane became the manager of two legitimate theatres in Topeka, which positions he held for five years.

By 1907 the motion picture outlook was so strongly impressed on Mr. Kane’s imagination that he believed the time was coming when the screen would overshadow the stage.

Accordingly he entered the exchange of O. T. Crawford in St. Louis, who at the time was operating five branches — in the city named, in Louisville, New Orleans, El Paso and Houston.

Also there was under the control of the same concern twelve motion picture theatres and a producing business, which turned out a dozen small subjects, which branch was known as the O. T. Crawford Manufacturing Company.

In 1910 the General Film Company was formed and Mr. Kane was offered and accepted the position of district manager for the territory covered by the exchanges in Seattle, Portland, Spokane and Butte.

Mr. Kane remained with this organization, advancing through various stages until in February, 1913, he became assistant to President Frank Dyer, with offices in New York.

In 1914 there came an opportunity to assume the general managership of Eclectic Film Company, with twenty-one exchanges throughout the country. That was the nucleus of the present Pathé Exchange, Inc.

It was this company which distributed Les Misérables, the great Pathé production.

Following three months with the World Film Mr. Kane opened in 1916 the Pacific coast offices for Artcraft. He remained with this company and with Paramount until August 1, 1917, when he became general manager of Select.

In June, 1919, he started Realart, and in six months the company was well on its way. Then due to differences of opinion on policy Mr. Kane resigned. From 1920 to July 1, 1923, he was eastern representative of Charles Ray.

During the past two years Mr. Kane has been president of Associated Exhibitors. In his administration of the affairs of that company its president has followed the policy that has marked his career in other positions.

He always has been strong for quality in product and for a vigorous and an intensive selling on a basis that is fair to the three factors most vitally concerned, producer, distributor and exhibitor.

He is a believer in the value of advertising and exploitation, and bearing out this statement it may be remarked that his company is one of the most consistent advertisers to exhibitors.

As to the development of exhibitor advertising Mr. Kane has been a keen and close observer. In his early days in a film exchange it was a matter for ridicule, of boisterous laughter, when the advertising solicitor for a daily newspaper displayed sufficient temerity to seek money from exhibitors for printing announcements of motion pictures.

Yet it was only four years later, in 1911, that Jensen & Von Herberg, in the northwest, began employing full page advertisements in the daily newspapers and twenty-four-sheets on the stands.

To the best of Mr. Kane’s recollection, and he is sure it is accurate, it was this wideawake firm in the northwest which first showed to exhibitors the advantage of letting the public know what they had on their screens that was worth coming to see.

Another change in the attitude of the exhibitor that has been notable has been in the way he looks upon the scenic or educational film.

In the times when three reels was a “show” it was the custom to hold a subject that fell within these categories until there came along some rarely funny comedy, something like Pathé’s The Runaway Horse, which will be recalled by all old-timers, and also incidentally was the work of Louis Gasnier.

Mr. Kane’s advancement to high executive position has been the result of no luck. It is the recognition on the part of important companies of his sterling qualities, of his training and his character, and his all-around likeable personality.

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Collection: Exhibitors Trade Review, 13 October 1923

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