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Village Squire, 1975-02, Page 6when television swept the country and people suddenly began to stay at home for their entertainment. Ironically, it was kept alive by one of the men who were behind the competing medium that spelled doom for the small-town theatres in most towns. "Doc" Cruickshank took over the Lyceum after it had been closed and brought it back to life. The man who revolutionized life in Midwestern Ontario first with his radio station and later with his television station in Wingham gave the Lyceum back to his town and kept it going for some years. Often the distinguished whiteheaded man could be seen by movie goers as he surveyed the operation. The staff of the theatre often included people from the television station who worked evenings at the movie house. Movie-goers in the area got probably the cheapest entertainment available as prices were kept low. But the subsistence level management of the theatre was a mixed blessing. It fell farther behind the times in terms of the trends of interior comfort, etc. that people expected. People began going out of town more and more to see the movies in cities where the movies played sooner and the theatre was more comfortable and visually pleasing. That's where things stood in the summer of 1973 when John Schedler was working in the Capitol Theatre in Listowel. He'd already been in the theatre business 13 years since beginning as an usher in hometown Kitchener and then moving on to be manager in the National Theatre Chain across the country from Kitchener to Calgary and Edmonton. When he learned the lease on the Lyceum was open, he decided to become his own boss and took over management of the little Wingham house in August of 1973. At first, only his ideas in programming became noticeable. He re -instituted a policy of two showings a night, every night of the feature film rather than the old practice of one showing a night at 8 p.m. during the week and two showings on weekends. He reasons that it confuses people trying to remember one time for during the week and another on weekends. Now people can figure on a show every night at 7 and 'another at 9, unless the feature is one of those lengthy block -busters that make it possible to play only one feature a night. Recently, he's been experimenting with a new idea, a third show on Friday nights for those who would rather see a movie at 11 p.m. He's also undertaken much wider promotion of the theatre than had been previously done, reaching into surrounding towns as well as the rural area for a larger audience. He's worked hard to line up better quality films and get them before everyone who cares about a movie has already travelled to the city to see it. It's no easy task; he explains. Often a distributor will have only about 20 prints of a first -run movie to be distributed among Canadian theatres. If the show is popular, these prints may be tied up by the big city theatres for a long time before the smaller theatres, with their corresponding smaller incomes, can get a chance to run them. Often, too, even though these pictures may be immensely popular, the small theatre can lose money on them. Charges for the show are on the basis of percentage of the gross income on the film. For a real blockbuster such as Towering Inferno, this could mean that 70 per cent of your admission would go to the film distributor. On less popular films, this may be a 60 or 50 per cent. If a theatre waits to show a film in the second -run, the percentage drops. The 30 percent that's left for the theatre owner with the block -buster may not be enough to pay salaries, heat, electricity and other overhead costs. John admits losing money on The Excorsist, for instance because it came in at the 70 percent tab but by the time he could get it after its long big city runs, the bloom was off the rose. The fantastic publicity the movie had received had died down and anyone who really wanted to see it had probably been elsewhere to see it. This summer, people began to see some more visible changes around The Lyceum. With the aid of the strong arms of assistant Ward Robertson, the old exterior box-office came tumbling down which allowed the tiny lobby at The Lyceum to be opened up. Inside, the old centre isle in the theatre gave way to two isles one on either side of a central seating area. Many of the old seats were replaced with new comfortable theatre seats. The seats were staggered so that the viewer doesn't have to worry about a head directly in front of his own. Carpeting was added and the place was generally spruced up. o horitujjo shop NANOCRA T5 & GIFTS CENTENNIAL CENTRE 4, VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUARY 1975 The CAMEO Hair Styling STRATFORD MALL WESTERN ONTARIO'S FOREMOST UNI -SEX HAIR STYLING SALON - FEATURING - UP-TO-DATE STYLE CUTS and our WASH -IN -WEAR PERMS FOR LADIES AND GENTS PLEASE CALL 273-2431 APPOINTMENTS ARE NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY