Reg Hartt

Terry Ramsaye, a motion picture writer from the earliest days of the movies who died in 1954, wrote in A MILLION AND ONE NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES (published in 1925) that the audience for motion pictures is between 11 and 30, primarily between 14 and 24 and primarily female.

That stayed consistent up to the mid 1970s.

Mark Breslin (YUK YUKS) worked as a writer on THE JOAN RIVERS SHOW. Asked what he wanted to do when it ended Mark said, “Write for the movies.”

Mark was told, “Movies are being made for 13 year old boys. You want to write for television.”

By turning towards boys the movies lost the girls, the women and the men young and older.

One HUGE difference is that “A” movies were shown at legit theatre prices from THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) up until the mid 1930s.

$2 a seat was a lot more in 1915 than it is today.

When the industry offered movies as cheap entertainment they lost their cultural cache. People stopped taking them seriously.

The introduction of munchies further devalued the experience.

Of course the arrival of television dealt a major blow to an industry that had always sold on the idea that the latest was the best and the biggest.

Television and the arrival of everything from Popeye and The Three Stooges to the best of over fifty years of film making for free offered something for the home theatres could not top.

Most people who work in the movies know very little about their real history hence Tom’s statement about the change in the age of the audience. It has not changed.

What has changed is the size of the theatres.

There are more people alive today than there were in 1915.

I have had the direct experience with theatres most have not.

When I took my programs on the road to rep cinemas most of which charged 99 cents (inspired by Gary Topp’s 99 Cent Roxy in Toronto in the 1960s and the Festival Cinema Chain in Toronto in the 1970s and 80s) balked at my demand they ask for $10.

“Our audience will not pay that,” they said.

They did. My programs set house records.

My programs come with talks which I give.

In a very real sense my programs are live theatre.

The movies have a future. That future is found (and only found) in raising the expectation of the audience and then in surpassing it.

It is not just a matter of raising the price it is also in raising the anticipation of the audience, creating that excitement that makes folks get up and go.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone the film community in Toronto has less respect for than myself.

However you won’t find anyone in the Canadian film community getting a fan letter from Jane Jacobs whose books THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES and DARK AGE AHEAD are essential reading.

Most who work in thew motion pictures business pride themselves on not reading.

Here is a list of FIFTY FAMOUS MALE ORATOR: https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference .

David Cronenberg is a fine movie maker however Jane J. never said the best part of what he offers is what he has to say, which she said to me over a few beers (and I mean a FEW) in her home.

I’m number fifty on that list. Winston Churchill is number one. That is a list I don’t mind being last on.

Do the movies have a future?

Only when they say something people want to hear.

Toronto is not listening to me, that’s for sure.

But a whole lot of people are.

Excelsior.

Movies today open in 100 seat theatres. People think that’s something.

Hell, my programs packed 1,000 seat theatres.

I have shows I want to take on the road.

Why?

Because it will be fun.

It will be a helluva lot of fun.–Reg Hartt