Would Off-Campus Bogart Sell?

United Artists Puts Premium Rate On The Bogie Cult --- Part Two

What clicked at Harvard could do so for other places ... or not. Bogart packaging at colleges and revival houses ran hot/cool depending on locale and patron temperament. United Artists owned the old Warner pics and decided to package them for theatres beginning in April 1965. Bogart's campus and cult popularity was called a "whimsical phenomenon" by booker vets doubtful that ancient fare bled dry on television could now be sold on percentage for two week minimum run. The batch was handled by Film Representations, in association with Dominant Pictures, which was UA's theatrical arm for the WB vaulties. Nineteen titles made up Film Rep's Bogart package, initial playdates focused on Northeast territories where college towns laid welcome mat for classics in general and Bogart in particular. Dominant wasn't keen to invest in new prints for such a chancy proposition: there would only be two to six available of any from the group. Participating houses could run as many of the nineteen as they pleased, so long as two weeks was dedicated to Bogart. The 8th Street Playhouse in New York's Greenwich Village did $10K with the festival, that considered good for a two week stand at the small art house. Chicago's Carnegie did similarly well. What happened when Bogart made way down to Charlotte, North Carolina in December, 1966, was something else entirely, however.

The south was no bastion for Bogart, him being urban north,  distinctly so in affect and attitude. Visulite Theatre manager Bob Schrader told The Charlotte Observer his sad tale of bombing with Bogie. The whole of seven days had played to "a bunch of seat backs," said Schrader, who added that years spent in a college town had misled him to believe that Bogie would click in Charlotte. He'd run seven of the features, one day apiece, leading with Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, then Casablanca, and so on. Each came a cropper. Film Rep/Dominant's proviso that the festival last two weeks had by December 1966 been dropped. Charlotte franchise holder for Dominant was Harry Kerr, who had Bogart prints gathering dust at his exchange since 1956 (he would confirm as much to me in years-later conversation). Harry told the Observer that the Visulite's would be "the first Bogart festival in the South." He did not add that it would likely be the last.

United Artists kept punching. They'd load non-theatrical catalogues with Bogarts good and bad, each priced accordingly. Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon in 16mm demanded $125 for a 1975 day's rent, while mangier The Two Mrs. Carrolls or Conflict could be had for $35. UA also got out a pressbook the same year for theatrical replay of Bogart, with oldies offered on single or double-feature basis, ads available for whatever combination. The distributor looked to fill a product shortage, not with mere oldies, but "classics," a broad label they'd apply to the range of Bogart titles controlled by UA. Yesteryear pics had been yielding at most $30-$100K in rentals, not a lot admittedly, but "found money," said Variety, since there were virtually no costs in terms of lab or promotion. That would change with serious rollout of the Bogarts to first-run houses, with terms beefed up accordingly; in other words, the 1965 experiment being tried again.

UA didn't want to alienate revival house customers accustomed to product at flat rate (generally $50-$100 guarantee vs. 30% of daily gross), but new prints and hoopla didn't come cheap, so participating theatres would have to pony upward. Yes, advance cash payment was required, plus minimum playing time, and percentage terms as high as 50%, all of which spelled no dice to repertory vets who knew even the best of vintage films couldn't tote such load. "I haven't been back to do business with UA, because those terms are just unrealistic," said one. As to Bogart classics and others long shelved being sent in first-run direction, the rep showman said it was merely a matter of UA "spoon-feeding rich kids (first-run theatres) in a famine." Distrib chief Donald Krim admitted that he'd gone "into the corporate attic to dust off the antiques," but hoped still to realize "several hundred thousand dollars" within a first twelve months of oldie-play.

United Artists tied in with Little, Brown, and Co. to cross promote Bogart and the publisher's recently out bio by Nathaniel Benchley. RCA's LP compilation of music from Bogart films also got a push. In all, there were fourteen HB features tendered to first-run situations by UA, the expected classics like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, but also odd choices like Virginia City and Crime School. There were trailers for select titles, and cartoons from the pre-49 Warner library were "keyed to the program." Public response to oldies, no matter how smart UA may be, is not guaranteed at first run prices, warned Variety. There was risk of failure owing to a public's expectation that such films be free on television, or in low admission revival housing to which patronage was loyal.

Universal had put Animal Crackers out on firm terms (in 1974) and "failed to entice the public or exhibs," the trade recalled. Then there was Columbia's summer of Chaplin revivals in 1972, "which capsized before completion," said Variety. UA did little better with a pre-Bogart experiment that placed five Marx Bros. comedies (their MGM's) at the first-run  Drexel Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. So how did the Bogarts perform for United Artists? It varied according to title: Casablanca finished best with $1.2 million in domestic rentals, The Maltese Falcon $491K, then downward for Treasure Of The Sierra Madre at $164K (still good for a relic), Key Largo with $135K, The Petrified Forest ($45K), and High Sierra ($41K). These Bogarts, being evergreen in revival context, would go on earning revenue unto present day, where DVD/Blu-Ray sales, streaming, and TCM playoff have kept them all in healthy circulation.