Lesson For Aspiring Exhibs

Let's Laud Louie Charninsky

We're all too free with that B movie tag. I've even seen King Kong and all of Ronald Reagan's films referred to as B's. A damning label in most quarters, it certainly should not be. Many think B means bad, so pardon my lifetime in thrall to Sherlock Holmes, Val Lewton, and westerns enough to thread a hemisphere. A "B" by accurate definition was what played in support of A's and rented at flat rate. Sometimes a pair of B's could fill a program, as here where Smashing The Money Ring (1939) plays with Gene Autry's In Old Monterey (15 to 20 cents til 6!). A creative enough showman could elevate a B to whatever heights he chose, Louie Charninsky not a name known to annals of marketing, but it should be for the whale of a selling job he did on behalf of Smashing The Money Ring at his Capitol Theatre in Dallas. That's Louie out front holding the blow-up of counterfeit currency which was Money Ring thrust. Magnet at the door was enlarged real dollars as opposed to funny money, passer-bys invited to compare the two as will Treasury Agent "Brass Bancroft," as played by Reagan in Warners' 57 minute sock-and-solve thriller. Spike to attendance was twenty-seven stills from the film on a center display, plus posters clearly handiwork of the Capitol's art shop. Think how long this preparation took for a show that ran two-three days, if that. Lesson to glean: B's were only B's when you sold them that way. Louie Charninsky followed his star (in this case, lack of them) and dressed an entrance anyone could be tempted toward. I hope Louie ate well that week for making thick steak of hamburger product. Men like him were what defined great showmanship.