Honor Night

The 20% federal amusement tax on movie tickets has been a burden to exhibitors ever since it was instituted as a wartime measure (10% in 1917, 20% in 1944). It became a bigger pain in the box office when television caught on. Last month Loris Gillespie, a theater owner in Okanogan, Wash. (pop. 2,000), decided to fight back. He advertised "Honor or Donation Night," invited patrons to pay what they pleased to a girl in the lobby instead of paying the box-office rate.

At the close of business, Gillespie discovered that he was doing all right. The average adult had contributed 27-c- (compared to 55-c-, including tax), the average child 6-c- (against 15-c-)--and it was all taxfree. And a bigger take than usual came from Owner Gillespie's popcorn candy and soft-drink counters. Thus inspired, Gillespie has since played periodical Honor Nights to capacity houses.

Last week another cinema palace joined the movement against "stifling taxation " Lee J. Hofheimer and Albert L. Sugarman, owners of the Little Theater in Columbus, Ohio, held a "Free Night": donations were tossed into a fishbowl in the lobby. Result: a good income, a rise in candy and popcorn sales, a full house

Neither theater has suffered official admonition from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, but both have heard rumblings. One BIR official merely announced: "[Gillespie] can go ahead as long as he operates within the law." Meanwhile, Honor Night may become the biggest box-office boon since dishes and Bingo.

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