Showmen's Trade Review
Lewis changed the name to Showmen's Trade Review starting with the December 29, 1934, issue, and the magazine was published continuously through October 19, 1957, when it was sold to the Motion Picture Exhibitor.
The publisher's set of bound volumes is held in the collection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, California.
He began working in the movie industry in 1909 as a "studio boy" at the Independent Moving Pictures (IMP) company on 56th Street in New York City, according to his editorial in the September 28, 1935, issue of Showmen's Trade Review.
After years of producing and promoting films and live stage shows, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Lewis served as general manager for a circuit of movie theatres in Connecticut and New York.
The early issues of Showmen's Trade Review featured an "Advance Dope" column with information about upcoming films such as The Masquerader with Ronald Colman, Dinner at Eight with Lionel Barrymore and Jean Harlow, Tugboat Annie with Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery, and Alice in Wonderland starring Charlotte Henry with Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, and W.C. Fields.
The column "Box Office Slant," which ran from the first issue through the last, was "a practical working analysis of current product as gauged by a showman's yardstick."
In the same issue, "Box Office Slant" said of Belle of the Nineties, starring blond bombshell Mae West, "The picture has been doctored plenty to meet with blue-nose requirements… But it's swell entertainment… It will pack 'em in… The censor boards have already sold the fans this one so it's a cinch to mop up."
A Showmen's Trade Review article in the January 26, 1935, issue reported, "… the National Lutheran Council, which claims spiritual control over 2,000,000 souls, called upon the faithful to 'withhold patronage from pictures offensive to morality.'"
An article in the February 2, 1935, issue proclaimed, "Check up over the nation reveals that there are 50 bills aimed at the motion picture industry in Washington and in 15 state capitols."
In 1937, Lewis published a book, "The Encyclopedia of Exploitation" by Bill Hendricks and Howard Waugh, a reference guide to 10,001 ways that theatre managers could bring more business in the door.
On February 4, 1950, Chick Lewis published another book by Hendricks, this time with Montgomery Orr, Showmanship in Advertising: The fundamentals of salesmanship in print.
Intensely patriotic, Lewis was a liberal thinker, editorializing against church censorship of films, and in the December 17, 1938, issue lashing out at a Photoplay article critical of "movie stars who are not married but commit the horrible crime of living in homes close to or next to each other."
A newsman as well as a showman, Lewis traveled often to Hollywood to meet with actors, producers and directors, theatre owners, as well as studio and industry executives.
The ads range from simple black and white to elaborate full color, featuring photographs of the stars in action, as well as original promotional drawings and cartons.
In August 1939, STR carried a 10-page ad taken by exhibitors in honor of Universal Pictures in full color on heavy textured paper featuring such movies as "Destry Rides Again" with Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart.
In March 1940, STR carried a two-page ad for the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rebecca" with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine with a gold background on both pages.
The anniversary issue was supported by full-page ads taken by: Alfred Hitchcock, Gary Cooper, Gabby Hayes, Tex Ritter, John Wayne, and Bing Crosby as well as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., Technicolor, and Hal Roach Productions.
For the record: on March 15, 1941, the masthead stated that the magazine was, "Published every Friday by Showmen's Trade Review, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York City.
In 1954, the year after his death, a new wing was opened at the Will Rogers' Memorial Hospital, dedicated to Chick Lewis, who served as executive vice-president of the institution.
Ever the showman, in his editorial of June 4, 1949, Lewis wrote, "SELL THE PICTURE: If the show is good enough to book, it's worth all the showmanship energy a theatreman can produce with every bit of know-how, inspiration and perspiration of which he's capable."
