Exhibitors Herald World (Jan-Mar 1929)

26 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD January 5, 1929 First National FIRST NATIONAL'S recent reorganization, far from upsetting this fine old-line company, seems to have fired it with amazing vitality and energy. A visit to the First National offices shows a plant clearly going full-speed ahead. There is neither idleness nor indecision. Obviously, First National will continue to be a factor of first-rate importance in the film industry, an ambition entirely within reason when one considers the high quality of the product First National makes. (Note "The Barker," at the Central, one of the best pictures on Broadway in a long time.) * * * First National, under the leaders of its reorganization, is a young outfit and has the refreshing qualities of youth. Herman Starr, the new president, is under thirty. But he has been in the film industry, with the Warners, for ten years and he knows just exactly what he wants. What he wants, I might add, is to make First National eminently successful, so much so that he is interested only in contributions toward that end. For instance, and I trust I'm not revealing a secret, Starr declines and avoids personal publicity. He sees no reason why Herman Starr should be built up, sold and resold to the public or to the industry. First National is not engaged in putting over Starr, therefore it seems to him a waste of effort to publicize him. Now, if you want to give Richard Barthelmess publicity . . . * * * Ned Depinet, sales manager of First National, is well-known in the industry and well-liked. He has done a fine job of salesmanship for more than four years and his inclusion in the new scheme at First National is as much a tribute to the company's good sense as a tribute to his good work. Depinet, too, is a young man. * * * Charlie Einfeld, newly appointed director of advertising and publicity for First National, has had an experience that fits him uniquely for his job. Not only has he held every subordinate position in his department before reaching the top, but he has been on the exhibitor's side of the fence. Which is one reason why First National is going out of its way to help the exhibitor. For instance, with every First National picture will go a campaign of exploitation designed especially for the theatre into which it is scheduled to go. If you have a theatre in Duluth and are going to play "Synthetic Sin" or "Scarlet Seas" you will get from First National a number of suggestions designed to help put the picture over in your city. If you are at Forth Worth you will get similar aid, but not necessarily the same suggestions. "We have no desire to tell an exhibitor how to play a picture," Einfeld told me, "but we want to do everything in our power to help him with suggestions if he wants them. Frequently an exhibitor shows a picture he hasn't seen and he's rather up against it to know what to emphasize, what to exploit. We want to give him all the information he can use to enable him to exploit his pictures intelligently and bring crowds into his theatres." * * * First National's progress in the industry wil! be closely watched during the coming months. PETER VISCHER. Ext reel! All About Cleopatra! AFTER Caesar had got to be the big shot in Rome, everything was hotsy-totsy until n he sent his buddy, Mark Anthony, over to Egypt. There Mark met Cleopatra, a queen — and how! Well, it seems Caesar had met this dame himself, so — but it's a long story. And though old, it gets a thoroughly modern telling in "When Caesar Ran a Newspaper," Paramount-Christie audien. Above: Raymond Hatton as Caesar (Himself!) Right: Scene on the Nile Hatton and Miss Lorraine Above: Betty Lorraine as Cleopatra (Hot diggety!) Below: Anthony breaks the big story Hatton and Sam Hardy