The Film Daily (1948)

/ednesday, August 11, 1948 5^ DAILY prities Revieiv Industry Public Relations ''ortmt Brings Proposed Changes in Fix Advertising and Publicity Practices (Confinued from Page 1) Jg toward the motion picture industry. LA VERLE MORLEY ■ ^ KIEM, Eureka, Calif. <'^9 ^ ^U"^lJGGESTIONS, except to say that the leaders in the industry, ad motion picture artists, high and ,>w, should avoid any suspicion of tieps or sympathy with communism; ublicity along this line in recent cionths and in 1947 isn't doing motion picture people and their business any iiifood. T. R. HUGHES Reading (Pa.) Times ET'S PUT out an occasional release *'"* for somebody over 10 years old. DON J. BREWER WMRN, Marion, O. ilil pHE MONEY spent on big-budget pictures, the salaries paid movie ■^eople, and the sight of the movie inustry crying the blues all are in exremely bad taste. General reaction '5ems to be "Down to their last yacht. 'oo bad." One thing they can do is >ft-pedal the blues over money. NIKKI KAYE WCFL, Chicago, 111. A FIRMER stand with those who have accused Hollywood of sub ersive tendencies or of harboring a ubversive element. That old saying bout the proof of the pudding should e used with critics of the industry. '{"hey should be put on the defensive, .sked what "subversive" tendencies tave been shown in what movies. LEW SHEAFFER Brooklyn Eagle ♦ ^^HAT PUBLIC relations.^ The fan magazines and radio film "comlentators" for the most part do un•ardonable damage by presenting the Im colony in the most absurd terms, 'urthermore, let the studios give mandatory "public relations" courses to its tars — they're the ones who influence [le public. TRUDY RICHMOND WCOP, Boston, Mass. fi^N AGGRESSIVE campaign for the ' good pictures it has made — "Genleman's Agreement," "The Search," f Crossfire," "/ Remember Mama." The tdustry is on the defensive, not only •'om Congressional committees, hut <-om the plain and simple boredom f its audiences. LEO MISHKIN Morning Telegraph, New York, N. Y. ♦ yfOVIEGOERS are getting so heartily sick of publicitors' endless raying that an audible groan is heard 'hen, for perhaps the 20th time in a ear, the preview announces that the Im they will see next Sunday is "one f the great screen events of our times," a truly distinguished motion picture" lat will "become a part of your own ersonal history." What the industry's ublic relations needs is a better con PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE DOMINION INDUSTRY public relations are a matter of interest to Canadian motion picture critics as they are to their American compatriots. The Film Daily presents below the recommendations of three representative Canadian reviewers: JACQUES LA ROCHE, La Presse, Montreal: "More personal contacts with newspapermen, movie editors and the public, whose influence on the destinies of the industry appear to be insignificant save when immediate help is needed for the promotion of a particular picture." RENAUDE LA POINTE, Le Soleil, Quebec City: "First, to answer our requests for one or two column mats and for stills. Second, to have the local representative of each company visit his territory, talk with the movie editors, invite them somewhere and gather them in convention from time to time. Third, to give at least a 'pass' to movie editors." LENORE CRAWFORD, London Free Press, London, Ont.: "The movie industry might appeal through truth of publicity to an intelligent public which at present shies away from sensationally advertised pictures, which, according to the publicity, depend on sex and crime for interest, and which actually may be excellent productions. This has been apparent in the campaign carried on by the J. Arthur Rank Organization here, which brings first-runs and has built up a solid following for a theater in a residential area, drawn from all over the city." ception of the consumer — who is still an honest fellow who has bought a pig in the poke too many times at the box office. JANICE TROTTER Journal and Courier, Lafayette, Ind. ♦ EXCELLENT if the industry would investigate more thoroughly the point to be stressed before making a picture which tends to influence the public. The motion picture industry will not be able to cram down the throats of the intellect too much propaganda, hut of course, it is the nonintellectual who accepts and becomes followers of the isms. MARCEIL H. TROXEL Times Gazette, Ashland, O. ♦ CTOP CIRCULATING old B films at present high prices, unless old films are worth repeating, as most of them are not. Stick to fact in historical pix since children often gain erroneous impressions of history from films, which are hard to erase. TED G. McDowell Beckley (W. Va.) Post-Herald lyrORE COPY of a local or regional interest. JACK RILEY The News and Observer, Raleigh, N. C. QIMPUY make better pictures. It's as simple as that. And stop advertising every picture as a torrid, sexy romance. A lot of them are not that at all but you'd never know it from reading the ads. HERBERT L. MONK Globe-Democrat, St. Louis, Mo. dence to foist something like that on people when they came to see a movie MRS. MABEL C. LIGHT WDOD, Chattanooga, Tenn. ♦ £ESS MONOPOLY— less chain ownership, TEENUS CHENEY The Post, Salisbury, N. C. p£OPL£ ARE counting their pennies these days, and poor pictures make them carry a grudge that carries over for a month or more. The public doesnt give a hoot about a publicrelations policy. All they want are good pictures, made with integrity and publicized with some semblance oi truth. EDITH LINDEMAN Times-Dispatch & WLEE, Richmond, Va. A^ TT IS FAIR when you realize the magnitude of the industry, very poor when you consider the means of publicity at the disposal of Hollywood. PAUL M. BRUUN Florida (Miami Beach) Sun-Star CTOP THE currently prevailing use of suggestive and misleading advertising (especially of the billboard variety) for pictures that are actually wholesome anJ suitable for family patronage. FLORENCE BEACH ROWE WSLB, Ogdensburg, N. Y. -;—^ ' PLUGGING" has been overdone. Public tired of hearing pictures overpraised, especially when the pictures are poor. ELAINE EDWARDS Kenosha (Wise.) Evening News TF THEY spent more money on public relations than on building poor "stars," they would make a better public impression. M. LEONARD MATT WDAS, Philadelphia, Pa. M ORE ACCURATE and genuine publicity of new releases. CHUCK CECIL KFLW, Klamath Falls, Ore. 'pHE BIGGEST knock to motion pictures comes from the public with regard to the quality of motion pictures. Try to make better motion pictures and until the public is sold on the product sell them on the idea that it is still the cheapest form of good entertainment available, e. g. In this town (Austin) it costs only 50-60c for top-flight houses and that's just the price of two beers. STEVE PERKINS Austin (Tex.) Ametrican-Statesman —^ — : T HAVE a particular gripe to air. Perhaps it isn't true the country over, hut in this vicinity it seems to be a general practice to run advertising shorts for local business. To me that is excusable in radio — in the movies, where one must pay for his entertainment, it seems to he a breach of confj N END TO: Trite forms of publicity, in which sex appeal is overstressed. Too much emphasis upon personality r.ither than upon purely artistic achievement. "Think-ups" and other forms of spurious film "news" A PLAN TO SELL MOVIES: Honestly for what they are worth WILLIAM H. MOORING The Tidings, Los Angeles, Calif. J WOULD suggest that the industry cease publishing lurid, sensational and false advertising — that they cease assuming that the theater-going public has an I.Q. of 12-year-olds. ALTA SMITH Mitchel (S. Dak.) Daily Republic ♦ JN MY OPINION motion pictures should go after those millions who do not now go to the movies more than once a year. There is a huge potential audience available that can be reached by proper advertising and the right kind of pictures. A. R. DUNLAP Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Fla. ^NCOURAGE local theaters to participate more in civic and community projects. State benefits for truly needy charitable agencies when these agencies need help. More educational and patriotic shorts, i.e. — pounding theme of opportunity in U. S., the essential need to vote, take interest in local government, etc. LOUIS V. BLAY Herald Star, Steubenville, O. ♦ gTUDIO FLACKS should prevent recurrence of the bru.shoff Lana Turner gave British newsmen. Don't antagonize the press or radio. Hollywood writers' defiance of a Congressional committee, pix of two actors in jail for drunkenness, and the Carole Landis suicide, don't put the industry in a very favorable light especially in the (Continued or) Page 8)