The Film Daily (1918)

aii^ DAILY in iiil Sunday, July 14, 1918 This May Get By Because of Star, But Ride It Easy Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor Mary Miles Minter in "THE GHOST OF ROSY TAYLOR" Mutual As program productions go this may possibly ride but I will guarantee you that no one will ever rave over it. Your only possible chance is to bill it as a light comedy and trust to the title and the star's following to carry it through for you. You certainly should be careful about letting them read the synopsis of the story because any fan will analyze this plot and figure it a waste of time. Miss Minter has an excellent following and has been growing in popularity but you must be very careful about not promising too much for a production of this strength because it will only get by and you will be handicapping yourself as to possibilities for putting over big things which she may do in the future. Miss Minter has been photographed to advantage many times and the fact that this is purely and simply a star production may justify it in the minds of many who only figure that they should be interested in seeing the personality they like move through an hour of comparatively interesting film footage. If you are going to play this, I would put all of my emphasis on the ghost idea by heading ads with catch lines such as: "Do you believe in ghosts?" "Have you ever seen a ghost?" "What would you do if you saw a ghost?" etc. Clean Pictures vs. Censorship What Causes Censorship 1 Self Constituted "Regulators." 2. Professional reformers. 3. Suggestive and misleading titles. 4. Fake advertising. 5. Extreme sex pictures, camouflaged with alleged scientific and hygienic excuses. A LATE picture paved the way to its filth with a sub-title reading, "To the Pure Mind All Things Are Pure." Then followed a full description of how to sniff cocaine from the thumb-nail. Possibly the "coke" was pure. Why hang out signs in cities where we do not have censorship reading "Children under fourteen years not admitted today?" If, by these "exhibitors" own admissions, the productions are unfit for children — then they are unfit for adults. We have been proclaiming to the skies that this industry has become a potent factor in the educational world, and that we are teachers. This is generally true — but — there is room for improvement. If we are moulding character for this and the next generation, are we doing a truly wholesome work in depicting the underworld, hypodermic needles, gauzedraped vampires, assaults of women and other depths of depravity? PRODUCERS PLEASE NOTE > Prohibition Is Here! Professional reformers will seek new fields. The exhibitor is going to have something to say about the making of the productions to be shown on J* his screen. _ Keep these few thoughts in mind when you are preparing a production £ s for the Affiiated Distributors Corporation and the Exhibitor Booking Corporations affiliated with it. We have taken a decided stand for clean pictures — because — it is the surest &/ Gentlemen: way to wipe OUt Censorship. /?/ Please send me Nothing but clean pictures for the next twelve months would put all censor / ■■'' &l°,YLl'^k^l^ht i i „..*. „£ u u .i • . ii •«. « <■ *? ■' Aitiiiatea Flan on boards out of business, because the picture public will not stand for JV clean, wholesome idiotic and senseless rules and regulations which now in most instances <? / production's from Prooperate as a persecution of one of America's most useful industries. f©V duc" ^ Exhibitor D' £, € AFFILIATED DISTRIBUTORS CORP. 1476 Broadway-523-4-5 Longacre Building, N. Y. « •>/ NAME... / THEATRE. CITY Ill