Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1915)

66 MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 12. No. 12. ILLUSTRATING EFFECTIVE THEATRE ADVERTISING— AND THE REVERSE LOBBIES OF THE PORTOLA THEATRE, SAN FRANCISCO, AND THE STAR THEATRE, MODESTO, CAE. THE ARTISTIC LOBB\ DISPLAY VERSUS ''THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS" complete publicity campaign by exhibitors. The book is illustrated with special poster designs by John Hassall and Will Owens, cuts of specimen theatre programs, displays of all kinds and many novelties found useful by English exhibitors. Of course, many of the ideas suggested are suited only to England, but exhibitors here will find a mass of clever hints out of which they will be able to select many that ought to prove winners. They will do well to give particular attention to the chapters on effective lobby decoration, and how to give all their advertising a "punch" without making it misleading. W. C. Odle, proprietor of the Princess at Williamsport, Ind., is giving a free show each Wednesday night for the merchants of Williamsport. The Huntington Theatre, Huntington, Ind., is promoting a film play to be put on by local talent for the benefit of a hospital fund. Extensive outdoor advertising is used by the Novelty Theatre, Brooklyn, N. Y. Supplementing their billboard display, they recently adopted the policy of placing window cards of V-L-S-E productions on the dashboards of Brooklyn trolley cars. This is said to be the first time that this style of advertising has been employed by motion picture exhibitors in Greater New York. George Pliakos, manager of the Marquette Theatre, St. Louis, has added greatly to the attractiveness of his house by placing at intervals on the walls of the theatre nine large oil paintings of popular classical subjects. By way of increasing interest in the "Hazards of Helen" series, the Grand Opera House, Washington, Ind., sent out letters with passes attached to employees of two railroads which maintain division headquarters in the town. ONE of the best ways in which an exhibitor can put the right advertising in the right place is to arrange an artistic display in his theatre lobby. The theatre front makes the first impression upon the patron as he enters the house, and the last as he leaves, and the exhibitor should make sure that the right impression is left in both cases. The first step is to see to it that the lobby does not look like a cheap billboard. In too many theatres, patrons have to thread their way through a maze Jack Gold, proprietor of the Family Theatre, Harrisburg, Pa., made a lot of new business for his house the past summer by organizing and equipping a baseball team of boys residing in the neighborhood. On the front of the uniforms was printed the name of the theatre, and the scores of all games were printed under the theatre's name in the Harrisburg papers. A group picture of the team was shown on the screen each night, and the youngsters proved valuable advertising agents for Gold's theatre. piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin | THE WEEK'S BEST LIVE WIRE | | STUNT | Billing the country for a hundred § | miles around was the enterprising 1 | scheme employed by Manager J. E. 1 1 Williams, of the Grand Opera House, I I Oshkosh, Wis., for his eight-day | I showing of "The Birth of a Nation." 1 1 But Williams did not stop there. He I I also engaged an old time minstrel, I | Eli Rice, to announce with a mega | | phone in all the surrounding towns. I | Result: at 25-50-75 and $1.00 prices, | I crowds were turned away from the | I regular sixteen performances, and an | | extra performance was given Satur I I day morning to a crowded house. j | The Grand is a "legitimate" house, § | but it will hereafter play pictures on I | all open nights. | of posters of the most lurid character. If the patron succeeds in getting through without a headache, he will remember nothing of this sensational advertising except that it is a motley collection of more or less sensational train wrecks, automobile accidents, and horrors of various descriptions. If there is an artistic sheet in the lot, its effect is totally lost on the spectator. As an example of what we mean look at the photographs of two lobbies shown •on this page. Note the effectiveness of the Portola display as contrasted with the overcrowding all too evident in that of the Star. Now, the Star is not an extreme example of poor arrangement, but its weakness beside the strength of the other demonstrates the point. The Portola exhibitor knows it is not necessary to line every available inch of wall space with advertising. He also knows how to put his display in effective groups. The Star, on the other hand, presents a monotony of impression which the eye cannot take in. Half the number of posters, arranged cleverly, would have made eight or ten times the impression. The large "Jitney Bus" banned over the ticket booth is also a mistake, it seems to us. A much better place for it would be over the entrance to the auditorium itself, as in the case of the Portola. And the two billboards that greet the patron as he approaches the Star are crude and unsightly. Better to abolish them altogether. Nothing will do more to give a motion picture theatre respect and consideration in a community than a sensible, as well as an attractive, front. Wise exhibitors will recognize this and will make as good a selection as they can from the advertising material offered by the manufacturers. The manufacturers, notably the Metro Pictures Corporation and the Vitagraph Company, are themselves beginning to recognize the supreme value of genuinely artistic posters. Then, wise exhibitors will make their displays neat, in good taste, and capable of giving the picture-goer an irrepressible desire to see the pictures that are advertised in the lobby. piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiniiiiiiiii!^ | WHAT LIVE EXHIBITORS EVERYWHERE ARE DOING j Illllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll)llli;illlll!llllllllllllllllllllll!lilN