Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1921)

March. 1921 MOVING PICTURE AGE 21 Showing How Banks Are Protected Through this educational film the banks gain the confidence of their patrons by showing how the deposits are safeguarded By John P. Williams General Manager, Duplex Electric Company of New York ONE afternoon a few months ago, one of our representatives called at a prominent bank to analyze the merits of the Duplex electric vault protective service in defeating bank burglaries and hold-ups. The president of the bank, after an extended interview remarked : "If we decide to have the duplex electric service installed, it would be splendid advertising for this, bank to be able to show the general public the completeness of the protective system, which is guarding our bank against attack, and thus be able to convince our entire community that we have adopted and installed the best means known to science of frustrating the bank burglar and robber. This I believe can be best accomplished through the motion picture. If such an educational film can be arranged for we will close the deal at once." At the time of this conference my associates and myself had been considering the best method of enabling the hundreds of banks which had adopted our protective system to secure its full benefits, both from protective and public confidence standpoints. We realize and our many banking friends confirm us in the opinion that no bank can risk the loss of public confidence. Protection such as the duplex system affords is easily available, and public opinion is prone to censure, when the lack of such protection in any bank results in a serious money loss, if not loss of life, at the hands of some criminal whose efforts could so easily have been foiled. Why Our Film Builds Confidence It has been proved conclusively after many years of experience that prospective depositors will invariably select the bank which can show them by actual demonstrations a complete and standard system of electrical protection against burglary and robbery. After consultations with a number of other bankers our opinion was confirmed to the effect that motion pictures, were, by all means the best method of making known to the general public the efficiency of the duplex system. At a considerable expenditure of time and money we had William J. Ganz, President of the Commercial Publicity Film Company of New York, prepare several scenarios, showing various forms of attack in the way of burglaries and hold-ups. Several hundred feet of motion pictures were taken on the premises of a prominent banking institution in Pennsylvania, in which was installed the duplex system. It required two full days to film the action. These pictures graphically illustrate how the duplex vault protective and daylight system defeats such attacks, no matter hoAV carefully planned. How this picture is being received is of great interest. Having the live, human-interest title of "The Bank Burglar's Enemy," great public interest has been aroused. Scores of banks throughout the country are taking advantage of this film and are having it shown in their local moving picture houses with great success. The audiences have shown rapt attention to the vitality of the picture and the success with which the bank is defended against assaults. In many of the motion picture houses, this reel has had to be thrown on the screen several times at the request of the audience, who gave expression to the intensity of their interest by loudly applauding the scenes in the picture where the burglars and robbers are defeated by the duplex system when they are finally landed behind prison bars. Today our country and the world at large is still suffering from the effects of the war. The daily papers offer an amazing record of national distemper. We are now going through a vital and in a sense dangerous period of actual and far-reaching reconstruction, not only from commercial but from moral and mental standpoints. When men have previously learned to cheapen human life and the rights of property in the school of actual conflict, it is not surprising when the need arises that those of criminal instinct turn to the law of force to fill their pockets. It is less surprising that our banks, and banking channels, where money is found in large amounts, are marked by the cracksman as preferred prey. The educational value therefore of this film is selfevident as it not only enables the bank to actually show the public through the motion pictures how their vault is impregnable, but the picture at the same time instills complete confidence in the minds of the community at large. The public after inspecting the work feels assured that the bank has done everything possible to make their premises burglar-proof. This increased confidence means enlarged deposits and other business, as probably every bank executive or official will admit. Moreover, any prospective burglar or criminal, aware of the fact that a bank is so protected, will give the institution a wide berth. He fully realizes the futility of attacking a bank protected with this system. New Non-theatrical Service in the East AND still they come. That the use of motion pictures is not a fad for a day but has become part and parcel of the progressive educational thought of the twentieth century, is seen from the number of individuals and concerns joining this movement. The latest to enter this field is Mr. Samuel A. Bloch, who for the past year has been manager of the Educational and Non-Theatrical Department of the Fox Film Corporation. Mr. Bloch is exceptionally well equipped for the work of serving churches, schools, social and community centers, industrial plants and similar institutions with films for both instruction and entertainment. Just prior to coming to New York to organize the new department for Fox, he served on the Chicago Board of Motion Picture Censors for nearly six years. In fact, from its very inception. And just prior to becoming censor he was connected with the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago for two years. As a Juvenile Officer he investigated several hundred stories of delinquent children who had alleged that motion pictures were the causative factors in their delinquency. This experience enabled him to handle his censorship duties with such intelligence, as to make friends of both the film men and the people who brought censorship about. When Mr. Bloch left Chicago for his new work, he took with him the good wishes of scores of clergymen, educators, social service and civic workers, in the form of letters of introduction of a very highly complimentary character.