Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

A Reportorial Tip To The Exhibitor With Sketches by the Writer By Guy Fowler jw ANY a good picture flopped from lack of printer’s ink. By the process of inverse reasoning, not a few failures came to life under the reviving influence of type and played a merry tune on the box office cash register chimes. Every exhibitor, from the very nature of his business, should have at least a rudimentary knowledge of publicity. That is to say, he should know instinctively what news is. Oddly enough, the great majority of them lack this knowledge. Nor is it altogether their fault. The exhibitor accepts the press book material sent out by the producing company and lets it go at that. The intent of this article then, is to sug front cover he reads that “The Gray Ghost’’ gest certain methods by which exhibitors was adapted from a story by Irvin S. Cobb. And come to think of it, Irvin S. Cobb was born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky. In fact, he’s the man who made the town famous. If Potter had taken the trouble to study his press book and consider news values for a moment, that story of his would have reached the first page, probably, and he would have scored another record. That may be an exaggerated instance, but it serves to illustrate the point. It is no difficult trick to get the local angle on nearly any picture that is made. One of the cast may be a native of your town, or your state. The picture may deal with some historical, or political incident may win a wan smile from worn city editors and in due time, a stick or so of space that may mean the difference between empty seats and the S. R. O. sign. It can be done. Every newspaper man damns press agents and longs for the day when he can become one. It isn’t the press agent he hates, but the stuff he turns in under the guise of news. Sometimes There’s News Out On View For the purpose of getting down to a case in point, consider Dick Potter, who owns the Columbia Theatre in say, Paducah, Kentucky. Potter buys “The Gray Ghost,” a picture of the Civil War. From the district exchange he receives his press books which have been prepared in the New York offices of the producing company. Potter clips out a likely story and sends it around to the city editor of The News. The city editor, worried about a reduced staff, increasing rent and other things that newspaper men always worry about, writes a two line head over the copy and sends it to the composing room. The story appears on the theatre page and those who happen to see it read it, or don’t, as they feel at the moment. On the day after the picture closes, Potter is clearing his desk and runs across the clipped press book. On the which has a bearing on your territory. The money spent on a telegram of inquiry to the publicity offices of the producing company, would be well invested if it turned out that you gathered a local angle on the picture. Producers Will Do It Sooner Or Later The time will come when producers will instruct their publicity departments to provide local angle stories on all pictures wherever it is possible. When that time arrives, newspaper men will be less inclined to refer to motion picture publicity as hokum and the overworked janitors in newspaper buildings will have less waste paper to clear up when the staff has retired to the Dutchman’s over on the corner. Within the past year an enterprising exhibitor in Laconia, N. H., discovered the value of the local angle. He was showing William Fox’s production, “The Iron Horse.” It so happened that a Laconia girl had written some of the publicity for this picture and the exhibitor learned about it. He not only billed the fact, but stepped up on his stage before each performance to announce it. The Laconia ( Continued on page 145)