The Moving picture world (November 1926-December 1926)

44 MOVING PICTURE WORLD November 6, 1926 M. W. Larmour Writes This could be entitled, "How I make the Moving Picture World Worth Many Times the Subscription Price." When the World arrives I glance through it for the news and for the items of especial interest. This keeps me abreast of the times. Then it goes to my cashier for a day. She enjoys reading it and by doing so can talk pictures intelligently to the patrons. Later, when I have plenty of leisure, I go through it carefully, making sure I find everything of interest to me or everything that can be used to help in the management of my theatre. All colored, striking or unusually good picture inserts or advertisements are cut out and filed under the name of the producer responsible. These are useful for lobby cards, window cards, in planning advertising campaigns, and in various other ways. In this file I also put the announcements of the various producers and any other stuff on their pictures that I happen to get. After the picture is finally bought and dated, this stuff is taken out and filed with the press sheets which are kept in the order in which the pictures are to be played. Unusually good photos of the players are also clipped and placed in an alphabetical file. They are kept separate from the advertisements and announcements but are used for the same purposes when required. Then I turn to Sargent's pages and read them carefully. Any unusual or striking stunt or ad is clipped and pasted in one of my classified scrap books under the proper classification. These scrap books are referred to frequently for inspiration, but the act of studying, clipping, classifying and pasting seems to impress the ideas on one's mind so strongly that in most cases they will pop out when needed without the help of the scrap book. Articles on theatre construction, presentations, equipment, etc., are also clipped if thought worthy and pasted in their scrap books. Colby Harriman's new Tips, Kinks and Wrinkles are proving a gold mine of information for the Presentation book. Articles on pictures under contract are also clipped and placed with the press sheets to be considered when we start advertising the picture. Van's section of reports and Through the Box Office Window are next studied so as to keep posted on the values of the current pictures. From these reports the value of the picture to me and the advertising effort to be put behind each picture is determined. By allowing myself to be guided by these reports, aided by my knowledge of picture values in Graham, I have often been able to take a fairly cheaply priced picture that I knew was sure to please, and with the proper advertising effort make a big money making special out of it. And these same reports have in lots of cases warned me to slide through without too much noise an expensive special that had failed to make the grade. These sections are also a great help in the proper selection of play dates for pictures. By this time every page in the book has been gone over carefully at least once. The projectionist now gets the book for a week to read Richardson's pages. I have already read them and sometimes we discuss some of his articles. Then the World is filed for a year. During that time it is often referred to for reports, reviews and other information on the pictures. At the end of the year, before throwing it away, I always read it through again and seldom fail to find several useful suggestions or ideas that have been overlooked in the first reading. Where space permits I believe it is a good idea to keep back issues for a longer time, but in my case I haven't the storage space. This sounds like it requires a great deal of work. It really takes about an hour and a half a week and is proving the greatest of help in the proper management of my theatre. M. W. LARMOUR. National Theatre, Graham, Texas. AND— Larmour Makes Money!