Business screen magazine (1938)

COMPLETE 16mm PRODUCTION FACILITIES and EQUIPMENT in Both Sound and Color IHE oldest photographic organization in the middle west now offers COMPLETE economical 16mm motion picture service. You can add sound and obtain duplicate prints from your Kodachrome or black and white films at a reasonable cost. Duplicate 16mm Kodachrome prints, silent 10c, sound, 12V'2C per foot. WE WILL RECORD THE SOUND TRACK FOR YOUR SILENT BLACK AND WHITE OR KODACHROME 16mm PICTURES FOR AS LOW AS $50.00 PER 400 FOOT REEL! All types of sound and silent 16mm cameras, projectors and accessories for sole or rent. FREE — Our 80 page catalogue 43-R of services and equipment — Write today! "HEADQUARTERS FOR EVERY KNOWN PHOTOGRAPNIC NEED" NORMAN-WILLETS CO. 31 B W. Washington St. Chicago. Illinois A Christiujs Gift Idea Business executives everywhere are finding Biisilu'bs Screen tiie key to many useful applications of visual media. 12 issues for $5.00. There is no secret formula for obtaining harmony in the use cf type. Here at Advertising Typographers, constant study combined with practical experience have taught us how to use type harmoniously in the manner to produce better advertising results for you. ADVERTISING TYPOGRAPHERS, INC. 341 CAST OHIO STREET CHICAGO. ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT STORES (Continued jrom Page IS) warranted holding over for a second week. Interest was developed by the use of a window display consisting of an intriguing collection of photos of early day film players and stills. Interest was further heightened by the personal appearance of Bill Hart — which gave MeCreery a chance to crash the ilaily papers with a real news story. As a result of the McCreery showings, the idea spread to other cities. In Philadelphia. Gimbels ran the same show and advertised it in large display space on the theatrical page of the daily papers. Famous Barr in St. Louis then showed the pictures. The following year, McCreery showed old movies again — this time tying the pictures in directly with definite merchandise. McCreery, through its buying office. Associated Drygoods. had arranged for the use of a style picture featuring bathing suits. Sensing the need for something to boost public interest, they rented, from Stone, some old Mack Sennett bathing beauty pictures. So, instead of seeing just a st.vle picture, McCreery patrons saw a rounded show, with ample contrast between the st.vles of the nineties and the new fashions of the day. Adverti.se Color Fashion Film Saks .'i4th Street, sent a couple of girls to Bernuula with a photographer and took a beautiful fashion film in full color. It was a silent film, (16mm.) but Miss Wallach of Saks had a fashion talk recorded and s.vnchronized to it. Newspaper advertisements invited folks to "See a motion picture in natural color, showing what two engaging young debutantes actuall.v did, where they went, and what the.v wore, during a 10-day trip to Bermuda. Today and tomorrow there will be movie showings at 11:00, 12:30, 2:30 and 4:30 on our Mth floor. Between times, mannequins will parade in intriguing new North and South fashions. Come in to see it. You'll learn a lot — geographically and sartorially." Coty has done some wonderful films for consumer use and many stores have used them. The general level of the Coty film is best indicated by the fact that while developed for commercial use, an abridged version of the picture was released by Paramount as a regular theatrical short. Films have proved lliat llie,v have a real place in the department store. But the situation today seems to be a series of temporary st.vniies. More equipment is needed. There's no doubt about that. But business conditions have not l)een favorable to the point of encouraging investments of from three hundred or four hundred u)) to six or seven hundred <lollars for .sound jirojeetors. There are rental services, l)Ul the cost of rental runs high for small groups. And. in tlu words of one resident buying office, "the number and quality level of manufacturers" films is not such as to encourage the stores to spend much money. " The manufacturer, on the other hand, hesitates to invest in good pictures, when distrilnition problems are so great. Some manufacturers, like Procter & Gamble or Camp or Kenwood, are solving the problem with their own equipment and own personnel, which, temporarily, seems to be the best way out. But otherwise the situation is at least partly stalled — with all wheels balanced at "dead center." Slide Films Do Consistent Job In the meantime, the sound slide film seems to be doing all right by itself. More or less neglected b,y some producers — treated as the Cinderella of the business — it is doing a fine consistent job for many advertisers. While it holds no power over consumers, it has proved its value in the training field and is showing as healthy an immediate growth as movies. Incidentally a continuous sound projector that really works and doesn't cost too much will have a place in window and interior display. As we've suggested before — films are rclativel,v new in the department store field. I have before me a letter from one of the country's largest resident buying offices to a member store in Atlantic City, N. J. It sa.ys: "With reference to your letter of March \Oth. we have not been able to locate any manufacturers who jirovide moviiig picture films of their products." This letter is only five .vears old. While the records .show sporadic use many .vears ago, it is only rceentl.v that the,v have been in reall,v general use. The rough spots are being ironed out. Give them a chance and they'll come through. More Equitment Needed in Field It seems that the largest single barrier to more extensive use of movies is the lack of equipment. In talking with one large resident bu.ving office I found that onl.v 10 out of 125 of their stores had Himm. sound projection equipment. The consensus of opinion was that film producers should now try to meet the problem — a bottleneck that was holding back expansion, which could create unlimited market for their facilities. People love movies. They pay millions of dollars every da,v to see them. And they'll gladl.v spend the time needed to see them in department stores if the level of the pictures is up to par. The whole tempo of department store selling is moving more and more toward a type of sales promotion in which movies fit like a "natural". The increasing use of Showmanship in retail stores almost demands the use of movies. As Christopher Morley sa,vs, in Human Being, he "discovered tliat a department store is 7iot just an enormous pushcart but a kind of woman's theatre."