Business screen magazine (1938)

• How Does Hollywood do it? Not content with juggling double-features in all their class a-b-c-and x profusion, mixing it with the government on the trust charges and doing a little commercial production on their own. our feathered friends on Sunset Boulevard are now handing out. via the press and exploitation route, statements decrying the "menace" of theatrically-released commercials. These misleading remarks from the worst-informed members of this colony have no importance, particularly in light of the fact that the comparatively small theatre chains they represent, (as in the case of Warner's) have never shown commercial screen subjects smce they prefer to sell their own shorts and to advertise, at considerable length, their own features. The proposal of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors to label all spon.sored films with an "advertising" seal in the title frames has been publicized extensively by the amusement and advertising trade press. Xowhere has the important fact appeared that the MPPD.\ "controls" only about 1.500 of the sixteen thousand theatres in .\meriea. that the majority of these have never shown "commercials" and that, finally, the audience and the exhibitor are the only important judges. Certainly there is not the slightest moral or ethical angle involved for these producers have exploited and encouraged advertising-feature tieups for the past three decades. The typical scene jrom one oj Alka-Seltzer's many screen ad shorts briitgs up the subject "Business Looks at Screen Advertising" whicli appears on Page 17 of tins issue as the first oj a new article series. -rsnB€M^i.-m ^P CAMERA EYE NEWS AND COMMENT ON BUSINESS FILMS ♦ That such a production as Men Make Steel, sponsored by the United States Steel Corporation and containing no "subver.sive" propaganda (unless the existence of that company and its plants is now considered subversive) is far better entertainment than the typical "musical short" sold to the exhibitor is not even questioned. Perhaps what is questioned is that the "free" film lost the entertainment producer a sale for his "short." ♦ We Hate to do this, but the statistics compel us to announce that there are now twenty-one current business films beginning with the words Romance and Romantic and forty-four that start out with the very original Story of. ♦ Althoigh Television, according to such competent observers as Commander Eugene JIcDonald. president of Chicago's Zenith Radio Corporation, is still far from ready for the market, the New York Fair ballyhoo surrounding the RC.\-Xational Broadcasting Company exhibit has built up more interest in the commercial film angles involved. Certain it is, as we predicted some issues back. that commercial pictures will be the most economical solution to present telecasting problems. For the moment, though, we believe that advertisers and producers alike can look upon this branch of the business as a "future" interest and concentrate on the very useful jobs which films can and should do in many unexplored fiehls. ♦ Soo.\-to-be-published: Articles by Nathan D. Golden, chief. Motion Picture Division of the Department of Commerce: by J. T. Gafill on the subject of industrial film audiences; and the annual awards issue of Bu.iiness Screen. A complete equipment digest is also in preparation for spring publication. ♦ New .\ND IX the News: Allegorical pictures illustrating the development of various phases of Canada, including farming, mining and manufacturing are to be produced by the Dominion Government under a National Film Board setup. Show Your Colors, a public relations picture dealing with traffic problems and spon.sored by the Shell Petroleum Corporation is now being produced. FIRST NOMINATIONS bv rhc Business Screen Awards Commirree Sound Motion Pictures Men Miliar Steel. U. S. Steel Corp. Selling America. Jam Handy Org. ferry Pulls the Strings. American Can Company I'irst Ceninry of Baseball. Fisher Body Co. & American League -■/// In a Day, Consumers Power Co. Sew England. Yesterday & Today This' Way Please. Remington Arms Company It's the Little Things that Count. Rates Manufacturing Company Yanl^ee Doodle Goes to Town. Collier's Magazine Word Magic. Aetna Life Insurance Co. Hurricane's Challenge, American Telephone and Telegraph Co. Sound Slidefilms The Fall Guy, National Safety Council Glidden Paint Company, SItdefilm Pittsburgh Plate Glass. Slidefilm Spinning Power — Globe Union Co. Hothouse Legs, Cooper's, Incorporated How to Win Sales. General Electric Co. Let George Do It — General Electric Co. Your Company's Voice. N. Y. Telephone Century of Service. Norfolk & Western R. R. Step Up Sales Plan. Dartncil Corp. Dealer Training Series — 1958, released by The Coca-Cola Company Westinghouse dealer series. 1938, Westinghouse Electric Co. Btiymanship Series — Household Finance -K OVER TWO HUNDRED FILMS HAVE BEEN REVIEWED .\ND THE SELECTIONS -\RE BY NO MEANS CO.VIPLETE. NOMINATIONS .'VRE STILL BEING ACCEPTED FROM SPONSORS ANT) PRODUCERS UNTIL APRIL 25, 1939. -K ^ I na.saally nth ttsliiig to American audiences uho have seen them are the "table-top" color-abstractions produced by Theo Gusten of Amsterdam. Holland for the advertising screen and now being viewed over here. Motion Pictures (see page 27) bringing together both sound and the X-Ray are another recent importation showing in America. The little fellow above is a monkey featured in X-Ray action. * Champions of the Gridiron, sponsored by General Mills jor national release and produced by Industrial Pictures of Detroit, will make you stand up and cheer as a year's review of pro football is screened.