Photoplay Magazine, January 1921 (anuary 1921)

Photoplay Magazine — Advertising Section "All Is Not Gold, etc. (Continued from page 46) You can reduce quickly and safely, without drugs or diet or strenuous exercise. Guaranteed Fat Reducer FOR MEN AND WOMEN Used daily in ihe privacy of your room, the Reducer will show results within 1 I days or money refunded. Convenient and simple-not electrical. Reduces only the parts where you wish to lose. Easily fol- lowed instructions enable you to retain your normal weight after the Reducer has elimi- nated the unhealthful, disfiguring fatty tissue. Without discomfort any stout man or woman can obtain these results, whether 10 or 100 pounds overweight. Dr. Lawton reduced his own weight from 211 to 152 lbs. Send for your Reducer today—only $5 and remember, it is guaranteed. DR. 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If perfectly satisfied, pay for it on eaay payments. Auk us to send you names of users In your locality. Bin tlluntratod Catalog «.f True-Tone Band and Orchestra Instruments aent free. Buescher Band Instrument Co. 225 Buescher Block ELKHART, INP. AMBITIOUS WRITERS f Kf f of l'hotopliivd. Khort Stories, Poems. S AlavJAJ send todny for Free, viilnnblc instrue. live book. "Key to Si '.cestui Writing," including f>."> helpful suu's^stions on writing and selling. ATUS PUBUSHIHG CO., 516 Butler Bailiia;. CINCINNATI. OHIO legion. The distributor and the exhibitor have few if any risks in comparison. So the chief selling argument of most of the promoters of motion picture companies —that is the vast fortunes made by photo- play producers—simmers down to a crass fraud. The promoters always quote what such and such a picture has made in gross bookings, which means precisely nothing be- cause the producer may actually lose a for- tune on a picture on which a distributor makes a tidy sum, and on which scores and hundreds of exhibitors make money. Even on very successful pictures, the lion's share of the profits may go to distributors and exhibitors who had nothing at all to do with making the picture, while the producer is le f t with a comparatively small net profit— not quite big enough to finance the next film, which, in turn, may prove a failure. Supposing Mr. Lybarger or Dr. Miller or Mr. Stoll, or Mr. McKim, promoter of the late Advanced Photoplay Company of Pittsburgh, Penn., or any one of the scores of presidents of amateur motion picture companies for which the public has been paying of late—supposing any of these gen- tlemen had tried to "sell" themselves and their services to Griffith or Ince or Scnnett or to any other experienced and hard- headed producer or casting director. He would have been told that his earning power in motion pictures was no greater than that of an average man of average ability. For in motion picture production a man's worth is measured by his specialized knowl- edge or special ability or special art. Re- cently I was talking to one of the most successful motion picture men in the country and our conversation drifted to a certain big producing company. "What in thunder have they got?" he asked querously. "They have several million dollars in as- sets," I replied. "Assets be hanged," he shouted. "Real estate, buildings, studios, equipment, beauti- fully furnished offices don't make pictures. They've lost Smith. They've lost Brown. They've lost Jones. They are the men who made the pictures. Do you know that the people are getting almighty critical of the movies? They demand up-to-date, first- class, distinctive pictures all the time. It's not enough to turn out programme pic- tures every' few days and a super-produc- tion every few weeks. Unless they are tip- top, they'll flivver." I want to stress this point because none of the men whom this producer mentioned are screen stars. They are directors, makers of pictures, not actors. The motion pic- ture industry is one of lightning changes, j but if there can be said to be any one, single ' outstanding change in filmdom during the past year, it is this: that the stars are be- | coming of less importance and the producers and directors of greater importance. Four of the biggest successes of the past year had no individual stars, namely "Way Down East," "The Devil's Pass Key," "Hu- moresque," and "Why Change Your Wife." These plays are principally the creations of the directors, who seem to be elbowing the stars out of the way. And directors are more difficult to find and more difficult to hold than stars. A prima donna with the disposition of a thun- dercloud is a demure and purring little kit- ten compared to a screen director. Let me illustrate. A few years ago a certain director came to one of the big producers begging for a chance to make some pictures. He wept, not figuratively, but liteially. He was given his chance, and he made good. He has pro- duced at least three magnificent pictures. and his tears are dry. He is now a big man and today he is laying down the law to his employer, and ready to quit, smash his contracts and smash his employer unless given carte blanc in production. Another director, after making several poor pictures, has of late produced some fine films. Backed by the faith and cash of one of the most successful producers of the country, he turned out artistic film plays big money makers, till finally his demands became so excessive that his employer could no longer meet them. This director is now producing for himself. I am digressing on the subject of directors because I want to show how handicapped men like Stoll, a real estate agent, Mr. Ly- barger, lecturer and orator, and Dr. Miller, historian, really are in the motion picture business. In order to make artistic and fi- nancial successes of their photoplays, they have to buy all their experience. They have- to depend on the mercurial temperament of some director, not a really big, first-class director either, for the big ones are either un- der contract, or arc producing for themselves. Yet Mr. Lybarger announced in his sales circulars, which helped rake into his treasury half a million dollars less commission and expenses, that there would be "no experi- menting with your money." There would be no building of great factories or studios. "Our auditoriums—the theaters—are already built and equipped. The vast plains, moun- tains and valleys of California will be our principal studio—out in the open fields and hillsides where the battles for Democracy were fought and won." But the Democracy Photoplay Company did not avail itself of "the vast plains, mountains and valleys of California." It contended itself with the old Edison studio in New York City which cost the company a pretty penny for a year's lease. The pic- ture was finished last February, but by the time the film had been edited and cut from about 80,000 feet down to 7,000 or 8,000 feet and was ready for the theater, it was mid-summer. Democracy was shown at the Casino Theater, Thirty-ninth Street and Broadway, for the last two weeks of August, and since then the prints have for the most part rested in the vaults of the company. As this is written, the latter part of October, no arrangements have been completed for distributing and displaying this film which cost $200,000. Mr. Lybarger is still opti- mistic, but he has probably changed his mind about certain things which he told his pros- pective stock buyers more than a year ago. He then asserted that "New York and Chi- cago alone should easily pay the full cost of producing 'Democracy.'" He may have learned since that theaters on Broadway and in the Chicago "Loop" cannot be com- mandeered by anyone who wants to rent them. He may also have learned that the old war-horses among the film producers do not as a rule expect to clean up big on their pictures in the so-called "key cities," such as New York and Chicago and other big towns where the theatre rental is high and expensive orchestras have to be fur- nished. New productions are exhibited in big and expensive theaters in big cities prin- cipally for advertising purposes. "It is a play that will live," said Mr. Ly- barger recently. But what he promised to his stockholders was a play that would pay, and that is more than any motion picture producer has a right to promise to anyone investing money with him. "If 'Democracy' nets as much as 'The Birth of a Nation,' every 3too invested will return $3,000, and every $1,000, $30,000," said the Democracy sales circulars, again "selling" the old "Birth of a Nation." Every advertisement In l'HOT' TI.AY MAUAZlXi: U guarantied.