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URGES "FOREZIGN SUPPLEMINTS" AS PRACTICAL AID
Arthur W. Kelly, vice-president of United Artists in charge of foreign distribution, returned recently from a seven months! trip around the world, firmly convinced that there is a crying need in the foreign field for vlain, unvarnished, practical showmanship. Speaking informally to your Editor, Mr. Kelly summarized his impressions, outlined his views, and made certain suggestions based on his first-hand ob-— servations abroad.
"Given good pictures," declared Mr. Kelly, "there is nothing more vital to the prosperity of the triple entente in our business —producers, distributors and exhibitors — than intelligent exploitation. I have always maintained that, regardless of economic conditions, the public will beat a path to the box office if the merit of the film merchan— dise is forcefully and persuasively called to their attention.
"Wherever I went, I found fresh evidence to support that view," continued Mr. Kelly. “In one town an exhibitor played a certain picture
to good business. In a second town another exhibitor ran the same picture with disappointing results. What's the answer? The reason
was obvious. One was a showman, the other a ticket-seller. The successful exhibitor handled the picture intelligently, advertised, publicized, exploited it; the disgruntled exhibitor tried to get by with a couple
of one sheets and a few photographs in his lobby, and a stereotyped announcement in the paper.
"And who suffers by such a short-sighted policy? Everybody’ The exhibitor, the distributor, the producer and the publict
'ttts a mighty serious problem," went on Mr. Kelly earnestly, “particu= larly for a company like United Artists which handles only grade-A product in which our producers have invested millions of dollars. That is why I want you to emphasize to our men in the field the tremendous responsibility thet rests upon them to intensify their own merchandis-— ing activities, particularly in their first-runs, and to encourage more aggressive advertising and nublicity and to stimulate more intelligent and resourceful exploitation among all their exhibitors."
At this point we asked Mr. Kelly a couple of questions. "Do our foreign offices consider the publicity and exploitation ammunition we send them useful? Is it readily adaptable in their territories?"
"T checked up on that," Mr. Kelly admitted, "and was delighted to find
they were making excellent use of the material, some more than others, depending on the ingenuity and imagination of the individual managers.
Cuc American pressbooks are valuable and contain many ideas that can be universally applied. Nevertheless, it has occurred to me, that to make them even more helpful, it might be a good thing to issue an additional supplement with each pressbook in which exploitation angles that have
a particular foreign appeal could be stressed. Designed expressly for
the foreign market, these supplements should come pretty close to filjl-— ing the showmanship needs of our foreign customers."
Note: The first foreign supplement is now in work. It's on "Clive of India." 2