The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 170 The Educational Screen MOTION PICTURES- NOT FOR THEATRES By ARTHUR EDWIN EROWS Part 47.—Some early outlets for the film with a message. There is more to it than meets the eye. and arranging to meet the eye is possibly the crux of the problem SHOWINGS of that "requested" sort were usually on a basis of exchanged values rated in good will. The plan of money payments to exhibitors probably began in pettier fashion, some local business man bribing the theatre pro- jectionist with a dollar or two to slip in an advertising reel when the manager wasn't looking. But, as time went on, the house manager found that an interesting advertising reel could save him the price of an entertainment "filler'' from the reg- ular exchange and the saving might, be- side, offset the extra price of an especially good theatrical novelty, when the bill changed. .Xnd so, bit by bit, the practice grew until the non-theatrical distributors openly proposed contracts w'ith entire theatrical circuits for regular releases of advertising subjects, offering and eventually paying substantial sums for the privilege, while collecting, of course, still handsomer sums from their clients. It is on this basis that J. Don Alexander was able to boast, at a convention of his representatives, that more than one million dollars would be paid to theatres during 1937 for showing commercial films of the .Alexander Film Company of Colorado Springs. It was the secret of the prosperity of Visugraphic under Edward Stevenson. It was the business policy of Mason Wadsworth when he built a profitable season with his out- standing commercial for "Zonite." Under the system, as it grew, the non- theatrical producer was able to ap- proach an industrial client and as glibly as any re.gular advertising sales manager, guarantee him so-much "coverage'' in so-much time and over so-much territory. The advertising agencies, which had not been disposed previously to divert from their clients' annual budgets the compara- tively large sums required for picture production, in view of the poor record of non-theatrical distribution, now began to show interest. They really knew enough about the non-theatrical record, too. Ivy Lee had seen much of it; P. L. Thom- son, one-time president of the Association of National Advertisers and long presi- dent of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, knew plenty about it; so did Howard G. Stokes of the A.T. & T.; Alexander Leg- gett had had his own agency; Bruce Barton had served Pictorial Clubs. I am not naming all of the contacts, of course—just sufficient to show that the advertising agencies had had an awareness concerning the new publicity medium from its beginning. But. if one wishes a date to affix to that time when advertising agencies definitely committed themselves to recognition of the screen as another practicable direction for their work, I submit December, 1929. In that month and year the Campbell-Ewald Company, a Detroit agency, announced that it had joined with the Chevrolet Motor Company and eight leading motion picture advertising "distributing service companies," so called, to form the National Screen .■Advertising Bureau, with headquarters in Detroit. The cov- erage was to be of the entire United States, and the Bureau offered to pros- pective advertisers an analysis of the continental cities and theatres, with cost data and rate cards for ordering "space." In view of the educators' suspicion of commercial taint in certain school-film enterprises, it is interesting to notice how this general situation of advertising reels in theatres reacted upon exhibitors, them- selves. Their attitude was shown clearly in their suspicion of commercial taint Henry T. Ewald, president of the Campbell-Ewald Co., of Detroit, which seems to have been the first large agency to adopt the screen as a regular advertising medium. when any organization outside the in- dustry sought to sell reels through the regular exchanges. For example I offer the case of the Woman's Home Com- panion. With its huge circulation and remarkably efficient system of keeping in touch with its readers, this magazine was an instrument in fostering public re- lations which no theatrical man could afford to ignore. And yet, that it should concern itself with the production of odd pictures was a reason for him to suspect there also an ulterior motive. "Woman's Home Companion" Pictures Well, there was an ulterior motive, if one wishes to split hairs about it. The Woman's Home Companion was inter- ested in proving, by example, that there was place in the theatre for stories about women based on modern, home problems, as well as for those motivated wholly by sex. The theatrical industry probably should have been more inter- ested in proving this point than the magazine; but. with the exception of a few enlightened members, it preferred to hold aloof and privately deprecate the effort as another attempt to "grab" the screen for free publicity purposes. In reality the publication was responding, in a fine practical way, to the impulse of a great movement. Miss Gertrude Lane, the editor-in-chief who so long and so admirably performed the difficult task of directing the affairs of the Companion. and Mrs. Anna Steese Richardson, con- ductor of the "Better Citizensliip Bureau" in its columns, had watched the gradual emancipation of women in the mounting, tumultuous years of the twentieth century. Incredible as it is to realize now. national female suffrage was not proclaimed in the United States until 1920, in the Nineteenth Constitutional .Amendment. Miss Lane and Mrs. Richardson were merely trying to make the motion picture industry wake up. The industry had had many previous magazine contacts, and even in this humanitarian way. The Kalem Company, for instance, had collaborated with the Ladies' World in 1915 to make a two- reeler on impure foods. Paramount "Pictographs" had even released some short "child study" films edited by the Woman's Home Companion. But now, about 1922, Miss Lane wished to go further. She persuaded the publishers to permit her to produce a few filmr- to illustrate her point as well as to sponsor their distribution. The first of the intended series was based upon a short story by Mrs. Alice .Ames Win- ter, president of the American Feder- ation of Women's Clubs, who had written extensively in various magazines about the opportunities neglected by Hollywood. There were three other stories by other authors. The editors realized quickly enough that they needed professional assistance so far as picture production work was concerned, but, in the circumstances, they felt it best to avoid the regular theatrical pro- ducers, whose estimated charges had seemed rather high for this experiment which had to be completed within the modest appropriation. In casting about for a proper connection they came to