Exhibitors Daily Review (1927)

36 Exhibitors DAILY REVIEW, MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1927 a box-office bet during its first month ! We saw the light. We couldn’t help it. It almost blinded us. Maybe we didn’t hustle out and get screen rights on other good comic strips. The first was “The Newlyweds and Their Baby,” the famous strip by George McManus. Another was “Let George Do It” by the same noted cartoonist. FOR FALL TRADE Exhibitors will remember that we launched the Newlywed series last fall, at the same time as we started a second Buster Brown series. The “Let George Do It” comedies also were offered to the Fall trade. The recoi'd of “The Newlyweds and their Baby” eclipsed even the record of the Buster Browns. Today, only eight months after ihe first release, the record of the Newlywed series is phenomenal. It really is the series without a kick. The lucky “find” of Snookums the remarkable baby which appears in this series, together with Ethlyne Clair as Mrs. Newlywed and the interpretation of Mr. Newlywed by Jed Dooley and later by Sid Saylor, added to the expert adaptation of our corps of comedy makers, headed by Gus Meins the director, have made such a box-office joy of this series that all records have been broken by it. George McManus, creator of the Newlyweds, is highly enthusiastic over the way we have reproduced his famous comic strip on the screen. That’s saying something. GEORGE HITS “Let George Do It,” with Sid Saylor in the fall-guy, boobish role of George, has rolled up similar records. If there’s anything in that Superiority Complex, the “Let George Do It” comedies are walking images of this type of laughgetting. Universal reports that the popularity of this series, which started normally, has been pyramiding at a great rate and now threatens to break the records of the Buster Brown Comedies and “The Newlyweds and Their Baby” comedies. There is nothing more that could be said on that subject. In addition to the three cartoon adaptations put out by the Stern Film Corporation this year, we also built up two comedy series on novel Wanda Wiley engaged in some horseplay in the “What Happened to Jane” series produced by the Stern Brothers for Universal release. our entire product next season will be comic strip adaptations. And how ! We have obtained screen rights to two more of the greatest comic strips ever published; “Mike and .^ke. They Look Alike,” by that favorite humorist Rube Goldberg, and “Keeping Up With the Joneses,” ■ y the noted comic artist “Pop” Momand. “Keeping Up With the Joneses” is running in more than 125 newspapers in the United States, and HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR 13 YEARS. Laugh that off. “Mike and Ike” is a gem and every man, voman and child from Coast to Soast knows these quaint characters. .Vait until you see what we are 'oing with them on the screen. In addition to these two comic Buster Brown and Mary Jane, leads in the “Buster Brown” series which the Stern brothers make for Universal, pose for their director, Gus Meins. The strip was originated many years ago in the comic papers by R. F. Outcault, one of the best known American cartoonists. ABE STERN the other member of the Stern Film Corporation. He is actively at work in the company. laugh-pulling lines. One was “The Excuse Maker” series, developed around the escapades of a young drug-store cowboy, and his love affairs. With Charles King as the lead, these comedies have become one of the best booking series we have. Many of them have been seeron Broadwav and exhibitor reports indicate they are getting better and better in the eyes of the public. writers and gag-men without equal in the industry, under the supervision of Sig Neufeld, veterari comedy producer and Max Alexander, as technical manager, the Stern Corporation takes off its hai to no one. With our new studio vve are now making pictures with much greater facility than ever before— which means better pictures. The sales value of our product this year has proved that the comic strip adaptation is the greatest tie-up in the comedy field. Think of if— millions upon millions of newspaper readers see these comic characters in their daily newspapers. Results have proved that they eagerly go to see them on the screen. Exhibitors report that this tie-up has meant thousands and thousands of dollars in added revenue. ALL COMICS SOON We have been so impressed by the success of this type of picture that Scene from a recently released “Excuse Makers” produced by Stern Film Corporation for Universal release. itrip adaptations, we will follow our :urrent year’s product with new series on “The Newlyweds and Their Baby,” the Buster Brown Comedies and the “Let George Do It” comedies. As an indication of how well ihe Newlywed comedies have “clicked” they are being made as Universal Junior Jewels for next year. That is the highest rating a Short Product can attain in this industry. PLEASING COMEDY The other series is the “What lappened to Jane” series, built around the heart-adventures of a young flapper and her horde of idmirers. Wanda Wiley has appeared in most of these, with Thelma IDaniels and Ethlyne Clair in later ones. They are universally popular, not onlv with the younger element, but with older folks as well. Jane is the typification of the modern young girl — who occupies column after column in the daily press, in magazines and on the stage. In these Jane comedies we show her in her most amusing escapades. EXCELLENT DIRECTORS VVith such a corps of directors as Meins, Francis Corby, Scott Pembroke, Charles Lamont, Sam Newfield and Jess Robbins, backed by Ethlyne Claire and Jed Dooley in a recent “The Newlyweds and Their Baby.” This particular picture was one of the funniest of all the Stern releases, and though Snookums is nowhere around here, you can rest assured that he is due to pop up soon.