Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1921 - Mar 1922)

MARTIN J. QUIGLEY Publisher & Editor * ISSUE OF * March 4. 1922 Setting the Public Right By MARTIN J. QUIGLEY THE idea advanced in this department recently, that the industry enter into a comprehensive campaign to place its story ahout pictures and the picture business before the public, has met with a definite and widespread response. Various communications have reached us which agree with the proposition and also reiterate the obvious necessity that something along this line be immediately undertaken. The unfavorable — and grossly unjust — publicity that has been deluged recently upon Hollywood adds a new reason for the industry to look to the task of creating a right public opinion with respect to motion pictures and the people engaged in making and distributing them. Hut the Hollywood matter is only an incident. Entirely without reference to what has and has not been said about the production center it remains a matter of paramount interest and importance that the business of motion pictures be set right before the public. The key to the situation is plainly one of commercial propaganda. The object to be attained is the creation of a favorable attitude in the minds of the public toward the art and business of motion pictures. And the means for the attainment of this object is an advertising campaign which will reach persons of all ages and all strata of society— bringing home to everyone the true story if the business, its people and what they are seekng to do. * * * [X the absence of this being done the industry shall continue as a vulnerable target for every >erson who has a sling to throw. Its popularity, nstead of being its greatest asset, will be the thing hat will always render it susceptible to assault, jecause when the radical reformer and the libelous nuck-raker talk pictures, they are talking about i subject the public is interested in and wants to mow more about. If the industry does not tell its own story, there are those outside the business who will assume the role of telling the industry's story and. as is usually the case under such circumstances, it may be expected that these volunteers will give little heed to the real facts. With the public generally, the motion picture business is regarded as a mysterious undertaking. The public's imaginative picture of the business has been kindled from time to time with unreal stories of fabulous profits to producers and fabulous salaries to players. Press agents who have been charged with the duty of keeping their principal's name in print have very often avoided the more difficult task of constructive propaganda and have followed the line of least effort in press agentry which is the concocting of extravagant .tssertions. * * * A VERY necessary preliminary to the task of setting the public right about the motion picture business has to do with the matter of setting the press agents right about the picture business. Hundreds of persons in various associations throughout the motion picture business earn their livelihood by sending to the general press of the country stories about picture people. In a startling number of instances the old theatrical notion that all publicity is good publicity seems to persist. A review of the character of matter that is supplied newspapers and magazines by these press agents discloses a vivid explanation of the unfavorable attitude towrard the business that persists in many quarters. Dollar signs and punctuation marks appear in almost equal quantities. The artisan who is struggling to support a family on a small income is continually bombared with items which chronicle extravagant purchases by actors. Against such publicity the industry has, indeed, a difficult task to create a more favorable public opinion.