Exhibitors Herald (Apr-Jun 1922)

^pril 29. 1922 EXHIBITORS HERALD 53 Brooklyn Strand Programs "Longer Exhibition Life" Features for Easter Week seven s$7 T>VT=^ Trad rcrr-r-? tV°jr/ Ki/^ <j5Ke lender Picture of All Tmw «s*f "The Inside of the Gup ^ji*7 Vintton Churchill? Noted Novel _ ^ "HUMOEESOUE 4^ Vera Gordon and Alma Ruben? moM:mm buksoht ith Lillian Gish and Bichard Barthelm?s5.. By EDWARD L. HYMAN Mark-Strand Theatre, Brooklyn, N. Y. Are you willing to contemplate the proposition of achieving eeks' work in one week? If you are, then you have properly visualized the prospect that faces manager who is eager to put on in one week an all-star revival of Ameria's foremost motion picture successes, with a complete change of bill aily — from overture to organ solo. Forty-seven distinct program numbers or incidents had to be planned nd rehearsed for the Brooklyn Mark Strand's "first annual revival week," week dedicated to presenting seven of the acknowledged super pictures f the past few years, with a totally different feature offering each day nd an absolutely different supplementary program as well. '. It is really not a difficult task, and is erely a matter of a great expenditure of me, hard work and imagination, unless :>u do not want to increase your overaad. Any manager will be able to proply present such a revival — but to do it ithout running up an abnormal expense >tally out of proportion to the average eekly expenditure — well, that is a coat another hue. My experience in this relation is made ailable to others of the craft in reciproition for the many helpful hints they ive given me in the pages of the trade ■urnals. * * *■ Revivals do not constitute a new idea the business of exhibiting. It is a cus>m that is old in the history of enterinment, but one which has been used ten enough in the film industry. In ct, revivals of great motion picture ays need reviving. Why? Because tere are a greater number of great lotoproductions produced annually than tere are great stage plays. This condion thus opens the possibility of a wider :ld of selection — of amusement merchanse which has been tested in the crucible public opinion. Of course, I do not advocate an epi;mic of revivals. Once a year should be ifficient. You will ask — what possibilities does ich a plan hold out? Is there any oney in it? Is it worth the time and ouble and extra worry? Is it good isiness to play pictures which may have ;hausted the house's patronage in the ist? Do film fans want to see old stuff? I will answer these questions quickly, 'eaking from my experience in the spefic case, and then will go quickly into e process of planning and preparing ich a revival. * • * There is money in such a revival — if >u study and fight to keep your over;ad down to normal, or a little above. is worth the extra time and energy if )u select ihe right subjects, your feared pictures, and exploit the idea exnsively and sanely. There is no danger playing a super film that has been a tional hit, especially if the picture, when the height of its popularity, comanded high prices, such a high exhibng charge being involved that an ex DOUCLA/ FAIRBANKS THE THREE MU/KETEERJ CNT10E PSOG&AMMt OF MUfflC AND SCENIC INNOVATIONS CHANCED DAILY R£ •EPRODUCTION of two-column block advertisement used by tbe Brooklyn Strand for its Easter Week program of "Longer Exhibition Life" films. hibitor could barely afford playing it more than a day or two at the utmost. And people like old stuff, especially if it is the best that talent and money can contrive. Do people like Mark Twain and Hawthorne and Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson? Do people like Lincoln and Washington? Do people like Whistler, Corot and Millet and othfcr famous painters of yesterday? How to go about it? First — take about three weeks' leeway, begin three weeks ahead of play date to plan and prepare. Second — select your feature pictures judiciously. Third — figure to keep the cost down. » * * This is the selection of pictures made for the Brooklyn Mark Strand's revival week, which was planned for Easter Week. Such an effort always goes better in a holiday week, for the public mind is more receptive to innovations at such a time, especially the better kind. SUNDAY— John Barrymore JekyU and Mr. Hyde." "Dr. MONDAY— "Over the Hill." TUESDAY— "The Inside of the Cup." WEDNESDAY— "The Sheik." THURSDAY — "Humoresque." FRIDAY— D. W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms." SATURDAY— Douglas Fairbanks in "The Three Musketeers." I selected these pictures because of their phenomenal success; because of the well-known stars and expert casts they featured; because they were written or produced by a leading figure in the industry whose name had box office value; because they were stories taken from books or plays which had attained a broad gauge of popularity; because they were about the best I could get from the attendance-getting viewpoint. I do not mean to say that there are others not as good, but I only had seven days. Remember that. * * * It would not have been hard, after the selection had been made, to present them if I had not changed my surrounding bill, including music, every day. Why was this done? Just a matter of psychology, and even the old hard eggs of the industry use psychology, even if they aren't aware that they do. I changed the entire bill from top to bottom, because I knew that I would get the same person to come more than one night if he or she knew that they wouldn't have to sit through the same overture, comedy, and musical novelties that they did the night before. I advertised this phase quite persistently. Now for the daily programs, in detail. Opening day, Sunday, was Easter Day. The music was in keeping with the day and the picture. The opening was a special Easter . incident. A fanfare of trumpets was heard with house dark. Curtains of production stage parted and a soloist in a church interior set sang "Ave Maria." As a finish an illuminated cross glowed into being. Then the orchestra played "Raymond," which relieved the solemnity. Then a vocal duet, "II Trovatore," was rendered. Then the news review and a solo, "Valse," from "Romeo and Juliet." The piano trio played "Marche Militaire," which introduced the feature, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." A Mermaid Comedy, "For Land's Sake," followed. Then the finale, an organ solo. The other programs are typical, and are given below: MONDAY 1. "Cradle Song" Kreisler Estelle Carey, soprano. 2. "Salut d' Amour" El gar The Original Piano Trio 3. Feature Picture— "Over the Hill." 4. Organ Solo — "Mother o' Mine" Kipling -Tours TUESDAY 1. Overture — "Poet and Peasant" .. Suppe Mark Strand Symphony Orchestra 2. "Rigoletto" Verdi 3. "Celeste Aida" Verdi Frederick Jagel, tenor 4. "Chanson Dans ante" Friml 5. Prologue— "Ave Maria" Gounod The Original Piano Trio Mary Fabian, soprano. (Concluded on next page)