Exhibitors Herald (Apr-Jun 1922)

THE THEATRE 15E PRACTICAL There's Money In It ARTICLE 1 SINCE THE AMERICAN press has demonstrated by frequent editorial discussion of economic and social movements affecting the motion picture and its theatre that readers are to be influenced in their formulation of screen opinions it has become the business of exhibitors to supply publishers with veracious information as basis i or their writings. EXHIBITORS READING this paper have this work of education made easy tor them. In the news pages the big industrial developments which interest newspaper editors are set down clearly and concisely at face value. In "Herald" editorials the reaction of the industry to whatever stimulus, the causes and effects of major tendencies and developments in all branches, are revealed with utter fidelity and authority. Newspaper men familiar with the contents of these pages can but publish only the authentic and truthful statements which serve with equal justice press, trade and public. THIS EXTENSION OF 'Herald" service is fundamentally an exhibitorial duty. It is an activity born of business sense and undertaken in the interests of mutual understanding. A $1,000,000 Idea A projection room in a film exchange. A picture will be screened, it is said, at once. The exchange projectionist, sedate and manifestly an authority, listens to a studious-looking, correctly-attired young man, operator at a neighborhood theatre, who fervently expounds what he has announced as "a million dollar idea." We impolitely tune in. "We nred to catch up with literature," the fervent one explains. "Look at 'The Sheik.' Hot off the press, a best seller, and right into pictures. A mop-up for everybody. That's the idea. "Listen ! "Let somebody film Wells' 'Outline of History.' Let somebody put George Ade's 'Fables in Slang' into pictures — Sinclair Lewis' 'Main Street,' Ring Lardner's Post stories, B. L. T.'s 'So-Called Human Race," the stuff people are reading. "Then Shakespeare. 'Hamlet' would make a better picture than either 'Passion' or 'Deception.' If Will Rogers can burlesque 'Romeo and Juliet' and make people like it, think what Valentino could do with 'Othello' seriously. Look what Fairbanks did with 'The Three Musketeers.' " "Fine," is the calculated reply. "Certainly. If I was making pictures — " "O," stops him. "Well, we need new brains in production. The public is way ahead of us." "Seen 'Winners of the West'?" is asked abruptly. "There's your history. American history. More kick in it. Seen 'Aesop's Fables' ? What's Ade got to beat 'em ? What small town stuff is there in 'Main Street' that Rupert Hughes misses in his pictures? Don't 'Topics of the Day' stand up alongside B. L. T. ? "And Shakespeare. Who's readin' the stuff that goes to picture shows? And whoever it is, why didn't they patronize 'em back in 1912 or so when Vitagraph made 'em~ And Ring Lardner ! Look what 'The Leather Pushers' is doin'." "But the public — " is the interruption. "Yes. The public. The public's alright. Get 'em in. Show 'em what you've got. They'll like it." "Yes they will. You try to get them in. I'm weary." "Sure you are. Get that way thinkin' up million-dollar ideas. Why don't you leave it to somebody that knows something about makin' pictures?" "That's it. You've got the exchange idea alright, the corporation angle. Comes from working around film salesmen and reading press books.' "Let 'er go, Frank," booms an executive baritone. Thus a million-dollar idea. CHAUTAUQUA, we are informed by a young man dependent upon it for a livelihood, contemplates with trepidation the coming season, advance contracts being less plentiful than in former years. Tuck this paragraph into the story, "But Look at the Other Fellow," printed on this page last week. INTEREST is turning to Newspictures, illustrating the popular observation that man despises that which he has and covets that which he has not. Exhibitors have had Newspictures and looked afield for new merchandise with which to attract business. E. R. Rogers, managing director of the Tivoli and Rialto theatres, Chattanooga, Tenn., who not only uses Newspictures but advertises them as well, contributes to this issue a showman's opinion of the news reel as a program element. None can afford to neglect reading it. WHEREVER WOMEN GO, the men go. This is the first of several well drawn statements presented by United Artists in its advertisement of "Fair Lady" in the May 13 issue of this paper, an advertisement which is actually a sound, constructive essay on showmanship, distinctly worth reading whether or not exhibition of the picture concerned is contemplated. HISTORY, less attractive to amusement seekers under that name than as "With Stanley in Africa," etc., contains a wealth of actionable drama suitable for picturization. In view of the public response to the somewhat speculative tapping of this resource that has been done, it is reasonable to expect publication of much screen material of this type. Not the least attractive aspect of such material, from the theatre viewpoint, is its striking fitness for exploitation, demonstrated in the merchandising of every attraction with historical background that has been issued.