Exhibitors Herald (Jul-Sep 1922)

36 EX H [BITO RS HERA L D September 23, 1922 Reid Motor Feature Made to Order Of Theatre Among the few known values in motion pictures the automobile stories picturized by Wallace Reid for Paramount hold prominent place. Since "What's Your Hurry" there has been at no time doubt in the exploitation man's mind as to how to sell this definitely typified class of product. "Across the Continent" has proved no exception to the rule. SEVERAL photographs reproduced on this page show treatment accorded this feature hy various showmen. Through all run a strain of similarity that is basic. The picture was, in effect if not in fact, made to the order of the theatre. At Yakima, W ash.. H. A. Gillespie of the Liberty theatre walled in his entire front and painted reproductions of the 24sheets and other paper, making a colorful -.plash. A racing car was borrowed and sent out properly bannered The driver ran out into the country at intervals, visited a convenient mud hole, then dashed into town well bespattered, distributing literature as he drove. * * * In Syracuse, N. Y„ where the picture was shown at the Robbins-Eckel theatre. P'ord dealers have been bountiful in supplying cars for "Across the Continent." gasoline stations were liberally carded tor the run. Outside the city, on main roads, "Slow Down" signs linked with the picture were posted. A very ancient automobile was found and used for slightly humorous exploitation of the film. Ford dealers cooperated with one of the Queen theatres sprinkled over the South St. Louts parade for "Across the Conti nent" photographed at starting point. One of the signs posted at popular road entrance to Syracuse, N. Y. by the Southern Enterprises, loaning a car for lobby use and another to be driven to the beaches carrying banners. This was eminently proper since the Dent car used in the picture is a camouflaged Ford. In St. Louis a cooperative campaign was engineered in which the Goodyear Tire people, the Essex Motor company, the Amalia Oil company and the Safety Council participated in. a parade which interfered seriously with traffic and adver Old and new automobiles figured with like prominence in the Syracuse cavalcade. tised the picture extensively. A circus in the city was drawn upon tor twenty musicians, who headed the cavalcade, and the Safety Council sent out voluminous literature. The theatre incurred no expense whatever. * * * It isn't necessary to dwell upon the matter of box office results in this story. Nearly everybody has tried one of these Reid pictures and knows the relationship between the type of exploitation they demand and the business they attract. It may not, in fact is not, desirable to fasten upon any one star or any one producer a single type of pictures. That way Lobby of the Liberty theatre at Yakima, Wash., as decorated for run. leads to mechanical production. But it is fortunate that an occasional instance of this kind gives exhibitors incentive to develop a single type of exploitation that may be used for pictures from many sources. That way lies in standardization of exploitation, as desirable as machine production is undesirable. Syracuse parade staged in exploitation of Wallace Reid motor story. "Salome" Is Endorsed in Survey by Review Board Xazimova's "Salome" is an exceptional picture, so presented as to make an arbi trary legal censorship of it unjustifiable, and it realizes and forecasts greater possibilities of the motion picture as a medium of art. Such are the conclusionemphasized m the returns from a questionnaire issued by the National Board of Review to 182 persons who viewed "Salome" at a special showing. Three questions were put : "Is Salome an exceptional picture?" "Would legal censorship be justified in arbitrarily requiring any changes in it?" and "Do you believe that it realizes or forecasts the greater possibilities of the motion picture as a medium of art?" In answer to the first query, one hundred and fifty-one out of the one hundred and eighty-two replied "Yes"; to the second, one hundred and fifty-four answered "No"; and to the third, one hundred and fifty-one responded "Yes." J. R. Friedgen Has New Picture by Own Company J. Ray Friedgen, who has been identified with many screen successes in the past ten years, has entered the ranks of producers on his own account as president of Effanem Photoplays, Inc., a New York Corporation. His first production, "When the Cows Come Home." which has just been completed at the Lincoln studios in Fort Lee, with an all-star cast, under the directionof John L. McCutcheon, is now being edited. Plans are already under way for production of the second Friedgen feature.