Exhibitors Herald (Jul-Sep 1922)

THE THEATRE Moving Day October 1, "moving day" to flat dwellers, home renters, a large percentage of the theatregoing population, is at hand. Wise showmen, progressives, will make overtures to new arrivals in their communities, bidding for their patronage, competing for the advantage of the first theatre visit. Moving day always means loss of a number of regulars. Good business men of the theatre not only speed the departing neighbor with a good word but welcome the newcomer warmly. One Chicago neighborhood theatre man is cooperating with property owners in his community by running screen propaganda pointing out the merits of the residential section in which he is located. Helping them fill their apartments with dwellers, he makes it very natural for them to help him fill his auditorium with patrons. Moving day need not be all grief. Melancholy Days "The melancholy days are come." Summer resorters close cottages and return to town. Golfers sustain enthusiasm, but the days are growing shorter and the mornings colder. Attention turns to coal bins, top coats, windowstrips. Nothing "'melancholy" in all this for the theatreman. Exactly the contrary. A good many competent opponents of the box office are automatically retired. But neither is all this occasion for cessation of effort. Winter habits will be formed tomorrow and tiie day after. If one of these is to be the theatre habit, your theatre habit, exactly now is the time to lay insistent claim to attention. Now is the time to exhibit and exploit that big picture that will make a profound impression, will win respect of patrons. Now is the time for exhibitors to issue Fall Announcements, to declare 1922-23 policies, to demand patronage for the immediate present. Patronage in the immediate present means patronage for the Winter. Ad Integrity On a subsequent page of this department three reproductions of advertisements used by Frank L. Browne of the Liberty theatre at Long Beach, Cal., are presented as of exceptional interest. The basic characteristic of Browne advertising is integrity. To readers familiar with his work through perusal of his ^EjpracticM^ T H E T H E A T R E T 0 D A Y many "Theatre Letters" in past issues and with the effectiveness of that work through his reports to "What the Picture Did for Me" will find that page of striking interest. All readers will find it well worth their time. In one advertisement Mr. Browne personally sponsors a screen attraction, showing himself a man with the courage of his convictions. In another he identifies that picture, which he has endowed with his personality, with the industrial life of his city. In a third he mentions no picture whatsoever and mentions his theatre in six point only, emphasizing a slogan that "caught on," as the saying is, and is such a slogan as any business institution should be proud to father. Utter integrity, it is very evident, is Mr. Browne's sole advertising "rule." The greatest book of rules ever written contains none better. Made Titles The "made" titles inserted in pictures by censorial demand present a slightly complex but not insurmountable problem. Two policies arc in practice. Some film companies avowedly prepare such conspicuously illfitting titles that no observer can be misled. Others seek to match made titles perfectly with originals, holding that strict observance of established order, however questionable that order may be, is right and proper. Without entering into discussion as to the relative merits of these policies, it should be noted that the great bulk of made titles register somewhere between these extremes, attaining befuddling mediocrity and serving no good end for anyone concerned. The effect of these is simply to cheapen motion pictures and to estrange theatregoers. It is very expensive camouflage. Coal Seme newspaper last week criticized foresighted exhibitors for laying in a Winter's supply of coal. Since other space writers will take up the subject it is useless to tack the absurdity upon a single publication. The thing is right in line with the treatment accorded the motion picture by the press generally, but unique in that it strikes at exhibitors rather than screen personalities. Happily, since exhibitors and newspapers operate in a common sphere, it gives theatremen an opportunity to directly and forcefully impress upon editors the fact that a theatre is a business institution, sharing promotion as well as benefits of civic prosperity, and entitled to such consideration as is accorded other business institutions.