Exhibitors Herald (1927)

December 24, 1927 EXHIBITORS HERALD 51 This Department Wishes You A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year Short, concise and all-embracing is the world-old greeting of the season, and expansion into elaborate and intricate expressions seems only to weaken the forcefulness of its meaning. How many times is it not true that a subject ideally suited for a successful Short Feature has been stretched out into a meaningless six or seven-reel production ! Max Alexander Named Eastern Executive of Stern Film Corporation NEW YORK, Dec. 20. — One of the youngest executives in the industry is Max Alexander, newly appointed Eastern representative and assistant to President Julius Stern of Stern Brothers. Alexander has spent four years in the studio and is well grounded in the production phase of the business. The new Eastern representative started as a prop boy. He rose to casting director and became technical supervisor preliminary to his appointment to the new position. Alexander brings to the new post a combination of experience that will stand him in good stead. Old Newsreel War Shots Used As Prologue for War Picture New use for the newsreel — and old reels, at that — has been developed by Manager Roy McAmis of the Princess theatre at Sayer, Okla. This time the novelty is application of war scenes from newsreels long since out of circulation as a sort of prologue to the showing of a long feature. In this case the latter was M-G-M’s “The Big Parade,” and an M-G-M exploiter assisted in the project. The McAmis novelty goes hand in hand with that of the Garrick theatre at Fond du Lac, Wis., reported in full in this department last week, as examples of successful ingenuity in employment of newsreels. It will be recalled that the Garrick, of which W. L. Ainsworth is head, used the newsreel between acts of stage plays. Buys 500 Feet of Old Scenes For the achievement at the Princess theatre, McAmis arranged with a newsreel company to provide him with 500 feet of war scenes taken from the best of their old weeklies. Beginning with the main title, “Lest We Forget — ,” these scenes of war, put on before the feature, were a splendidly conceived introduction to the film of the Great War. The Princess theatre has no orchestra, so McAmis arranged with a local music dealer for the use of a Brunswick Panatrope with a loud speaker, playing “My Dream of the Big Parade,” and other fitting musical subjects. At the close of the musical program on the gramaphone a bugler blew Assembly, and the organist, taking his cue from this, began playing the musical score. Special efforts to simulate gun fire and the crash of shells were devised. The stage itself wore a military aspect. Two pup tents were arranged at either side, and an interior backdrop gave the effect of a landscape. Manager McAmis went in heavily for outdoor billing. He used 60 one-sheets, 20 three-sheets, 5 six-sheets, 200 window cards, two sets of photos, two slides, one large banner, 2,000 regular heralds and 3,000 heralds supplied through a national tieup with the Blatz chewing gum com pany. He also used a newspaper teaser campaign in his advertising. The lobby display was effectively handled. War trophies were borrowed from the collection of the local American Legion, and guns, banners, helmets and other paraphenalia of war were placed about the lobby. The front of the theatre was decorated with a sand bag parapet, and across the lobby a trench was built with walls of sandbags. Machine guns, rifles and helmets were placed in this trench. As a finishing touch the banner was stretched across the marquise, and an electrically lighted twenty-four sheet was set above it. Chaplin Two-Reelers Reissued by Columbia Columbia pictures has acquired for distribution in Chicago, Minneapolis, Washington, Des Moines, Omaha, San Francisco, Portland, Butte, Seattle and Los Angeles twelve of the two-reel comedies that Charlie Chaplin made for Mutual years ago. The twelve are “The Immigrant,” “Behind the Screen,” “The Pawnshop,” “The Floorwalker,” “Easy Street,” “The Cure,” “The Count,” “The Adventurer,” “The Fireman,” “The Vagabond,” “The Rink” and “One A. M.” Columbia Aids Pittsburgh in Safe Driving Campaign Columbia’s Pittsburgh exchange is handling the distribution throughout western Pennsylvania of the Pittsburgh Press’ tworeeler known as the “Golden Rule Safe Driving.” Pictures of Siamese and Chinese life have been made by the score by Donald C. Thompson, war correspondent and photographer who just has been signed by Kino grams to take charge of the newsreel work in the Orient. On the left are shown the armed guards protecting caravans on the way to Peking from bandits. Middle: Another type of guards — images — watches over the temples of Siam. Right: Mrs. Thompson gets her letter from the fortune teller. Educational believes the acquisition of Thompson by Kinograms is a ten-strike