Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1928)

16 EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 22, 1928 An Entire Industry Must Decide — The EXHIBITOR —The PRODUCER —The DISTRIBUTOR —The STAR —The DIRECTOR —The SCENARIST —The CAMERAMAN —The TECHNICIAN ALL must join in selecting a name which reflects properly and appropriately the dignity and importance of the Talking Picture. What Name Do You SUGGEST? NAME ADDRESS CITY and STATE I Fill in coupon unil nuiil lo EMU 111 I O/f.S HERALD U ( >lil. D, 407 South Dearborn St.. Chicago, III.] get a better name we can put it over I believe. But it will have to be a name that the public can pronounce, spell and understand. If we can find such a word, and everyone agree to use it, we can popularize it. But the newspapers and the trade press and the industry will have to agree on it and then hammer it into the public consciousness. "The word the HERALD-WORLD has suggested is a good word. The more I think of it the more I like it, but I am afraid of it. It may be above the average moving picture goer, and for that reason, I am afraid it will be hard to popularize." * * * Colvin Brown, executive vice president of Pathe, offered a real suggestion. "I think any word for talking pictures should get over the idea of 'electrical entertainment^ for primarily that is what the talking picture is, and the coming contributions of science in entertainment will be to an increasing extent 'electrical entertainment^ "It is rather difficult to give the public a name," continued Brown, "for the public has a way of choosing its own names. However, any effort to kill the word 'talkie' is commendable, and if the word is killed, the industry will have been rendered a great favor." * * * George Harvey, advertising and publicity director for Pathe, and president of the AMPA, expressed the same fear that the public could not be deterred from choosing its own name. "I remember that during the war," he said, "a great effort was made to find a word for our soldiers. Costly propaganda and publicity was used in the effort, but to no avail. The words such as 'doughboy' and 'leatherneck' grew up in the camps and stuck. "I think it is a good idea to find a new word better than 'talkie' which surely is not fitting for talking pictures. But it must be a word in the spirit of the public as well as talking picture entertainment." Harvey has promised to bring the subject before the members of the AMPA, believing that they will be interested and concerned with any move to find a better tvord. * ♦ 5fc "The word 'audien,' suggested by the HERALD-WORLD is too highbrow," thinks John L. McCurdy, managing director of the new BrooklynParamount theatre, and one of the best theatre managers in the Publix circuit. "You must have a word that the public can pronounce. The average person will side step the word if he is not sure how to pronounce it. Take the word 'coupe,' for instance. Many people still side step that word, simply because they are not sure of its pronunciation. I am afraid the same thing will happen to the suggested word 'audien.' "But I do hope the public will find a better word than 'talkie.' I don't like it, and any word which ends in 'ie' belittles the tiling which it names. I think the HERALD-WORLD is doing a great thing in trying to find a name. But any name for the public must be an easy word, with only one |in--il)l< pronunciation.*'