Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

Record Details:

Title:
Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World
Date:
Apr-Jun 1930
Volume:
Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)
Leaf #:
000634
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Founded in 1915 by a Chicago printing company as a regional trade paper for Midwest exhibitors. In 1916, editor Martin Quigley bought out the owners, and over the next 15 years, he grew EXHIBITORS HERALD into one of the most important national, weekly trade papers in the film business. Quigley acquired MOTOGRAPHY in 1917 and MOVING PICTURE WORLD in 1927. In 1930, he acquired MOTION PICTURE NEWS and the new 'consolidated' publication became MOTION PICTURE HERALD. From the pulpit of his editorial page, Quigley preached the need to improve the motion picture industry and improve the quality of the films. He skillfully served as a mediator in disputes -- between distributors and exhibitors, between the film industry and the Catholic Church (Quigley was one of the architects of the Production Code). Quigley claimed that EXHIBITORS HERALD represented the 'independent exhibitor' and sections like 'What the Picture Did for Me?' certainly provided a forum for theater owners. But plenty of exhibitors viewed Quigley as a servant to the studios and large theater chains. In response, publications such as SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS FILM BULLETIN, HARRISON'S REPORTS, and BOX OFFICE were either formed or grew significantly in the years following Quigley's brief moment of consolidation in 1930. -- Eric Hoyt, 2014
Date Added:
March 21, 2024
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

20 Better Theatres Section May 10, 193 of diamuim^assed.. TOW anew couiage comes crashing into the tenor roil of great pidmes-TM your heart will pound with a new sensationyou will welcome new idea s , TODAY MEM morn the John Ford-William Fox Movietone production will be discussed everywhere -will be praised mversally-will be hailed as a ’picture worth while -one drama that you. cannot afford to miss" I HERE IS DRAMA here is sensationhere is a stow tiewomen wi\\ \ove-the men go nutty over~here,andon\y here, is THE picture of the town♦ PERFECT CAST OF TYPES KENNETH MACKENNA FARRELL MACDONALD-FRAM ALBERTSON -STUART ERWIN WARREN HYMES-PAUL PAGE WALTER McORAH Story bu MH POMS LAMBS KMcOUmiSS dialog by DUDLEY NICHOLS staged by ANDREW KNNISON Advertisement No. 9 Sniping is out. Country billing, other than billposting company locations, is out. This is an age of speed. According to statistics, the passing automobile carries one and one-half people, including the driver, on Saturday and Sunday. They can read only the “reminder” type of billboard — 28 sheets, with the copy cut to 10 words or less. Your selling message, your merchandising, is in your newspaper ads; your policy, prices, show times over the radio. The billboards are only the reminder of your theatre and the current attraction. Exploitation? Something different, if possible. For instance, “Men Without Women” is a story of sailors. We carried a classified ad — offering employment to ten ex-service men who had been assigned to the signal corps. Dressed in sailor uniforms, equipped with wigwag flags, they were spotted at various corners, on the marquises of buildings, even one on the roof of a fivestory building. The gag was to relay the message to the tenth man and he was stationed on the marquise of the theatre. On each man’s back was the placard: “Meet the men without women at the Fox Criterion.” Nothing startling in this, only one thing to recommend it, as far as we knew — it had never been done before, at least not in Los Angeles. In window tie-ups we concentrated on book stores. Displays of the books of Joseph Conrad, the master story-teller of sea tales. Scattered between the books, stills from the production. Further, the cooperation of the book dealers in wrapping in each book purchased one of the booklets described above. The style book of a newspaper on which I was a reporter — had one bit of advice that I’ve never forgotten. It read, “Every bunch of flowers isn’t a bouquet.” This is true of window displays. A 30x40-inch card, costing anywhere from $1.50 to $4, doesn’t make a window display. “Sell” the merchant the idea that a display of the stills of your production in his window, tied up with a showing of his goods, will move that merchandise. But don’t show pictures of Clara Bow in her step-ins with, a display of crockery. They just don’t go together— and you’ve lost the confidence of your crockery merchant, besides wasting your time and energy. Another gag on “Men Without Women”: We wanted the women trade for this picture; especially for the matinees. Women will go for fortune tellers, so we hired four to work from 11 o’clock in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. By that time your matinee trade is pretty nearly shot. Two of the fortune tellers read cards, another was a crystal gazer, the fourth was a palmist. Two were stationed on the mezzanine, and the other two on the ground floor foyer. The total cost was $30 a day for the first five days. How much newspaper advertising or billboard space can you buy for $150? ; Compare it to a tale* of Conrads. Or Vidor Hugo. Say that it possesses the power of Zola. Or hard-bitten like Hemingway. And then discover that' ' such descriptions don't mean anything MEN WITHOUT WOMEN Must be seen-*‘-lt is the one thrill drama worthy of vour cheers CIUTIIEMNi ^RAND AT 7IS CONTINUOUS I ItoI Combination ad used following the opening of "Men Without Women." I believe that these fortune-tellers brought in more women than ten times that amount of money expended either in newspaper space or billboards. We carried one ad on the day before the opening. A gag, yes — but a good gag. One that was loaded with word-of-mouth advertising. Many women came to the matinee, paid their admission, had their fortune told, and left the theatre! In a gag of this sort it is necessary to give a “ fortune telling ticket” with each admission sold to a woman patron. If you don’t, they’ll take a chance on all of them, slowing up your turn-overs, and (which is much worse) causing dissension among the fortune-tellers, because! no two will tell a similar fortune. In this summary was given the cam( Continued on page 74)