The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Sep-Oct 1922)

6 THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. September 16, 1922. EXPLOITATION AT LAST Exhibitors Waking up and a Decided Improvement being ~ Shown. PROVINCIAL CINEMATOGRAPH THEATRES LEADING WITH SOME FINE STUNTS. XHIBITORS in this country have in the past few months been so adversely criticised for their lack of exploitation in the presentation of pictures, that it is only fair and right that the big improvement which is taking place throughout the country should not only be weleomed, but at the sume time noted. Generally speaking, it has been admitted that in the past little has been done by exhibitors, with a very few possible execptions, to bring home to the public the salient points of attraction that they have in their kinemas, and Tue Fitm Renter has been hammering home hard truths concerning this lack of showmanship for weeks on end. That these counsels have borne fruit is to be seen by the decided improvement in the exploiting of pictures by showmen at the present moment. P.C.T. Showmanship. THE RESULTS OF REAL EXPLOITATION. As a result of the olever sdvertown. tising and exploitation given by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres to the Eskimo picture, ‘‘Nanook,”’ the police had to be oalled in to ful regulate the queues waiting at each performance at the New Gallery A Ku Klux Klan Stunt. In the same way, witness the splendid stunt that P.C.T. did with ‘* The Birth of a Nation,” at Newcastle, this week. Ten thousand posters were fly-posted all over the town, exhorting the population of Newcastle to be in their beds at 11 o'clock on Wednesday night, when the Ku Klux Klan would ride through the town on a special mission. Punctually to the time announced, fifty horsemen dressed in the familiar trappings that ‘‘ The Birth of a Nation ’’ has made us so familiar with, rode through the Consequently, the hall in Neweastle has been literally besieged this week. All this is fine exploitation and cannot fail to bring the pictures home to the public in a most successmanner. Messrs. Kendrick, Charles Penley, Jarratt. and Walter Wanger are to be heartily congratulated upon Day after day we notice Kinema. This is the first time it the magnificent manner in brilliant ideas and real showhas ever happened in the history of nae Oa are prion manship brought into being h o make this group of theatres by Oxhibitots: prominent the theatre and Is solely due to the leading shows in the amongst whom are the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres. It is not doing the P.C.T. any injustice by saying that m the past showmanship in connection with their group of theatres was, almost unknown, but under its reconstruction plan, whereby a young band of enthusiastic managers are now in control, the improvement is amazing. Who would ever have imagined the staid New Gallery Kinema being transformed in the manner that it is at the present moment? One of the finest pieces of presentation and exploitation of pictures is to be seen at that theatre to-day. ‘‘ Nanook,’’ the wonderful) Eskimo picture, is being presented in a manner worthy of the Capitol, New York, and that is saying something. The public know exactly what kind of a picture Nanook ” is. The management have men dressed as Eskimos patrolling Regent Street, whilst the interior of the theatre is transformed into a representation of the frozen North in a remarkably life-like manner. Visitors to the. New Gallery this week literally gasped with amazement! as they passed through the advance booking office, which is so cleverly represented as an Eskimo Tgloo that every patron of this house has congratulated the management upon its striking success. picture. Go gle their wonderful exploitation of the country. Similarly, the management of the Stoll Picture Theatre in -Newcastle carried out a fine stunt in connection with * Down on the Form ’’ the other evening. Over two hundred boys, each leading a dog bearing a linen cover advertising ** Down on the Farm,’’ paraded the streets of the city and attracted a large amount of attention. This example was followed by the Garston Empire, who hit upon the idea of presenting to their patrons a folder throwaway, in which were enclosed miniature wooden models of a goat, a sheep, a dog, and other members of the Noah’s Ark family, which figure in ‘‘ Down on the TFarm.”’ The Effect upon the Box Office. All these little stunts serve to focus public attention upon the kinema at: which the particular picture is showing, and help in a very large degree to swell the box office returns. Instances where exhibitors set themselves out to exploit their pictures are gaining in number every day, and if this is kept up, certain it is the greater prosperity will come to those who initiate this policy. Exploitation of pictures is necessary, and that it makes a big difference to the pay box is undoubted.