The Film Daily (1931)

THE Monday, May 25, 1931 &tk TIMELY TOPICS A Digest of Current Opinions €) Two-Reel Comedy As Program-Builder TPHE public demands more entertainment value for its money today than it ever has before. It wants quality, rather than quantity, however. Many exhibitors overlook that important point. In attempting to keep their patrons happy they show two feature pictures instead of one on their programs and wonder why the "double attraction" does not double the box-office returns. They forget that quantity never makes a satisfactory substitute for quality. And that there actually can be too much of a good thing, even providing their two features have the proper quality. The little life saver for the whole situation is the two-reel comedy. The good comedy is the appetizer that whets the taste for the entree of the film menu, or the tasty dessert which tops off the entertainment feast. Sitting through two feature pictures, even good ones, is like eating a heavy meal composed entirely of meat. Balance is just as important in entertainment fare as it is in food. Two-reelers as mere program "fillers" are out. Speaking for RKO Pathe, I can say that we consider them just as important as features. We have just signed a group of comedy stars, players with big names who have starred on Broadway and scored outstanding hits in feature films. Comedies are not "just two-reelers." They are pictures that mean good programs. And good programs mean good business. — Lew Lipton An average of 26 cents a week is spent on motion pictures by every American citizen. Tiir iJmEP RULTO I* b nudik, mmm • • • THINGS WE Never Thought Worth Mentioning Till Now that a certain big producer bought an "original" Spanish story for four grand, and advertised it in South America as the first story written by a Spaniard made in Hollywood that the "original" is alleged to be none other than the famous classic, "David Garrick," by Bulwer Lytton, on which the copyright long since expired and any producer could have grabbed it for NOTHING oops m'dear and how is the gink responsible gonna explain that Dumbness away? • • • THAT it is the time required to do a printing job that is more important to the printer than the selling rate per hour and if you ginks who deal with printers think you are smart by forcing a cut in Price, it simply means that you're forcing a cut in Quality for, strange as it seems, even a Printer has got to make a Profit Somehow that a printer ain't in biz just for the Pure Joy of Work like us film fellers * * * * • • • THAT a lotta Big Shots turned out to do honor to the father and mother of Harry, Dave and Mike Thomas on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday eve that it was a Pleasure to survey this gracious couple of the Old School holding court at Aperion Manor in Brooklyn and having met this Royal Couple, we now understand why the Three Thomases are the regular guys that everyone knows them to be. • • • THAT this lug, General Depression, is getting an awful frost from the Army of the Unemployed as they march by the reviewing stand "Eyes right! Salute!" the gals call it a finger wave but it's on the schnozzle instead of the hair * * * * • • • THAT Carl Laemmle Joonior on arriving from Hollywood Saturday morn, made a bee-line for his desk at the home office and went right to work on a pile of mail which explains this young man's success about as well as anything that Tom Terriss is now on his own as a producer, doing a new series that Tom advises Jack Livingston that his Casting Directory contains many things that are a tremendous improvement over similar works in Hollerword that a talkie with softly spoken dialogue is a Speakeasy or does it fall flat, like so much dialogue in so many talkies ? • • • THAT we overheard Giuseppe (the Goof in the Gondola up above) giving the lowdown to a friend on the Turkey with a Telescope who barges round with him every day sez the spaghetti syncopator "Wazza matter wid dissa guy? I poosha da gondol up and down da Rialt and he look and he look upstairs and downstairs wid da tehelloo scoop an' pretty soon he yell, looka, Giuseppe, looka! an' I look an' look till I getta da one beeg steef neck an' he say, don't you see anything? an' I say, Boloney! and he say, correct as 'ell, Giuseppe an' den dissa mugg pusha da boloney in da typewrite an' when it comes out he say, Ha! a Kolum but me, Giuseppe, I tella you crossa my heart as your frien' It's STILL da Boloney" • • • THAT Hazel Huff, of the UTPS Service in Dallas, Texas, wants to know where she can get that Platinum Hair Wash for One Berry a Bottle we mentioned the other day as it costs her blonde sister Four Smackers to look that way that we don't mind confiding to Hazel that we got ourselves in a helluva jam with a lotta blondes for lying that way that a lotta Wall Street Trader Horns are also in for a Run — on their bank accounts that that's that and we're as relieved as are you only more so EXPLOITETTES A Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation Ideas € Clever Stunt On "Finger Points" ALBERT P. KAUFMAN, manager of the Capitol, Rochester, N. Y., introduced an exploitation stunt on "The Finger Points" that smacks of real cleverness. In it he was aided by the "Times-Union." Kaufman had placed on posts in the downtown sections of Rochester cut-outs of a hand with pointed finger. At noon a press photographer took shots of the crowds passing the hand. The person at which the finger pointed when the camera snapped was the winner of a cash prize. Those in the immediate vicinity were eligible for seats at the theater. The first day the "Times-Union" reproduced the photographs over 400 people emphatically claimed the finger pointed at them. It was necessary to enlarge the pictures so as to prove the ones worthy of the prizes. — Capitol, Rochester, N. Y. * * * Scout Endorsement Played Up Strong A N effective piece of exploitation was worked by the advertising staff at Shea's Century, Buffalo, in showing of "Father's Son." It consisted in part of the reproduction from the press sheet on the picture of the endorsement given the Tarkington story by James E. West, Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America. This was widely distributed among the schools and through the mails. Primarily intended for adults was a neatly gotten up proclamation entitled, "If I Were Mayor of Buffalo." It was signed "One Who Has Seen 'Father's Son' " and in advising everyone to see the picture, gave a number of reasons for so doing. — Century, Buffalo, N. Y. * * * « « « » » » Many Happy Returns Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the follow! bers of the industry, who are ing their birthdays: May 25 Morris Kutinsky Charles H. Mailes Doris Kamper Sally Phipps