The Film Daily (1931)

TIMELY TOPICS A Digest of Current Opinions €) Taking a Wallop At Advertising Films HPHERE is one advertising medium now being offered to the public that is being used as entertainment. It is hilled for by the exhibitor to the advertiser and collected for a second time from the public under a fictitious representation. From all appearances it is supposed to be entertainment, but it's not, it's advertising So when you go to your favorite picture show house and see a supposed to be comedy reel which finally announces that the best hair tonic will be found in every first class barber shop and will grow hair without fail, remember that you have paid for the privilege of having the hair tonic manufacturer tell you his advertising story. The economy of covering 80,000 people in one week in one theater with one reel is appreciated. But you pay the moving picture house for seeing the advertising comedy reel and the advertiser pays the producer for showing it to you. Pretty slick scheme, hey what? If a newspaper must publish the fact that an article is advertising: and the radio station tells you who pays for your entertainment, surely the moving picture industry should be fair enough to mark each scene with some identification mark to distinguish it as advertising. And to give this kind of entertainment to the public under false pretense is an affront to every theater goer's intelligence. It should be stopped. If the producer finds it necessary to go into the advertising business let him so advise his prospective customers by displaying the fact in the lobby so the customers may decide for themselves just what kind of entertainment they choose to accept. —"Type Craft" Capital invested in motion pictures throughout the world totals $2,500,000,000. mm • • • ONCE IN a great while, some gent comes along with a real Novelty Idea in a picture production and this kolyum is always the first to get up in the gondola and cheer even at the risk of going overboard, as it were and now we are getting up to cheer once more and blushing furiously, we ask you to guess who we're gonna cheer for this time um, um for Ourself why not? everybody else is doing it every day in our mail we get letters from lugs writing publicity blurbs about themselves so, swallowing our innate modesty, we herewith give to the world a brand new Noveity Idea for a Western hold tight! the hero does NOT make the acquaintance of the heroine by rescuing her from a runaway of course it's gonna take a lot of Ingenuity and Concentration to figure out another way for the western hero to meet the gal than by saving her from a runaway by golly, we've got it! we'll have the hero meet the gal by having her rescue HIM from a runaway but wherein'ell are we going to find a producer with nerve enough to make a Western that so violently outrages Sacred Tradition? on second thought, we'll just forget the idea first thing you know they'll be calling us a Radical • • • A SENSATIONAL session at the A.M. P. A. luncheon at the Dixie today Flo Ziegfeld is loaning the pressageys his South Sea sizzle, Reri and after Reri does her stuff in her newest imported shredded wheat creation, Miss Gene Dennis, the psychic marvel, will Read the Minds of the Pressageys! huh, so can we and we ain't no psychic • • • IF YOU haven't read John Drinkwater's biog of Uncle Carl Laemmle, you've missed one of the finest bits of writing about the film biz that was ever penned Drinkwater's view of the industry and of Mister Laemmle is refreshing for it's an outsider looking in with a limpid, lyric style that fairly sings it's gor-gee-ous which reminds us that in a recent Mark Hellinger column a certain "J.J.G." claimed he compiled the data on which Drinkwater based his biographical study and we happen to know conclusively, having worked with the gent who really compiled the material and spent a whole year doing nothing else that the one to get the credit is Dave Bader, officially commissioned by Uncle Carl to cover the job which he did splendidly piling up three times more data than Mister Drinkwater could possibly use and he is so credited in the latest edition of the bidgra phy saying which, we pick up the tab rag to learn some more interesting "facts" about the film biz and its people but don't these tab rags make interesting reading? • • • UNSTRUNG NEW YORKERS Jo Jo, the Broadway spendthrift a Big Shot in the film biz was down and out clean broke just a bum he wandered into the Ole Joint, where in former days he had dissipated dollars like doughnuts he approached the proprietor whose name was also Joe and he sez Joe, lend me 20 smackers to buy some gal a drink" and Joe sez "Hell, if I had 20 smackers, I'd buy myself a drink." which shows just how tuff times are in the Nite Clubs these daze and Jo Jo wandered out into the night and the Nite Club proprietor followed him they staggered down Broadway together, arm in arm just a coupla bums EXPLOITETTES A. Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation Ideas Newspaper "Special" Plugs "Finger Points" J-^[ARRY MARTIN, Manager of the Brown, Louisville, Ky., startled people in his city by preceding the showing of Richard Barthelmess in "The Finger Points" by issuing a newspaper "extra" dealing with the "Murder of a Weil-Known Reporter." The extra was issued late in the evening, loud lunged newsboys carrying it into all sections of the city. The pink issue had all the earmarks of a genuine newspaper and created a lot of excitement. Martin followed the "extra" with a midnight showing. — Brown, Louisville, Ky. M< Playing Up National Appeal ANAGER David J. Walsh of the Publix-Strand, Pittsfield, Mass., played up the Russian angle to sell "Resurrection." Walsh engaged a young Russian boy for a small pittance; the boy canvassing the Russian section of the city. He told all his callers about the picture as well as handing them heralds on which was imprinted the title of picture. — Strand, Pittsfield, Mass. Radio Contest On "Bat Whispers" jy[ANAGER W. E. Brumbar used a radio contest on "The Bat Whispers" at the PublixParamount, Abilene, Tex. Announcements were made over local broadcasting station that the Bat Whispers at certain hours. It was also announced that the first ten persons each day would be given guest tickets to see the picture by correctly sending in the catchline the Bat Whispered. — Paramount, Abilene, Tex. « « « » » » Many Happy Returns Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the following members of the industry, who are celebrating their birthdays: May 28 Scott W. Darling J. J. Gain Doris Charsky