Associated First National Franchise (1921)

S First National Franchise Semi-Monthly Better Work Out of Electrical Signs THE problem of making the electric sign earn its keep is one which every progressive exhibitor, at some time or other, is called upon to solve. Possibly more money is wasted in the erection of electric signs — and the natural mismanagement of them, which usually follows — than in any other form of exhibitor advertising. Mismanagement or misuse of an electric sign is perfectly natural; good management and fruitful use of the sign is the exception. Lawrence F. Stuart, manager of the Old Mill Theatre, Dallas, Texas, gives his viewpoint of the electric sign, and how it is made worth while at his house. "Through protection, more than anything else, the exhibitor is forced to erect some sort of an electric sign — some sort of a shingle which will point out his place of business— and this shingle must be constructed of the material which can be seen when the daylight has passed. Hence, it can be seen, that the electric sign is a necessity. It is not a luxury or a needless piece o.f equipment. "Convinced that the need for an electric sign is thus imperative, the average exhibitor goes to work designing an elaborate board, with many colored globes, which he feels will show up well against the other thousands of electric signs already adorning the business houses and theatres on his street. And the outcome is usually a huge structure — expensively elegant — beautifully designed — and BEARING THE NAME OF HIS THEATER. "There is the mistake. And it is the common mistake of fifty percent of the exhibitors who adopt this useful and otherwise fruitful form of advertising. "The name of a theater on an elaborate electric sign means nothing. Money expended The Capitol also follows the Old Mill idea. This is a front view, from the street, and additional selling points are set in the bulbs on the other two sides, viewed from the sidewalk mi i i i iiiiininii i i it i inr. on the construction and erection of such a sign is money wasted. It serves only designate his location. The important subject— what he is selling — is entirely obscure — and is left to the imagination or the intuition of the passerby. That is why fifty percen of the electric signs are marked down as financial liabilities — instead of assets, int^ which they CAN be made if properly handled. "Instead of dishing out a good lump of money on a sign which is only ornamental — the better and more successful scheme is to construct a sign which SAYS SOMETHING. "The sign which we have constructed over the Old Mill is one which I believe carries both ornamentation and information for I passerby, whom it is supposed to reach. It is constructed in a V-shape, bearing four separate lines of electric reading matter. The sign is capable of holding fifteen ordinary sized words — sufficient to tell the name of your production, and something about it — if correctly used. "Recently we played 'The Branded Woman.' As is our custom we used the title of the picture in our electric sign — and also one fact concerning the picture which we believed necessary to carry a slight kick. Our sign read: •THE BRANDED WOMAN' WITH NORMA TALMADGE A FIRST NATIONAL ATTRACTION "This may seem to be scant reading matter — even for an electric sign, but I believe that it tells sufficient about the production to satisfy the majority of amusement seekers. The name of the production, the star, and the picture's trade mark is enough for the well-read movie-goer. "Without the entire ten words, which we used in the sign, I do not think it would have been sufficient. The mere name of the picture — or the mere name of the star — or the name of the distributing company is no' sufficient. All three form the base of information concerning the picture. "The electric sign must tell something if it is to be a success. It is constructed for the purpose of giving information concerning the picture. If it does not give the information necessary it is a failure. The electric sign can earn its keep only by the sort of management which allows the exhibitor to get the best out of it. The upkeep for such an advertising method is large — any exhibitor can testify to that. And in order to get his money out of it, the exhibitor must get the maximum efficiency. He can't do that with the sort of a sign which is only ornamental. "Make your sign say something— short and snappy. Make it pay back what it owes you." One Way of Beating the Unfair Rates THE amusement rate joker is the pride and unrestrained joy of every daily newspaper advertising manager's life. It comes to the advertising manager — generation after generation — a potent weapon from the dark ages with which he prods the local motion picture exhibitor daily and exacts an inhuman financial torture that is ofttimes turned into a rout. Next door to the motion picture exhibitor is a merchant whose business may or may not be just as staple as the former, yet he is allowed to exploit his wares through the columns of the newspaper at half, and many times less than half, the rate charged the exhibitor. Every showman and practically every newspaperman fully realizes that the present universal idea of exacting a double charge from the motion picture exhibitor is a great injustice, but there seems to be no immediate remedy for the difficulty. The motion picture merchant is simply living down the stigma of a bad past, when others of his tribe — the road show and the circus — came to town and carried away with them barrels of money to be put into circulation in other sections. The fact that the motion picture exhibitor is now a bona fide resident of the city, paying taxes and operating with the help of a home-grown personnel, does not alter the situation because the road show and circus skeletons of his fathers are still dangling hideously in the closet. Exhibitors and publicity men have fought bitter battles over the advertising counter to no avail; they have cut down their space, Harold Heffernan Writes Words of Widsom from Detroit, Mich. threatened and cajoled and burned the midnight oil to further schemes that might bring the amusement rate tumbling to earth. And in the end they have gone back to the newspaper and increased their space, because exhibitors invariably agree that it is their one best bet in putting their product before the public eye. With the increasing number of releases adapted from the works of famous^ authors, however, there is presented to the exhibitor in every city and town harboring a bookstore, a live opportunity to effect a working arrangement that will not only mutually benefit the theatre and the bookstore, but hurl a legitimate bomb of hate into the amusement rate. In twenty-four cases out of twenty-five we find that the exhibitor has overlooked his bookstores when it comes to cases in planning his advertising campaign on such pictures as "In the Heart of a Fool" or "Nomads of the North" or "My Lady's Latchkey" or any number of productions of recent release that have a well-known author's name to help put them over. Let us take "Nomads of the North" as a shining example of our plan. The bookstore no doubt has a contract or contracts with local newspapers calling for space at less than half of what the exhibitor can buy it for. He has a line of James Oliver Curwood's books in stock and they may be moving a trifle slowly. He may have another line of books of a similar nature, stories by other authors on life in the far north. It is easy to assume, therefore, that the bookstore manager is going to be interested in any plan the motion picture exhibitor may have in mind to move his stock of books pertaining to the far north. If his ad copy is written for him and the exhibitor links up the showing of "Nomads of the North" with a line of copy based on "See the picture, then read the book", with an offer to pay one-half of his rate, the book man should fall on his knees and call down a blessing on his friend The bookstore naturally places the copy and pays the bills, sending the exhibitor a bill for his share of the total. We have had instances in the Michigan territory of where this sort of advertising with almost direct selling copy inserted, cost the exhibitor less than one-third of what his regular amusement rate would have cost. At the same time, however, a small campaign c his own should be carried on by the exhibitor. "Nomads of the North", with James Oliver Curwood as the author, is not cited because it is an exception but because it stands out just a trifle from the rule. The works of Ellis Parker Butler in con nection with the engagement of "The JackKnife Man" would form an excellent newspaper and window tie-up with the bookdealer and there are any number of production5 now being released through Associated First National Pictures that present the same o; portunity to cut a deep gash in that double rate.