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BALDWIN PICTURES CORPORATION 437
locally in coordination with the local exhibitions. The executives of the Baldwin Pictures Corporation decided, in 1916, to undertake an experiment of advertising to consumers, and permitted the advertising agency to make a survey to determine what magazines should be used.
Since there were at that time no commonly accepted means of reaching cinema patrons except through the "fan" magazines, the agency proposed to address questionnaires to a large number of exhibitors. Exhibitors, being in direct contact with the public, were thought to be in a position to interpret the public's reading and motion picture habits. The agency established an office in Chicago, not under its own name. From this office it communicated with exhibitors by mail. This means of reaching the exhibitors was adopted because the agency believed that exhibitors would be more free to give their real opinions to such an office than to an advertising agency. The office operated under its own name, purporting to be conducting research studies. It sent a questionnaire to a large number of first-run exhibitors in towns and cities of all sizes throughout the United States.
The following are substantially the questions included in the questionnaire :
1. In your opinion what results might be obtained from a program of consumer advertising conducted by a producer or distributor?
2. What member of the family determines the choice of motion pictures or of motion picture theaters?
3. How does the volume of your matinee business compare with that of your evening business?
4. What is the nature of your matinee patronage?
5. What magazines do you think are read by most of your patrons?
6. What magazines do you read regularly?
A fair percentage of replies was received, and the executives of the advertising agency believed they had secured a satisfactory sample of the opinions of exhibitors throughout the United States. While the exhibitors were not united on the subject of the first question, many of them seemed to believe that a producer or distributor could increase the popularity of his pictures greatly by advertising them directly to the public. Some exhibitors might have been influenced in their reply to this question by the belief that they would benefit directly by such advertising on the part