Moving Picture World (Jun 1919)

June 14, 1919 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1655 second number and we imagine that in time it will work up to the standard ot the old sheet, which was one of the best house organs gotten out anywhere as well as about the most permanent. Not Wise. The Third Street Theatre, Easton, Pa., makes a tactical error when it announces Pauline Frederick in "Paid in Full" and adds: Please Note: — This is probably the last picture in which Pauline Frederick ■will be seen at the Third Street Theatre for some time. Miss Frederick has left the employ of the Paramount organization who was responsible for her success, and has gone with an inferior company. Don't fail to grasp this last opportunity to see Pauline Frederick's crowning achievement, in which she reaches the zenith of her screen career. Never again will she appear to such advantage. Should the Third Street later on desire to turn to Goldwyn, it would have some tall explaining to do, and at best such a note is unwise and certainly uncalled for. Miss Frederick has the right to change her employment without incurring the enmity of the exhibitor, and that "inferior company" is in very bad taste. A Rope Lobby. This rather weak photograph shows the lobby display of the Mission, Seattle, for Harry Carey in "Roped." The banner at the top of the lobby is painted, but the panel inside of the lobby is done with actual rope, tacked down to make the script title. The design is very effective. The top stem of the capital letter touches The Lobby of the Mission, Seattle, Showing a Real Rope Script for a Film Title. the portrait of the star, cut from a onesheet, and the tail of the "d" runs to a similar circle lettered with the name. If the three-sheet provided a cut out, it would have been effective had this been set up in the lobby with a lariat about the neck. The idea is good, but might have been considerably extended. Tell It Right. The Hill takes half of a front page of the circular program to remark, "We want you to see Gladys Brockwell in 'The Forbidden Room.' Don't miss this one." If Johnny Mack really wants his patrons to get the idea, he should tell his printer not to use Cloister type. It belongs to the old English family and it is not easy to read. When you want to say something, say it in the plainest possible way. Booming Things. A. L. Middleton is booming things for the Queen down in De Queen, Ark. His latest envelope is headed, "See directions inside how to live happy," and below is "Where do we go from here? Directions inside." Of course you go to the Queen. He showed "The Greatest Thing in Life" at fifty cents a head, and he did not throw in the war tax, either. That is going some. Mr. Middleton has improved a lot as a copy writer in the last year or so and he can discard press book copy and get out snappy stuff. A teaser in a late issue reads "Don't change your husband until after May!" This, of course, is the date he shows the De Mille production. In the last couple of years Mr. Middleton has worked the Queen up from undated stuff of the cheaper sort to the best in the market, and he has done it all with hustle and advertising. The Way to Talk. The Greenwich Theatre, Greenwich, Conn., uses a ready-print house program, but it has an editorial page that is worth the cost of the entire twenty-page issue. The chief merit of a program is the opportunity it gives you to talk to your patrons, and the Greenwich does this right. A recent program, for example, leads off with: Last Monday, March Thirty-first, I chanced to pass by the Rivoli Theatre of New York. And there, displayed upon the panels, in all elaborateness, was the title, "Three Men and a Girl." Imagine, can you, my feeling of satisfaction that on the same day, "Three Men and a Girl" was being shown at the Greenwich Theatre. You see, in New York, no other theatre will be able to show that picture until after its week's engagement at the Rivoli has been completed. And so in our showing of our other photo-dramas. The best, always, and first at that. To be sure, there are some very excellent productions of former days, which, like good music, should be brought back before the public, should never pass into oblivion. An example of these is "Poppy," the picture which made Norma Talmadge the popular star she is. "Poppy," the mesh of which was woven by the delicate fingers of the sensitive artist, Cynthia Stockley, will tell her story on the Greenwich screen on Monday, April Seventh. It has never been played in Greenwich, and is too beautiful to be left out of Greenwich. It is worth the cost of the entire program just to get that first paragraph over, and the second, with its defense of late bookings is just as good, though it reverses the first statement. The man who gets out a program and does not use an intimate editorial is wasting his opportunities. The personal contact of the manager with his patron is his best asset. Since this is seldom possible, the intimate editorial page is the next best appeal and should be followed up. Racing Again. Our small son put a new angle on racing film the other night when he was shown "The Heart of Humanity" in an hour and forty minutes, which is about ten minutes to the reel. He was told he would not be taken again if he asked so many questions. "But I had to," he offered in defense. "It went so fast I couldn't understand what it was about." It was pretty hard for the grown-ups for that matter, and the value of the fine "production was lost through the excessive speed. It is unfair to the patrons, and it is unfair to the producer. In Brief. On the two inside pages of a 4x5 program,the Star Theatre, Weser, Idaho, manages to get in a complete list of attractions for a month and to get interest for them. Five lines is the most any feature gets, but the management has the trick of condensing the facts without killing the appeal. It is a nice study in condensation, and it shows that even in a couple of lines you can get the big idea over. A Horrible Example. We think this advertisement from the Baltimore Sun one of the poorest to come under observation in some time. The Sun shows a pretty high average of good advertisements, but something went wrong with this, and the trouble lies in the cuts. In a space of only fifty lines deep two cuts are used and they not only overcrowd the space but their form and excess of black background makes it look more like a sterescopic picture than a display advertisement. Two cuts in so small a space are not desirable, but if PICTURE GARDEN 3J WEST LE XING TOM S.T. MOLLIE KING "SUSPENSE," A detective .tor; or r nayterr And a-iw ntu Could yon. Io*« a man w hired i» trail yooT Special Music by Prof. Francis J. Perrica. MARY MacLAREN "THE AMAZJnG WIFE.' A play of tromendoni power. On her wedding night her ho»b&ui flirted with a woman ot —■■■■■ ..ilin-i-iiiiMinnniiiiTimnri m A Two Column Advertisement, Fifty Lines Deep, in Which the Cuts Ruin the Display. they must be used it would be better to rout out the background and vignette the bottom of the cut. This would lighten the effect and make it possible for so small a space to carry a pair of them. Even two of the thumbnail cuts would be rather heavy, but this layout is as harsh as can well be imagined. Straight type would have been much better. Much Better. Now that the Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, has dropped the hand drawn stuff, the advertising is very greatly improved, *as tk«se two examples show. Particularly good is the design for "The Brand." The Chaplin appendix detracts from the artistic A Three-Twelves and a Two-Seven and a Halfs from Mark Gates, of the Dayton. effect somewhat, but not from the advertising value, and this is an advertisement and not a picture. The composition of the display is out of the ordinary with its suggestion of the snowy plains and the totem pole balancing the fir tree on the right. It is one of the best drawings the Dayton has yet sent in. The smaller display is also cleverly done, the placing