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May 11, 1918
THE MOVING PICTURE Wi'kLD
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Advertising for Exhibitors
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S1 | Conducted by EPES WINTHROP SARGENT
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A Suggestion of Ethics.
J I i.i.w M. SOLOMON, of the Service Department of the Famous l'layi is l.asky Corporation, raises a nice point when he rises to object that the Hart advertisement of J. W. Allender, of the Lyric, Spokaue, is cast from an Artcraft mat, the Artcraft trade-mark being cropped to let in the Triangle signature. This Is the cut reproduced in this department in the Issue of April 13. It raises a nice point of ethics. These mats are supplied free to exhibitors using the Paramount or Artcraft pictures. There is the implied, if not the express, understanding that they are to be employed only in the advertisement of the pictures of those brands. A remedy would seem to be to copyright each design and license the mats for use only for the play for which they are issued, but such a step should not be necessary. It is understood that these mats are issued for the use of the specified brands, and to cast and use them with other brands is not courteous business. With so many Fairbanks and Hart reissues there doubtless is a strong temptation to save the cost of art work through acquiring mats of these stars, but it is not a pretty practice. Some houses may even use both the Triangle and Artcraft Hart pictures, in which case the exhibitor may argue that he has a right to use what is given him in any way he elects ; but even here the argument falls, since the mats are given him for a specific purpose and not for general use.
McCormick's.
Here are some interesting McCormick advertisements from the Circle theater, Indianapolis. The Mabel Normand advertisement carries rather more type than the average, but Miss Normand spent so many years making Mickey that on her reappearance she needs some sort of reintroduction. The cut mudded up badly in the forms, and it might be Miss Normand or anyone else ; but the idea is better than the press work. The cut on the right gives a nice example of the use of black masses. Fairbanks' shadow and the doorway back of the girl are naturally brought in, yet perfectly serve their purpose of throwing
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Doiglas Fairbanks "HtaaW South'"
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DODOINO AMjUION
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DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS
"Headin' South"
the figures into relief, yet they do not obscure them. This is one of the best-planned black and white we have seen in some time. The example on the left depends upon the humor of the situation for its
-You Remember Her,
FIRST-The Biognph GlrL" THEH-"Mabel of the Kwitbne..NOW-A Rtgtl Queen of the Screen.
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MABEL NORMAND
With TOM MOORE In
DODGING A MILLION
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appeal and this gets over well. We do not think that the Normand advertisement is quite up to Mr. McCormick's standard. We do not
recall having seen before one of hla advert i ements carrying so much small type. A much better advertisement along the same lines la found in this five-sevens in which there is only 35 column inches against ;!!> for the three thlrteens, and yet the story is more clearly told. It is strange, however, that none of those who are now engaged in recalling Miss Normand seem to remember the hit she made in the Vltagrapn'S Hetty series before she went to the Biograph. One thing that marks the McCormick advertisements is the lack, as a rule, of much lettering in the blacks. It will be noted that he takes the white spaces for the announcement and leaves the black for the picture. This is excellent practise. The black on white is always easier read, it stands out better and leaves a deeper impression. This four-nines
is reproduced from a proof, which gives a better result than the straight newspaper impression, but it comes out well on the newspaper page, for both were sent. To letter in too much announcement in the drawing is simply to throw space away. It is better to mortise the cut and set in the type in the white space thus created. This particularly applies to small letters. Anything smaller than a quarter-inch letter is almost certain to be lost, and even the quarter-inch is rather small for clear reading, and if the ink is not running well, or the paper soaks up too much of it, or if any one of a dozen other things happen, the cut goes off and the whole result is lost. It does not pay to trust too much to black grounds and white lettering. If you lost your cut, you at least have your type to work with, but if you put your lettering into the cut and then it goes bad, you lose your entire advertisement. If you employ an artist, require him to study the handling of blacks and whites, and keep after him until he can now and then get an effect such as is shown in the Fairbanks on the ladder in this paragraph. That is the sort of work that is most effective and that is least apt to be hurt by poor press work or bad stereotyping. The next
example shows how Mr. McCormick shifts his cuts. The smaller cut shows the upper right-hand portion of the cut to the right. It was