Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1915)

SEP (0 1915 ' CI. B 3 8 9 7 4 1 "When You See It In 'The News' It's NEWS" LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 427 SO. FIGUEROA STREET Vol ume XII HAS THE QUALITY CIRCULATION OF THE TRADE NEW YORK CITY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY WEST FORTY-SECOND STREET SEPTEMBER 18, 1915 "The Exhibitors' Medium of Communication" CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 110 SO. DEARBORN STREET No. 1 1 The Producer and the Press RECENT editorials, upon this page, defining the prime necessity of greater co-operation between the pictures and the press, and suggesting ways and means to this end are bringing in many interesting letters. Two, which are given herewith, put the matter right up to the producing companies and their press representatives. "Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 4, 1915. «jyjR. WILLIAM A. JOHNSTON, "220 West Forty-second street, "New York City. "My Dear Mr. Johnston: — Have just finished reading with a great deal of interest your editorial in the issue of September 11, entitled, "The Exhibitor and the Newspaper." You are right to a certain extent in calling attention to the opportunity the exhibitor is passing by to secure newspaper publicity, but you are only touching one side of the subject. "What about the producer who spends all his time and money on national advertising campaigns and forgets to co-operate with the individual exhibitor in anyway outside of sending him a lot of stereotype press matter that is of little value from a news standpoint? "I was the first press agent in Milwaukee to handle a photoplay theatre, and I have done a great deal of publicity work for the various down town exhibitors, yet up-to-date I have received absolutely no co-operation from the producers of even the biggest productions. I have written letter after letter to the various publicity departments and as a rule have received no reply or merely a mass of stuff that was of little use to me. * * * <<T~'0 cite an instance. The other day one of the houses ran a production that contained in its cast of principals a Milwaukee actor who was very popular, yet it was only by chance that I discovered that he was in the cast. At another time a company made a portion of its production in this vicinity and yet nothing was contained in the press matter or advance notices on this fact. "In addition to handling a number of photoplay houses I handle some legitimate stuff as well, and while the photoplays contain one hundred per cent, greater opportunities for publicity the legitimate shows are walking away with the free advertising' simply because their producers realize the value of this sort of advertising and make an effort to get it. * * * <f A NOTHER thing, the legitimate productions have special <T~V photographs taken for newspaper work; the photoplay producers send out a lot of prints made from the motion picture itself, and with a lot of lettering plastered all over and almost wnolely unsuited for newspaper work. "What is needed in the motion picture business more than anything else at this writing is greater co-operation between the producer and the exhibitor and the adaptation by the producer of some of the methods used by his legitimate brethren to press aeent his productions. 6 "Yours truly, "J. W. Martin." '"The Advance' (AfterNosn), "Lynchburg, Va., Sept. 5, 1915. "William A. Johnston. "My Dear Sir :— Your leading editorial in the issue of Motion7 PictureNews I have just received was peculiarly interesting. "Newspaper men, generally speaking, haven't time to sit down and pick out such material as may interest them in the publicity 'stuff' that most of the producers are now sending out. There isj .1 am sure, more interest in the 'moving' among the masses tharf in baseball, and for this reason I think every daily paper should1 devote some of its space to news concerning the motion picture' industry. Certainly half as much space as the national game gets. * * * << jVTOWADAYS, but few companies are preparing publicity copy •I > that an editor cares to look over. It is generally made up in mimeograph fashion and deals with big productions at such length as to result in relegation to the waste basket. Newspapers particularly those of 'small time' calibre, do not want to devote a half-column to the ravings of a publicity agent over 'Maggie's Muddy Mittens.' But the 'movie' editor would not mind boosting the game to the extent of giving the same space to breezy, interesting items about favorite players, their occupations and fads, and also short paragraphs regarding new releases. "In the department that I am conducting I publish each day about thirty different short stories, each not longer than three inches, and I try to give every producer who sends me material as much space as the competitor. I also use a photo of some player or scene in this column, and I am advised by the exhibitors that patrons of the theatres are greatly interested in this feature of the paper. * * * "I RfC^LL WritinS f" ai:ticle sever*l months aeo for another l trade paper on 'Efficient Publicity Methods,' and I soon afterward observed that several producing companies indicated in ouTkPthSe$Storyer ' Paid S°me heed t0 what 1 P°int^ . "American, Universal, Kalem and one or two others are sending out material such as the editor likes to use in a motion picture department. Essanay is preparing copy in good shape but goes to the trouble of writing heads for the items, thus necessitating extra time on the part of the editor to clip off the monacker^ which are always of no use in a daily paper. * * * "WHAT lhe paperS "0W want is a sheet on which items of naZrf mterfSt P^"ted ready t0 be cliPPed and pasted on paper or early copy. I want to say in this connection that I am not getting as much motion picture news as I desire, and would te^Mh t tlT I*0*™* f?rward t0 mC a" the items of interest that they care to prepare for publication. "Very truly, "Julian T. Baber." T HESE letter's are fro men. m experienced newspaper and publicity They are to the point and give practical suggestions It is to be William A. Johnston.