Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

2016 MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 14. No. 13 girls:PARENTS Close-Ups of the Display Originated by Mr. Kashin at the Midway Theatre, Montreal, Canada, During the Showing of " Shces " (Bluebird) more elaborately, and the same effects could be produced in much more expensive materials. But the small exhibitor, who must make every dollar he spends in advertising go the limit, may rest assured that he can do what Mr. Kashin has done for fifteen dollars or less. Many of his displays have cost little more than ten dollars. Some of his devices have been novel to a striking degree. For " The Fireman," one of the recent Charlie Chaplin comedies, Mr. Kashin built a fire-engine, completely equipped, out of heavy cardboard, as the central feature of his display. The body was tinted with aluminum paint, the wheels red with gilded rims. On the running-board stood Chaplin, in the garb of a fireman, axe poised on his shoulder. To give realism to the work, the wheels were kept revolving, and steam poured forth from the smoke-stack. Costly as the last two effects may have seemed, . they were, said Mr. Kashin, the most inexpensive part of the layout. The steam was furnished by a kettle of water set upon a little electric radiator behind the engine. The wheels he connected, by the aid of his house electrician, with an electric fan motor. Needless to say, the disjjlay drew crowds and held them during the two days of the picture's showing. Despite his own fertile ingenuity, Mr. Kashin makes constant use of the lobby frames and posters furnished by the exchanges. The frames always form a part of every display, though a subordinate part, and they are set into the ensemble in such a manner as to add strength to it, without distracting the attention of the spectator from the high lights of the set. " I have only two guiding principles in the construction of my lobby displays," said Mr. Kashin the other day. " The first is to grasp the theme and spirit of the feature I have fo advertise, and visualize it as a lobby display. This simply means that you mus^* go deep into the picture until you come to the big, simple, underlying theme of it. Then work that over in your minS until you can see the setting that is the embodiment of the theme. When you have reached that point, you arjg.ready to build. " My second principle is to be sure I have got something that the man in the street will remember after he has turned the next corner. " A lobby display may be perfect and artistic, but if the passer-by forgets it, when it is out of sight, then your display is a failure. Many a time I have destroyed my own work and started afresh because I couldn't convince myself that it wou/d not be forgotten too soon." We have illustrated only one of Mr. Kashin's lobby displays with the present article. Others will follow in this department each week for an indefinite period. His work is too good and too important to be passed over with a single notice. Both Mr. Kashin and Motion Picture News are enthusiastic over the opportunity here afforded to offer other exhibitors throughout the country the benefit of his achievements. '^iiiiiiiiuiuiiiiiiiiiiiuuiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiuiuiiiiuuiuiiuimuuiiimiiM^^^^^ I EXHIBITOR'S HOUSE | I PHILOSOPHY I I Remember that your business has | I a lot of " news " in it that your local | I paper will be glad to print in co | I operation if you use its advertising | 1 columns. 1 I When anything happens by which | I you can get the name of your house | I into print, see that it gets in the | I paper. | y Never make a change of policy | 1 without taking the public into your | I confidence. i I It is easier to start right in a new i I theatre than it is to change the wrong | I policy of an old house. 1 To send the youngsters home § I merry and bright i,s a ]better adver | I tisemeql ^ than sencRng ' th^ away i > i pondering over the problems of, a , = melodriuHa. ' -"s .7iiiinniiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiUiinniiiiijiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijimnjiimnniiiii:pnm ADVERTISES FREE SHOWS TO " LIBERTY " FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN When R. R. Perkins, manager of the Ozark theatre, Burlington, la., decided to run the serial " Liberty," he made up his mind to get a flying start. The day before the first showing he ran a half page ad, announcing a free show for ladies. He also advertised a free show for kids in the afternoon. During the show Mr. Perkins announced that all of the kids who waited outside after the show and joined in the parade would receive a pass to the second episode the following week. Not a kid left. Everyone of them stayed with the result that a parade of 700 children was soon on its way through the streets of Burlington. At the head were two cowboys on ponies, and Uncle Sam, a soldier carrying a banner, a bass drummer — and then those 700 kids. Mr. Perkins, on a bicycle, rode alongside and kept the crowd waving flags which he gave to each one. " Of course," said Mr. Perkins, " The second week I had a lot of passes come in, but on the third Friday the kids came and paid their money to see that picture." FEATURE A DAY WITH HEAVY ADVERTISING IN DAILIES The Pageant theatre, 5851 Delmare boulevard, St. Louis, has opened its doors for the fall season with an entirely newpolicy in its program. A. E. !Morelock, the manager, began the first week with a revival of V-L-S-E subjects, running a feature each da}% and advertising heavily in all the daih' papers. After the first week each feature will run an entire week, but the advertising will continue to be heavy, for it has been satisfactorily proved that advertising pays, and the house has literally been packed to capacity at each performance ever since the opening. LEVIN SHOWS PLAIN SLIDES Joe Levin of the new Fillmore street theatre, San Francisco, is trving novel effects in the way of slides. He has discarded all the gngerbread stuflF^and shows simple and artistic slides.