Motion Picture News (Jul-Aug 1919)

1070 (Exhibitors Service) Motion Picture News You couldn't miss kitounitg that "Sunnyside" was the attraction at the San Diego Superba. The farmerettes were appropriate to the picture and pleading to look at "Pf^ozv!'' — Here's an Exhibitor IVriting Editorials for Censors REGARDLESS of the criticism that will probably come to him from other branches of the industry lor inviting censorship, Ezra Rhodes, of Elkhart, Indiana, probably did much to increase his patrons support recently when he wrote an editorial favoring censorship. Mr. Rhodes is secretary, treasurer and business manager of the LaSalle and Castle theatres at South Bend, Indiana; Orpheum, Family and Venetian at Elkhart, Ind., and the Jefferson theatre at Goshen, Ind. Recently he penned an editorial which was distributed to patrons of his various theatres in the form of pamphlets. This editorial said: ■' The size and number of the audiences drawn by the exhibition of the clean, interesting moving picture, " Daddy Long Legs " in South Bend and Elkhart, raise an interesting .though by no means, a new question. " If large profits can be taken fi'om the exhibition of clean pictures, why do the producers insist in pandering to the curiosity that has its basis in perverted taste and immorality? " This has been so largely a man's world that regulation of the motion picture industry is practically non-existant in forty-five states. Refusal by legislatures to interfere by creating censorships is due to the fallacious theory that the people are strong an dsensibic enough to control the quality of their amusements by withholding their patronage from immoral films. " The same reasoning delayed the restriction and prohibition of the liquor traffic for a number of years. The belief was that each man must work out his own salvation. When the people finally awoke to the fact that human nature was loo weak for that, acts to abolish the saloon came with a rush. " Has it ever occurred to many that the spenrling of millions in the schools for the inculcation of morality and uprightness only to have the effort of ihe teaching discounted in ten minutes at th( cinema show around the corner constitutes an anomaly that would be ridiculous if it were not tragic? Yet that is what we .Americans are doing iaour misguided interpretation of what constitutes liberty ' '■ The question is, has an amusement purveyor the right to entire your daughter to have her mind tainted by contemplating vice? He has the legal right now, owing as suggested above, to our living in a man's world. But unless we are mistaken, the arrival of woman's suffrage will change that. Like the saloonist, the picture producer is abusing his privileges and hastening the day when they will be taken away from him. " Good restriction "will be preceded by some hopeless half-measures. Pennsylvania is one of {Continued on page 1077) Ezra Rhodes Who writes Editorials to his patrons " Usherettes " as " Farmerettes " Attract Attention for Superba HOUSE Manager W. E. Jones, of the Superba theatre, San Diego, Gal., didn't depend on Charlie Chaplin's name alone when he played "Sunny Side." Here is a photograph of his lobby display and his fair usherettes. Note the "farmerettes." Who wouldn't stop to see them, even if he had never heard of Chaplin and Sunnyside? Seriously speaking here is a demonstration of what can be done at very small expense to attract extra business for a picture, and also add a little novelty to things about a theatre, which alone is good stuff because it starts people talking. Mr. Jones has used his stills to advantage and certainly the announcement of the star and title of the film could be seen "a mile away." If this were a dramatic offering we might think that it is a little flashy, but on a Chaplin it is just the thing. That this display attracted extra business which made the small expense of time and money more than worth while, goes without saying. Weisfelt Heads Exploitation Department Started by Fischer in Milwaukee A department of exploitation has been inaugurated at the ' Alhambra Theater, Milwaukee, by Manager George Fischer and has proved its practibility from the start. Edward J. Weisfelt has been appointed Director of Exploitation, and it is his work to create ideas by which productions at the Alhambra may be more satisfactorily presented. In short, it is Mr. Weisfelt's job to get all there is out of an attraction in its staging, publicity and lobby display. The new department recently demonstrated its practicability by its successful co-operation with the management in the presentation of "A Romance of Happy Valley." In the newspaper ads. the atmosphere of the play was started. As the patron entered the lobby the atmosphere was carried out further, as the lobby was turned into a rural roadway, with rustic fences and corn stalks on either side. On entering the foyer of the theatre one found himself in an old fashioned living room. The stage resembled a barn yard and the musical specialty between shows consisted of a group of rural lads and lassies, who gathered around an old square piano and sang old fashioned songs. The uniformity of ideas and the atmosphere which was carried out in each department was the direct result of the department of exploitation. Another striking example of how this depart^ ment may be used has been demonstrated recently in the staging of song numbers between shows at the Alhambra. Recently Princess Wasula, an Indian singer, was secured to give the customary musical number between shows. At most theatres the singer would have walked out on the stage, given her numbers and made her exit. But not so at the Alhambra with the department of exploitation on the job. The Indian singer was given a suitable background, with a wigwam placed in a splendid set, with special lighting effects. The same results were obtained with a male trio, which instead of just walking out and singing their songs, were discovered in a club room set, one of them playing solitaire, another smoking and a third reading, while they sang. The fact that there is a special department working to create these ideas results in the Alhambra shows being just a little different and more attractive than the average photoplay program. Th^ Manager of the average large city house is too busy with the executive end of the management to do justice to exploitation ideas, but with an aide, who docs nothing but think of methods of presentation, the most can be secured from film productions.