Motion Picture News (Mar-Jun 1920)

^ IV-llUl'im-in. II II C 13, Paramount" Universally Known WHAT has been done by Fa mous Players-Lasky Corporation m the wav of national advertising is set forth in detail m the following statement issued from the headquarters of that organization. " Without the shadow of a doubt, the name of Paramount is shown to more people than any other in the whole realm of entertainment," reads the Famous Players statement. " For six years "it has been constantly before the public, spread across the length and breadth of the United States in the most ingenious, the most carefully planned, the most widespread and the most successful campaign ever conducted in the interest of the screen. Ask any person who reads what Paramount is. The answer of nine persons out of every ten will be, "The pictures that are advertised in the magazines." Ask what the Famous Players Lasky Corporation is, or what it has done, and the answer inevitably must be : " That is the company that has sold the motion picture to the American people." " When the policy of nationally advertising Paramount pictures was first inaugurated, many who professed to be wise in the film industry pronounced it a foolish waste of money. But these men lacked the vision which the sponsors of Paramount possessed. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were expended the first two years. Rival producers and distributors declared that the plan never would succeed because it carried no direct appeal to the exhibitors. But Famous Players-Lasky has kept on, each year increasing its appropriation and increasing its space in the national magazines, building up from week to week, month to month and year to year, an ever-multiplying National Advertising Stands Approved ELWYN M. SIMONS, of the New Family theatre, Adrian, Mich., writes the Famous Players-Lasky headquarters as follows: "I liked your advertisement, 'The Luxury of Being Certain,' so well that I could not help writing that these advertisements you people are printing in your national advertising are bringing me lots of money. When your first ads began to appear I saw the advantage I would hold over any future competitors if my theatre were known in Adrian as 'The Paramount Artcraft Picture House.' Consequently I started in five years ago to use that trademark in all my ads. To tell you the story of the results obtained by using 'A Paramount Artcraft Picture' would be relating my success in the motion picture business here. ... So continue the splendid work. I think so much of your advertising and tying up my advertising with yours that from now on to the end of the year I am planning to book only your pictures as fast as they are released." clientele for the motion picture and selling, coincidentally, Paramount Pictures to that clientele. " That this policy has been tremendously successful needs no further proof, Famous PlayersLasky officials hold, than that furnished by the fact that American exhibitors are now taking in an annual gross revenue, according to Government statistics, of approxi mately eight hundred million dollars and that something like eleven thousand theatres in the United States arc now numbered among Famous Players-Lasky customers, " Aside from the straight human appeal of the copy, which is pre pared by some of the most expert copy writers in the country, there arc two big elements which have made the Famous Players Lasky national advertising a decisive tailor in bringing about the results ciicd in the paragraph above, ( )ne is the fact that the campaign lias been continuous from the linn of its inauguration, The other is the slogan, always implied it nol direct ly stated: 'Look for the Para mount or Artcraft trademark.' " l< e c p i n g everlastingly al it brings success, is the motto which has guided the Famous PlayersLasky policy, Intermittent advertising never sold a constant product a fact which other film companies that have indulged intermittently in national advertising have failed to grasp. ' We'll try ii,' summarizes their aliunde, instead of 1 We'll ,/„ It! ' Then when a dull period sets in, tin' firsi victim of retrenchment is the advertising appropriation, 1 he result is that the product is forgotten by the public and the money has been thrown away. _ " On every sheet of poster advertising, on every lobby display, on every newspaper mat or cut advertising Paramount pictures, the identifying word 'Paramount' is conspicuous, thus linking every theatre playing Paramount pictures with the national advertising campaign. And mosl important of all .the company's far-sighted production policy, reflecting a determination 10 produce only pictures that will justify and fulfill its advertising promises— the real Gibraltar of Famous Players-Lasky successlias made the name Paramount more than a trade mark ; ii has Past Year s Record R 4813 made il the hallmark of the best in motion pictures. " The recognition of the value of the Paramount name and its enhancement through the Paramount national advertising is rapidly becoming universal among exhibitors. Concrete evidence of this recognition is constantly being brought by letter to the attention of Famous Players-Lasky executives. Within the past thirty days dozens of attesting letters have come, unsolicited, to the home oflicc, "An approximate circulation of IJ.Otltl.MK), with readers conservatively eslimaled al 50,01111,1X111 |,.ilieen reached al regular intervals throughout the past year by the Famous Players-Lasky national advertising, Including the Saturday K veiling Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Country Gentleman, Pictonal Review, Woman's Home Companion, Colliers, Christian Herald, American Magazine. Red Hook, Moti o n Picture 1 ilassii . I'l play. Picture Play, Motion Picture Magazine, Film Fun, Photo-Play World, Photo I' lay Journal, Theatre, Vanity Fair, Shadowland, Boy's Magazine, Si' Nicholas, Hoys' Life, American Boy and Lone Seoul, the lisi of publications is a truly imposing one. All advertising in these magazines is of lull page dimensions. , " Supplementing tins space, special full page advertisements of individual pictures have been run in those magazines in which the stories originally appeared, as, for instance. 'The Woman Thou Gavcsi Me, by Hall Cainc, in Hearst's: the Miracle Man,' by Frank L. lackard, 111 Munsey's ; 'The DarkStar, by Robert W. Chambers, in Cosmopolitan j 'The Dark Mirror.' 111 Met alls, etc. Moreover, at various limes specialized circulation has been gamed for individual productions through the uiilizaiion of socalled class publications." eviewei THE year 1919-20 has been the biggest in Famous PlayersLasky history in many ways but probably the outstanding feature has been the number of big productions released and the box-office successes scored by them wherever they have been shown. In fact, so successful has this policy of "big pictures " proved that it has been decided to concentrate more and more on the production and distribution of features of this character. The month of September furnished an indication of what exhibitors might expect as the result of the adoption of the big pictures policy. The first two releases were ' The Witness for the Defense " and " The Valley of the Giants,'' both of them far beyond, in point of elaborateness, the average feature hitherto characterized as a special. Then came George Loane Tucker's " The Miracle Man," immediately pronounced by many critics the finest photoplay ever made. Following successive and conspicuously successful pre-releases showings at the George M. Cohan, Rivoli and Broadway Theatres in New York, the production swept the country off its feel, setting up in a few months a gross box-office record which even the most optimistic of Famous Players-Lasky executives had scarcely hoped for. October offered, among other big attractions, Maurice Tourneurs "The life Line" and the Houdini feature, "The Grim Game," with its sensational airplane collision, a feature of the picture which packed houses wherever it was shown. Then in November came Cecil B. DeMille's "Male and Female," destined to smash attendance records in hundreds of houses and to duplicate if not surpass the success of " The Miracle Man." In passing, mention should be made of " Twenty-three and a Half Hours Leave," which introduced Thomas H. Ince's co-stars, Douglas MacLean and Doris May, and which, although not a big production, in the generally accepted sense, soon took first rank as a money winner. December brought the Ince special, " Behind the Door," starring Hobart Bosworlh, declared by many to be one of the most intense as well as one of the most perfectly produced heavy dramas ever thrown on the screen. Then came George Melford's " Everywoman," with its wonderful all-star cast headed by Violet Heming, Theodore Knberis and Wanda Hawley, and offering the most remarkable advertising opportunities which exhibitors quickly seized and made the most of. The outstanding feature of January was "The Copperhead," starring Lionel Barrymorc in the elaborate screen version of Augustus Thomas's great play, for which a whole village was constructed and twice rebuilt to represent three periods of America's history, and in which hundreds of people appeared. In February came George Fitzmaurice's "On with the Dance," and Twain's immortal "Huckleberry Finn," carrying a wide human appeal, not only on account of the popularity of the story but because of Mr. Taylor's admirably sympathetic interpretation; Following Elsie Ferguson in " His House in Order," released among others in March, April brought the Robert Louis Stevenson masterpieces, "Treasure Island" and " Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," the former a Maurice Tourncur production and the latter furnishing John Barrymorc the vehicle for his greatest dramatic triumph on either stage or screen, says Famous Players. The same month saw the release of "The Toll Gate," William S. Hart s first independent production as a Famous Players-Lasky star and pronounced not onlv byMr. Hart himself but bv many of his admirers the best picture he ever made. Cecil B. DeMille's " Why Change Your Wife? " and George Melford's " The Sea Wolf," released in May, have just started on their careers and if present indications are borne out, box-office records are going to take a lot of beating before these two have run their courses. The above productions are cited by Famous Players as already proved box-office successes which have justified the "big pictures'* policy. For the remaining three months of the current year Paramount exhibitors are premised (Continued on pagt 4&M>