Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

December 25, 1915. MOTOGRAPHY 1323 Press Agenting a Real Art BY RALPH T. KETTERING* PRESS-AGENTING is an art! Without a semblance of exaggerated ego I make my cry far and wide that "press agents are born and not made." A man must have a knack for news in order to be a first-class, successful press agent. While the profession of press-agenting is an art, it is still more so a business. To anyone who has devoted his entire life to the study of press-agenting, is apparent more and more the need of pure unadulterated truth. Be honest with your city editor and your drama critic. Treat him as you would your employer. Give him the benefit of your newsgathering propensities. The real press agent knows how-to smuggle an item about his particular star or theater between two others of real news he has picked up on the rialto. And, whatever else you do, don't knock ! I know one chap, who is likeable and a very good press agent, who has lost the friendship of five powerful newspaper men in Chicago through knocking others. "Every knock is a boost." Remember that, you readers, and play the game on the square. I have never belittled anyone in my life and just to show the yuletide spirit within me, all my knockers have my very best wishes for a prosperous New Year. Plain English is another indispensable asset of the successful press agent. Fancy expressions or jawbreaking words mean nothing to the average newspaper reader. Hit him squarely between the eyes with simple, plain statements, without frills or adjectives. Tell him what you are selling and present it in a cheery, tempting way. You know how good pumpkin pie is, served plain. You would not eat it if it had whipped cream and chocolate icing over it. That is superfluous. What you want is just plain old homemade pumpkin pie. So does the newspaper reader. Be brief and simple. "Kettering has a cinch," I have heard a dozen people say. That is because I wear clean collars and buy new shoes for my family regularly. They do not know of the hours spent nightly in the struggle to create real news that the papers will print. And that is no cinch, I can tell you. If a press agent's work were merely the act of writing notices and delivering them to newspapers, you may rest assured that every other man you meet on the street would be a press agent. Lobby displays, cards, billboard 'copy, newspaper ads and advance periodicals are only part of the press agent's duties. He has to wrack his brain continually for a new way of dolling up old dope. In the three years that I have been with Jones, Linick & Schaefer we have played over three thousand different acts, and of that vast number only two furnished my office with photos clean or decent enough to present to a newspaper. They were Winona Winter and Truly Shattuck. And then acts wonder why they don't get their pictures in the paper and their names signed to more contracts. It has been a fight and a struggle to make headway against opposition houses with the material given. I will wager, however, that my friends, Fred Eberts and Harry Singer, who manage the houses I oppose every week in the *Of Jones, Linick & Schaefer, Chicago. papers, will give me credit for fair, square fighting always and more space than I am entitled to most of the time. A" good press agent will create news. Not, however, at the. expense of truth. Personal friendships and companionships have a great deal to do with the success of a resident press agent. Theatrical data at your finger tips and information at all times regarding new productions or acts is a necessity. Be the guiding spirit in your campaign each week. Be enthusiastic! Be simple! Be brief! And above all things, be honest and fearless.. Make up your mind that you are right and then tear into them ! And right now let me take this opportunity to praise the man who encouraged me when opposition was strongest, who gave credit when it was due, pointed error out without bluster and beamed that marvelous smile of his in token of appreciation ; my friend, Aaron J. Jones. I owe much to his guidance and thoughtfulness. And believe me, folks, that motto about knocking goes double with him. I know! FINE ARTS STUDIO GROWING Many New Structures Added to Buildings That House Griffiith Directors and Army of Players, Photographers and Writers The site of the Fine Arts-Triangle studios, 4500 Sunset boulevard, Los Angeles, California, might be termed a veritable city, with the hundreds of people employed there in the production of pictures, and often still active through the night and into the morning under the large Cooper-Hewitt lights in the inside studio. To those who have not had the opportunity of personally inspecting this large plant, some idea of its magnitude may be gleaned from the fact that approximately ten thousand feet of exposed negative film stock emanates from there each week. The producers are on the jump from morning to night, when occasion requires continuing their work in what is technically known as the electric light studio. More than one hundred dressing rooms are required for the large number of players permanently employed, bringing the weekly pay roll up into very high figures. Two large open air stages, in size, one, 60x100 feet and the other 50x100 feet, are used for the staging of interior scenes when the sunlight is available. The electric light studio, a recent addition to the plant, lies adjacent to the largest of open air stages, its dimensions being 60x60, and twenty feet in height. So powerful is the generator of the electric light studio that, when the occasion requires, which is very often the case, five electric light stages can be operated at the same time. The wardrobe and costume department plays no small part in the Griffith plant, for here are stored thousands of costumes in the care of skillful modistes, who are also continually designing new garments for the Griffith players to wear in scenes of feature plays. The property room is almost an entire plant in