Motography (Jul-Sep 1916)

120 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XVI, No. 3. to keep up interest we must cater in a special manner to various tastes. Under the guise of social service there are too many pictures that bump the line. As Mr. Zaring, secretary of our Local, aptly remarked, "Last week I had a vampire every night and we are being vampired, vampired and vampired until we are sick of vampire pictures." Suitable Programs I have no fault to find wirii the programs. I could go into ecstacy over the wonderful programs that are being produced — the beautiful settings, the depth of thought in these exquisite productions of today carry me into words of eloquent approval and so does a musical composition from the best in musical literature but I think the masses like music of melody and rhythm ; music with a swing and a rag ; and so I think also that most people like pictures with joy, hope and variety, and the kind where you go home happy — where everybody got married and lived in joy forever afterwards. I hold that pictures are moral and that they have, increased every year in moral tone and aesthetic quality. But I believe we are overreaching in the motion picture art to some extent; that the art of producicng and presentation is catering only to those who appreciate and care for only the highest form of art, thought and expression. We should be able to know what kind of audience the picture will suit and when our publicity men have a picture that is especially suitable for churchgoing people let them say so, and we will have a big night of church people in our theater. When a picture has a lot of love and romance, say so, and the romantic will come to our romantic appeal. If the picture is a vampire picture or a picture with a deep meaning, if we know it beforehand we can say so to our patrons and they will respect us more accordingly. A few years ago the merchants of Indianapolis were advertising big sales every day. It was "Big Sale" and "Big Sale" until finally the public found that "Big Sale" meant nothing. The merchants were finally compelled to take the matter up in organization. They agreed as a whole not to advertise anything but the plain truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now when there is a sale it always amounts to something because this organization has educated Indianapolis to know that when their initials are on the corner of an advertisement that the sale is a real, guaranteed, absolute sale. Don't Give an Overdose of Show This business is no different from any other business if we will only just apply a little business sense. Yesterday I talked to a young lady and she asked why the most beautiful house in Indianapolis had gone into the hands of a receiver last week. This house was filled with perfumery, and flowers, ornamentation and presentation. A symphony orchestra of 25 people synchronized with the picture. Without answering I asked her, "Did you patronize the show?" She replied, "Well, I tell you, Mr. Rembusch, I did go to the show once in a while but I couldn't go often because it took all evening and I never could get home before eleven o'clock. It was so long that it tired me out." Even though I have a show two doors from this house as a competitor I say truly I am sorry that they didn't make good. "My little show is rambling right along." They were there about 7 months, I have been there about 7 years. The lady further remarked, "Many times in the past I would go across the street during the noon hour to the Orpheum and pay a dime and see one or two reels but I had to give that up. You see I get in and only see about two reels of a five reel subject and have to leave before I find out what it was all about so as a consequence I don't go at all." We are losing that class of people who in former years came for fifteen or thirty minutes recreation because we haven't any fifteen or thirty minute program that is suitable and when we lose customers of any kind it hurts and it is hurting now. You Are Needed at the Chicago Convention Mr. Exhibitor, the Chicago convention is before you. It is a business meeting of the motion picture industry. Now, in every other line of business — whether they are bankers, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers or undertakers — they get together and talk these things over heart to heart. You have an opportunity to do this in Chicago. If you leave only a few of us go the way we have been in past years there won't be anything done, but if you will come to Chicago in numbers and in earnest the results will be worth more to you than many weeks of worrying at home. Our troubles are not local troubles. They are national troubles. We must get a national vision, a national focus on the situation. Whether you are a member of the League or not, be there and stay there every day. I know that Chicago is trying to make this the most complete, the most helpful, the most earnest business meeting of the entire industry that has ever taken place and you owe it to them and to yourself and to the whole industry to be there. Get that suit case ready nozu, right now. Exhibitors to Hold Outing Exhibitors in the Northeastern Ohio Motion Picture Exhibitors' League are going to take a day off during the month of July, leave work and worry behind and be boys again. George W. Heinbuch of the Superior Theater, is chairman of a committee which is arranging for a jolly outing in the country. Other members of the committee are S. F. Deutsch and S. H. Barck. The operators' union is to be invited to take part in the affair when it comes off. Theater Has Usher Drill Corps The drill corps of the Rialto theater. New York, consisting of 16 of the ushers of that theater, who have been trained in military evolutions, has notified Managing Director S. L. Rothapfel of its intention to enlist as a unit in event of actual hostilities in Mexico. They were assured that their salaries would be paid by the corporation during their absence. Manager Quimby of the Pathe Seattle office gave a private showing of "The Ascent of Mt. Rainer," a Pathe scenic, before the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club of Tacoma, recently, and these town bodies were so much interested in the picture that they sent circular letters to all the Chambers of Commerce and Rotary Clubs throughout the United States, calling their attention to the scenic. The Rothacker Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago is now reeling in pictures of the Roundup being held in Kildeer, North Dakota. The concern also has a crew among the Black Feet Indians making a three-reeler featuring Custer's last stand. This crew will then proceed to capture the scenerj of Rocky Mountain National Park. A third Rothacker crew is making special films to illustrate road making for a Delaware firm.