Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

DON R. EGBERT, Managing Editor HEW YORK OFFICE: 506 L0N6ACRE BUILDING, Forty-second Street and Broadwa) Telephone Bryant 7030 10S AK6ELES OFFICE: 6035 HOLLYWOOD BLVD. MABEL CONDON, Western Represenlatiia NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Changes of advertising copy should reach the office of publication not less than fifteen days In advance of date of issue. Begular date of issi** every Saturday. THE MOTION PICTURE TRADE JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ELECTRICITY MAGAZINE CORPORATION FRED W. SCHWAMB President and Treasurer PAUL H. WOODRUFF, Secretary and Editor in Chief MONADNOCK BUILDING CHICAGO, ILL. MERRITT CRAWFORD, Managing Director 1476 Broadway, New York Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second Class Mail Matter. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Per Vear $2.00 Canada Foreign Single copy Per year $3.00 Per year 4.00 • .15 NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS Remittances — Remittances should be made by check. New York draft •» money order In favor of Motography. Foreign subscriptions may be remitted direct by International Postal Money Order. Change of Address— The old address should be given as well as the new, and notice should be received two weeks In advance of the desired change. This publication is free and independent of all business or house connections or control. No manu or their stockholders or representatives, have any financial interest in Motography or any voice in facturer or supply dealer, its management or policy. Volume XIX CHICAGO, JUNE 22, 1918 Number 25 Steadying the War Communities A MONG the complexities which involve the indus■'*■ trial side of war, most prominent has been the housing problem of every shipyard town and every munition-making community. The so-called "housing problem" is more than its name implies. It is really a city-building problem. Providing more or less complete dwelling places for a sudden large increase of local population is only the first step. For every thousand workers, which means possibly for every three or four hundred new dwellings, there must be so many new facilities for getting food and clothing and religious worship and entertainment. The Washington Times mentions the sudden disappearance of three thousand workmen from Charlestown, W. Va., because a few days of enforced idleness demonstrated their lack of means of entertainment. The all important community steadying influence was lacking. It is of little avail to provide merely walls and roofs for shelter, or meat and bread for sustenance, for these may be had anywhere. Even men fired by the most intense patriotism cannot labor at one task all of their waking hours. Eight hours sleep will not restore the burned up tissue of sixteen hours work. There must be other recuperative occupations. Of the ten or fifteen thousand or more workers who may be engaged on a single war task in a community strange to them, only a few have the happy faculty of self-entertainment. Because figures are available upon the number of new inhabitants of war supply manufacturing districts, it is a simple matter to calculate the proper provision of entertainment facilities. It is merely a matter of supplying housing for such entertainment in proper proportion to the new population. This project should receive the encouragement and support of the boards responsible for the housing of the workers themselves. The mere fact that new patronage is there is not sufficient, in these times, to attract capital — and capital must be attracted to furnish entertainment. The establishment of a "camp" of fifteen thousand workers and their families means that it is necessary to establish entertainment facilities of fifteen thousand seats at least. The whole entertainment requirement of the situation points so unerringly and exclusively at the motion picture that argument as to the variety of entertainment is quite unnecessary. The well-conducted picture show is the vital steadying influence that makes life in these new communities livable and sufficient. Exhibitors' Advertising in Newspapers A MONG the direct and indirect results of Motog1 *• raphy's inquiry about newspaper treatment of the film business is an editorial in the New Orleans Picayune. After arguing to show that picture exhibition is a daily business, and so dependent upon the daily papers, this light is thrown upon a local event: A case in point is that of the current program at the Strand Theater. A well made motion picture with an accredited star was offered as the feature production and on the same program was a Charlie Chaplin comedy of the new sort. As a matter of fact the Strand clientele demands assurance beyond the mere announcement that Chaplin was to appear in a new comedy to awaken especial interest. The Nazimova picture, "Revelation," is a good picture but outside of the faultless character delineation of the star it is not a picture with "punch" or "thrill" in the usual acceptation of the motion picture vernacular. Nevertheless because of a liberal and persistent newspaper advertising campaign, the Strand program went over big. So big in fact that the management found it to be desirable to continue the showing of the program far beyond the usual time of showing even the most pretentious former programs. It is also a remarkable fact that suburban theaters whose managers properly exploit their pictures are enjoying remarkably fine business and the constant increase is marked. The time is fast approaching when the motion picture theater will avail itself of the logical means of reaching the people who give it support in a manner that is not an insult to the intelligence of those people. The editor of the Picayune appears to think he has made a point against us. As a matter of fact, he is supporting our contention. The newspaper is a logical and essential advertising medium for all picture theatre advertising, because the readers of newspapers are practically all picture fans. That same reason applies just as strongly to the reading pages of the paper, whose effort may reasonably be assumed to aim at the major interests of the public. The industry whose legitimate advertising brings large response is an object of popular interest ; therefore it is the best of all subjects for popular news service. It is a public responsibility of the newspaper to supply motion picture news to its readers. It is a private responsibility of the efficient and ambitious exhibitor to carry a reasonable amount of newspaper advertising:.