Moving Picture World (May 1919)

650 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD May 3, 1919 publicity departments of manufacturers and distributors for the benefit of showmen who "play" the pictures specifically referred to. Many of the departments are explicit in their designation. In other pages we print "interviews" that, at first glance, may not seem to be anything but "personal publicity." But a moment's thought will give the lead to live wire exhibitors — will carry those interviews into the local papers to center attraction on the particular star or attraction at the time the individual showman is offering to the public the picture which ,the interview concerns. All that needs be done is to insert the name of the theatre and playing date of the attraction, add "credit" at the end of the article to Moving Picture World and your newspaper has an article especially written to exploit, for the benefit of our exhibitor-subscribers, the attraction that is booked to sell tickets. Our paper is full of "publicity." The exhibitor who combines thought and action can keep his local newspapers supplied with all the "reading notices" they need print to give theatres a proper showing. By using this publicity to accompany the advertising paid for by the picture showmen our subscribers can get the price of their subscription returned to them every week. By applying the pages of Moving Picture World to the exploitation of his theatre and attractions picture showmen will discover that their investment in a subscription is value returned and multiplied over and over again. Film Conventions Increase Efficiency CAPTAINS of the film industry follow the lead of other great commercial institutions in holding conventions of their sales forces — and they do well. Meeting their fellow-workers face to face makes for a better understanding throughout the time that shall ensue until they meet again. Letter-writing is the only long-distance expression we have for real personal characteristics. We may think we know a man by his letter — but we are sure we know him better when we meet face to face. Two prominent distributing concerns assembled their sales forces in New York for Easter week. The First National, being more grounded on co-operative lines than Select, also convened as franchise holders. The "big guns" of both organizations enjoyed the great advantage of having their many sales managers all together in one room, where they could talk over the affairs of their organization with mutual authority and receptiveness. So firmly do First National's sales heads believe in the convention idea that they resolved, as a body, to pay their own way to New York next year, if needs be. that they may get together at least once a year for the co-operative "boost." No doubt every exchange manager throughout the country would benefit himself and increase his efficiency if he might meet his coworkers all in a bunch at least once a year. The more conventions the better for the industry as a whole. California Doing Its Share of Theatre Building TllT^ theatre building boom has struck California. Word just received from San Francisco tells of several houses being planned for the downtown district, one of these to be at Eddy and Mason streets, with an entrance on Market street. Other large theatres are slated for Santa Cruz, San Rafael, Merced. Tulare, Porterville, Pittsburgh and Turlock. Honolulu is to have a $150,000 house. Little San Rafael, a town across the bay from San Francisco, will have a structure costing $125,000. Its lessees will be Max Blumenfeld and Sam Gordon, the latter one of the pioneer exhibitors of the Bay City. The Tulare house will be in the form of a municipal auditorium, for which the residents have voted bonds to the amount of $60,000. Down in Santa Barbara, E. A. Johnson is building a theatre costing $80,000 and seating over 1,000. There will also be a pipe organ costing $30,000. Statistics compiled in Washington show that the building record for the country for last March is the best since 1911, with the exception, of course, of last year, when the total was high owing to excessive Government construction. It is estimated that of projects contemplated at the time of the signing of the armistice and involving an expenditure of nearly two billions, probably one-half are yet to be started. Upward Business Trend IRREFUTABLE proof that the motion picture business right now is on the threshold of its most prosperous period is contained in ParamountArtcraft's analysis of box-ofiice values, the chart of which appears on another page of this issue. The diagram gives facts and figures which cannot lie — and in this particular case what applies to Paramount and Artcraft pictures applies to all pictures. The chart's line sags with the period of the winter of 1918; it curves down when the draft comes along. It follows the country's economic and sentimental convulsions accurately. And since the armistice was signed the line has been climbing steadily upward. Coupled with the fact that the present finds more theatres being built than ever before, this upward tread of business augurs that we may look for big things. As a film man said to us : "The country just now is amusement crazy. Why, it's almost impossible to get a ticket for the circus in New York now — even on a school day !" The country is enjoying a reaction from its war worries and, just as during the dark period the people of America were whole-hearted in their worries, so now are they whole-hearted in seeking amusement. Fox Strikes Human Chord WILLIAM FOX'S announcement that his organization is going to use the battlefields of France for backgrounds of modern dramas is of interest to more than the motion picture industry. Some two millions of our men were "Over There," but the hearts of many more than two million were there for a long time — and many hearts are still there, although the flesh is here. Mr. Fox proves himself a master psychologist with this move. It is a known fact that Verdun, Chateau-Thierry, the Argonne, the Hindenburg Line will remain shell-torn stretches for a long time, and in using the screen as a method of carrying the millions to the scenes that are burned into their being, the producer will strike a human chord. When Rights to Play Include Film Rights THE United States Court of Appeals has decided that in the absence of a specific reservation in a contract between a playwright and a producer, the screen rights to a stage subject pass to the producer. The decision affected the photoplay rights to the popular "Peg o' My Heart." and was against J. Hartley Manners and in favor of Oliver Morosco. There was a dissenting opinion, and the case mav be carried to the L^nited States Supreme Court.