The Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1913)

156 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD With most unfavorable weather conditions, our house was taxed to capacity on the last evening for both shows (we seat 1,000), and the business throughout the contest was more than a hundred per cent, increase. Many, of course, did not register their guesses, but of over a thousand registered, but two guessed all correctly, and the largest percentage of error was upon perhaps the two best known subjects •hown. A large number guessed all but one or two, many being as easy to identify as if front views had been taken. We were more than pleased with the result of this contest, and have in mind the production of another similar, and yet much different, one in the near future. In cities where everybody knows everybody else and everybody's business we believe this character of a contest will always win. More Argument. Here are some figures that may be changed to suit local conditions and drive home the argument that nothing is cheap but the price. It comes from A. R. Lawrence, of the Bijou tneater, Edmonton, Canada, and each leaflet, distributed through the mails, carried with it a strip of several frames of the Coronation of King George V. THOUGHTS FOR 1913 $5,000,000 Expenditure on your part would not produce and manufacture the kinematograph films to be shown at the Edmonton theaters during 1913. $1,000,000 Would not purchase the real estate and property occupied by the kinematograph theaters of Edmonton. $100,000 Will not pay the salaries of those employed at the kinematograph theaters of Edmonton during 1913. $40,000 Represents in part the amount to be paid by the kinematograph theater managers for the use of films to be shown in Edmonton during 1913. $7,000 Will hardly be sufficient to pay the electric light bills of the kinematograph theaters for 1913, besides licenses, water, telephone rates, taxes, etc., to the city. $1,000 Is a drop in the bucket for the advertising expenses of the kinematograph theaters to get you and others to attend. K. $250 Will not pay the printers for the tickets used for ad mission to the Edmonton kinematograph theaters. These are but a few of the financial items to be considered. BUT xo Cents Will purchase your admission to the original, pioneer "Moving Picture" theater of this city, "The Bijou" XT on McDougall Avenue, opposite Post Office. There might be some "just as good" but there are none better to give you the worth of your money. 'Nuf ced. Matinee every afternoon, 2:30 to 5. THE PIECE OF FILM enclosed is a portion of the "Coronation of King George V" pictures which were shown at the Bijou at the time. More Money Dodges. The Rex Amusement Company, of Marysville, Kans., has also been distributing money, taking advantage of the new five-cent pieces which have the relief of a buffalo on one side to give a Bison souvenir. C. R. Blazier, the manager, writes: I secured an all-Bison program for one night and advertised it big for a week as a Bison Souvenir Night. I put Bison all over the place and then raised the price from five and ten cents to ten and fifteen cents. With each admission I gave the souvenir, a 1913 nickel with the Bison. The response was so great that I ran out of my supply of nickels before the second show was hardly begun, though I had laid in a supply I thought sufficient to meet all needs. I secured the nickels from the bank. The idea was effective, without expense, and made more talk than I anticipated. There are a lot of good angles to this idea. In the first place everyone is anxious to be one of the first to obtain one of the new coins. Not knowing that this wa3 to be the souvenir, the surprise added to the attraction and at the same time a mild but pleasant sense of "sting" increased the laugh. For the increased admission a full return was given in money. No one was out and everyone went out talking of the cleverness of the manager. The whole town probably knew the next day what those Bison souvenirs were, and commented on the effectiveness of the idea. It is odd that none of the large town managers thought of this idea, though several have reported that they gave out new coins in change, following the lead ol the United Cigar Stores in the towns covered by that organization. Speaking of Souvenirs. And speaking of souvenirs, we have had good reports of the Good Luck banks advertised several times in the pages of this paper. It is a small nickled affair in the shape of a horseshoe that opens automatically when the tenth dime is dropped in. They can be had with the name and address of the theater stamped on the back for five cents each or less, according to the quantity ordered and they make novel and effective souvenirs, particularly in the houses where coupon books are sold. One house used them without special stamping and tied to the ring of each a card that read: When this opens with the tenth dime, use the dollar for a COUPON BOOK OF 24 TICKETS to the UNIQUE THEATER. It Is something that appeals to child and adult alike and to all classes of ons. Better still, it completely fills the demand for something that will retained as a permanent advertisement. Up To Its Standard. The U-Kum Theater, Toronto, sends in some paper that proves up to the high standard of this house. We are particularly interested in a sixpage folder advertising "Shylock" and "It's Never Too Late to Mend" and giving a sound argument on the fire scare. The best line reads, "It now remains to have a Board of Censors appointed to examine the heads of the men who supply the nonsense to the dailies relative to the picture shows." It's not the film or the fire that makes the panic, but the fools in the audience and the argument soundly states that "the safest place in a panic is the seat you're sitting in." George D. Perry, who runs the house, has the trick of wording his advertising attractively and then getting a good typographical display. The best appeal can be killed by poor display. The copy and the printing must be equally good or the full effect is lost. He seems to favor a single sheet of heavy cream paper, almost a yellow, with the title in very bold-faced type, the name of the house and date in a lighter line. Whatever the display the title, the U-Kum and Tonight are the three lines that stand out above all the rest and catch the eye in that order. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred this is the only proper relation. The hundredth time there is something in the copy that is really more important than the title. Fjr one of the Selig animal plays, for example, "Another Great Lion Play," would be a better display line than the title of the story, which would not convey as much of the idea. Above all, the stuff is not only well displayed in the arrangement of type, but it is well and cleanly printed. It looks at first glance like the printing of a regular theater and not like the slop job of some "dump." It represents the house properly. More Cameraphone Ideas. The Cameraphone (Pittsburgh) Bulletins offer prizes of books of tickets for the children doing the best composition on "Shylock," recently shown in their houses and have James Morrison and Tom Powers to follow Francis X. Bushman around their circuit. A new wrinkle of the Bellevue house is a write-up column for the local advertisers that probably is as eagerly read as some of the film stuff. Those bulletins will yet merge into a weekly magazine, with all that implies. They have the newspaper sense (though now and then they slip up on cuts) and they get out a readable publication that could be made to show a profit other than in the business brought the house. Keeps to Himself. J. A. Dundas, of the Julian Theater, Chamberlain, S. D., sends one of his weekly programs and adds: Have had several chances to put the local merchants' advertising in it, but concluded that I wanted to keep it entirely for myself. To my notion this gives the patrons the feeling that the program is gotten up for them and not for profit. We do not agree with Mr. Dundas, as we have repeatedly said. It seems to us that if the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, can get a five figure price for its program privilege, that the photoplay houses can break even on their programs without loss of dignity or effect. We believe that the advertising of local or national advertisers gives the bouse a certain standing, a certain guarantee. There is prestige behind the use of advertising that counts. Amusement seekers are so used to advertising in programs that they are more apt to be impressed by its absence than its use. The Julian program is on cheap news paper, the sort used in printing a daily. Good presswork cannot be had on such a stock and the result is a skimpy four-page folder 4^ x 9 inches that certainly does not impress one as much as N. E. Chaney's handsome program that pays him a slight profit, gives him five or six times the space at Mr. Dundas* command and carries a lithographed cover, yet Mr. Chaney is in a small town, probably no larger than Chamberlain. We do not believe that Mr. Chaney's patrons remark the use of the foreign advertising and they most assuredly do remark the handsome cover and the good printing on book paper. Spread It Out. But even with the program he is using we believe that Mr. Dundas could do vastly more than he is doing. On the front is merely P The Julian. ERFECT R0JECTI0N LEASES EOPLE Always the Best in Motion Pictures. On the back page are seven lines one-third the width of the page is ran tail statement: WE always aim to arrange our program with our exchanges from our library of film stories. We will be glad to get any that you may wish to see. That is all the use that is made of the program other than the three change program on the two inside pages running from two to fifteen lines each subject. Even where there is no competition the management should prepare for the inevitable advent of an opposing house by implanting the Julian idea in the minds of its patrons. Much that is printed in this department may be copied with profit. Much in the other pages of this paper can be adapted with profit. It is apparent that Mr. Dundas not only does not believe in advertising other concerns, but draws the line at advertising even his own business, though that is what a program is for. The program descriptions are well worded and apparently are original with the house, but that's all the more reason why other matter should be written; not about the particular subjects to be shown but the goodness of pictures in general, the comforts of the theater, the excellence of its offerings and anything else that will help to make new fans and keep the old.