Moving Picture World (Sep-Oct 1922)

September 9, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 131 Arrow’s September Plans Ready; Sales Drive Begins The plans for “Arrow Month” —September — have now been perfected and Dr. W. E. Shallenberger, president of the organization, and his associates expect to have the sales drive well under way within the next few days. The first big event of “Arrow Month” will be the premier presentation of “Night Life in Hollywood” at Woods Theatre, Atlantic City, which will be backed up by an extensive advertising and exploitation campaign. Arrow’s department of advertising and exploitation will assist Dave Starkman, manager of Woods Theatre, and it is said to be expected that big results will be achieved. Following the engagement of “Night Life in Hollywood” at Woods Theatre, it will play an equally important engagement at H. C. Horater’s Alhambra Theatre in Toledo, where once again the house management will be assisted by Arrow’s staff of exploiteers. September will also see the beginning of the campaign on the William Fairbanks series, recently acquired by Arrow Film Corporation. The first of this series— “Peaceful Peters” — has been completed by Ben Wilson in his Hollywood studios, and a print is now on the way East. Camera work has begun on the second picture — “The Sheriff of Sun Dog” — under the direction of Lewis King, who also wielded the megaphone for the first production, and who, it is expected, will direct the remainder of the series. A trade paper campaign has been mapped out for the Wiiliam Fairbanks series, which is said to be possessed of strong appeal and which is expected to create great interest in the production. Arrow has also prepared, in conjunction with this campaign, a brochure of exceptional merit, it is said. This brochure, which will be mailed to every independent ex change man in the United States, will be followed up by a novelty mailer and this in turn will be backed up by an extensive campaign of direct sales letters, both to the exhibitor and to the exchange man. Another feature of “Arrow Month” will be marked by the beginning of active production work on “Lost in a Big City,” which, under the direction of George Irving, will represent Blazed Trail’s second important contribution to the Arrow release list. “Lost in a Big City” will be made at Gloversville, New York, and Arrow expects that it will prove as great a box-office attraction as did “Ten Nights in a Barroom,” which was created by the same organization, also for Arrow release. It has the benefit of the same scenarist, L. Case Russell, the same star, John Lowell; and a cast made up of many popular favorites. Buy Series Blumenthal to Bring New Foreign Film Ben Blumenthal, president of the Export & Import Film Company, and also the Hamilton Theatrical Corporation, is now on his way to America after a four months’ stay in Europe. Pola Negri, the famous continental star, is coming over with him to make her first American production for Paramount. Louis Auerbach, of Export & Import, has just received a cablegram from Blumenthal advising him of the purchase for United States, of a super-feature, a print of which he is bringing along. What an exhibitor pays for a picture counts a lot when he sits down to give his opinion, judging from the statements that have poured into this department from the theatre owners. And the criticisms should be viewed from that view. “Go to the Movies” week in Minneapolis and adjacent territory proved a humdinger for State rights exchangemen in that territory. Some recorded the biggest week in the history of the business there. The campaign was cleverly exploited locally and went over strong. Arrow Film Corporation, in pushing “Arrow Month’’ (September), is cooperating with the local exchangemen and getting out a line of accessories that are proving good pullers. Joe Brandt Finds State Right Boom Joe Brandt, president of the C. B. C. Film Sales Corporation, this week completed a trip westward which consumed an entire month, arriving at the West Coast production centre where C. B. C.’s feature and short program releases are being made. Mr. Brandt left the New York office a month ago with the intention of so prolonging his trip westward as to give him an opportunity of stopping over enroute at all the principal cities and discussing there with exchangemen, exhibitors, and other members of the industry, just what the Fall outlook is and what are its real needs. All this with the purpose in view of going through to the Coast and spending sufficient time there to go over in detail with Harry Cohn, in charge of C. B. C.’s entire production forces, the results of his observations and applying them to future production. Mr. Brandt found in almost every city he visited a marked optimism, and, according to word received from him, all branches of the industry — producers, exchangemen, exhibitors, trade paper men— seem to feel that the coming season will be one of the biggest and most successful for some time past. Apparently the tide has turned, he says, to so marked a degree that big plans are afoot for this season, buyers are lining up big independent product — and exhibitors seem to be convinced to a greater degree than ever before that it is to their advantage to leave a sufficient number of open dates for the booking of big independent product. Throughout the Middlewest he reports an ever-present need for tworeel comedies, but adds that standards in these are growing ever higher and that buyers are demanding “class” — good stories, continuity, sets, players with real popularity, and good direction. The day of the comedy “when anything is funny” is definitely past, he says. Buyers convinced him that the same thought must be given to production of comedies and other short releases as to real features. Big independent productions are in demand, he says, and he had proved to him one of the things he set out to substantiate — namely, that melodramas are wanted. In Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, all the cities he visited, in fact, he found that it was the melodramas with titles with a real box-office pull, that were cleaning up— “Ten Nights In a Barroom,” “Why Girls Leave Home,” “Where Is My Wandering^ Boy” and that for this reason interest was high in “More To Be Pitied” and in the other of C. B. C.’s “Six Box Office Winners.” He met the highest praise everywhere for this feature. He also found a great demand for good single reels along novel lines and these, too, must be of a high-class calibre. In fact, the entire tone of the independent field is such, he found, as to warrant the highest optimism, because it is ever more toward the basis that only the best “goes” and for that reason is winning the co-operation of the best exhibitors. He secured several specific hints on production, distribution, and exploitation, and, on the coast is now engaged in using them in a practical way in the production Hallroom Boys Comedies, the popular C. B. C. two-reelers, and on “Only a Shopgirl,” the second of C. B. C.’s feature series. Harry Thomas, of the Thomas Film Company, Washington, D. C., has purchased from East Coast Productions, Inc., the rights of the J. B. Warner series for Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. Abe Warner of Warner Brothers left this week for the Warner studios on the Coast, where he will confer with his brothers, Sam and Jack, relative to production plans for the coming season. Elsewhere in this section appears Warners Brothers’ announcement that they will release 18 productions in 1922-23. ’Changemen Plugging “Sure-Fire Flint” The manner in which C. C. Burr intends exploiting Johnny Hines’ latest, “Sure-Fire Flint,” was disclosed this week when it was announced in the Affiliated offices that all exchanges who had contracted to distribute “Sure-Fire Flint” had arranged to engage special exploitation men. This arrangement of special exploitation experts to devote their time exclusively towards the selling of the picture to the public was specifically agreed to because of the wealth of exploitation possibilities that “Sure-Fire Flint” possesses, and also because of the many novelty tie-ups that Burr is putting out for exhibitor distribution. These include 14-inch Walking Dolls, which bear the imprint: “Ima Walker says take a hint and see Johnny Hines in ‘Sure-Fire Flint;’” feather jacks, which explode when hurled to the ground; specially prepared matches and match-boxes also bearing suitable imprint. A record breaker! That is what they say about Col. Wm. N. Seng’s serial "JUNGLE GODDESS the most sensational wild-animal duced ! Ask these men about it : SAM GRAND Fed. Film Exch., Boston BOBBY NORTH Apollo Exch., New York City TOM BRANNON Eltabran Film Co., Atlanta ■stunt chapter-drama ever pro BOB LYNCH Metro Film Exch., Phila. SOL LESSER All Star Feat. Dis., Calif. GRAND-NORTH EXCH. Buffalo, New York For open territory wire: EXPORT & IMPORT FILM CO., INC. 729 7th Ave., New York City Cable Address: EXIMTO/M, N. Y. 15 Melodramatic Episodes!