Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1923)

Record Details:

Title:
Moving Picture World
Date:
Nov-Dec 1923
Publisher:
New York, Chalmers Publishing Company
Volume:
Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1923)
Leaf #:
000446
Language:
English
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System and Early Cinema
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Moving Picture World, founded in 1907 by J.P. Chalmers, was one of the motion picture industry's first trade papers. Published on a weekly basis in New York City, Moving Picture World informed exhibitors about films available for rental and editorialized on behalf of the growing industry (improving the quality of movies through higher filmmaking standards, not government censorship, was a frequent topic). The paper reached its height in the mid-to-late-1910s--a fact reflected in the circulation figures and the huge amount of advertising that filled every issue during the period. In the 1920s, Moving Picture World lost ground to other competing weekly trade papers -- including Variety, Exhibitor's Herald, and Motion Picture News. In 1927, Moving Picture World ceased publication when it was acquired by Martin Quigley's Exhibitor's Herald. Across the 20 year run of Moving Picture World, readers can watch the transition from short film programs to feature films and witness the transition from the dominance of Edison's Trust to the rise of the "Independent" film companies that ultimately became the Hollywood studios. Silent film historians have utilized and cited Moving Picture World more frequently than any other trade paper, and the publication still has many insights left to offer. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012/2013
Date Added:
September 21, 2023
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

360 MOVING PICTURE WORLD November 24, 1923 “Panic” is too harsh a word, but something approaching mild alarm is in the air. And here’s a strange condition: Our shelves are over-stocked with product. The logical and necessary remedy is more selling, better selling. Synonymous with: More advertising, better advertising. But what is happening? The first move: “Let’s close down the factories.” The second step: “Let’s cut down the trade paper advertising.” Can you beat it? Well, here’s a stranger thing: “Don’t touch the national advertising. That must be kept up in full force.” * * * Let’s analyze: The most prosperous years ALL BRANCHES of this industry have ever known were 1917 and 1918 — when trade paper advertising reached its greatest heights. When national advertising was a seldom-tried experiment. In the last two years national advertising has been given a one hundred per cent, trial. Nothing has been stinted; in brains; or in money. Fine copy has been seen; consistent space has been used; appropriations have climbed to the six figure mark. National advertising, we have been told, creates consumer demand, retail interest— AND MOVES THE GOODS. BUT THE GOODS HAVENT MOVED. And we have had to shut the factories down. * * * In these same years trade paper advertising has been an orphan step-child. “Use just enough to get the publicity by and to let the salesmen know that we are still in business.” That has been the policy. AND THE GOODS HAVE FAILED TO MOVE! Think it over — a long, long time. Get away from the spell of the rounded phrase, the impressive statistics, get away to this thought: In any business where the retailer can handle only ONE MANUFACTURER’S PRODUCT AT A TIME your chief problem is to sell the retailer ! And think over this: I defy any mam to spend seven thousand five hundred dollars IN ONE WEEK on trade paper advertising for a single picture and not find his goods moving from the shelves. I know of a lot of seventy-five hundred dollau* pages that haven’t disturbed a speck of dust on the shelves. Think it over.