Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1923)

November 24, 1923 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 393 Eight Page Special Was for Main Street Production Hints from Edward L. Hyman Managing Director, Mark-Strand Theatre, Brooklyn Getting a double truck on Main Street is so common as no longer to attract attention, but L. J. Carkey, exploitation agent for the Schine theatres in Upper New York State, horns into the news with a stunt commanding respectful attention. SPECIAL J*MAIN STREET” SECTION INTERESTS OF THE 7H£ATW£-COINC PUBLIC Cf FULTON COWTY EX(XU5IVE1T FROM THE FAMO US NOVEL By SINCLAIR LEWIS Consisting of the Biggest and Most Popular Cast of Screen FLORENCE VtflOR and MONTE BLUE, Who Are Sspported Plsyers E»er Assembled For » Motion Picture. Headed by 'by Hoah Berry, Harry Meyera,' Lenin frandi, «d Othen THE MARVELOUS PICTURE L||PPfinDf^|U| F TODAY-— • PLAYING AtThe n I ■ ■ w U Bi w Iwl ^ tomorrowud Friday Famoai Gephrr Faririt Torn Wu B*;tl U Lh Anftlfi A Warner Brothers Release THE MAIN HEADING Hooking in as usual to the local Main street, he tied the paper to a special Main Street Section of eight pages, chiefly devoted to merchants doing business on that thoroughfare, but carrying some other advertising and general news as well as special stories for the feature, but the newspaper gave the entire front page of this section to the Warner feature, and Carkey was satisfied with that, being no hog. Who is going to “see” Carkey’s eight and raise it to a sixteen? Balloon Banner Is Effective Novelty Joel Levy, of the Capitol Theatre, Reading, Pa., worked something different when he had Penrod and Sam. He provided a light cloth banner with the name of the attraction and the house, and tied this to a couple of gas balloons. Waiting for a light wind, he released it and watched it go floating down Main street. That was all there was to the idea as it was originally planned, but Fate took a hand and played billposter. A cross current at the local four corners slammed it up against the cornice of a hotel, and it was two days before they took it down. Meanwhile the legend was clearly displayed to all who BECAUSE If Winter Comes is too long to permit a varied program, only an atmospheric prologue could be used in conjunction with this Fox release. For this reason the prologue was made more elaborate than usual to combine the elements of music, tableau and setting that the patrons of the Mark-Strand have been led to expect. _ • At the opening a tenor in smoking jacket was disclosed seated in a library chair before a glowing fireplace, center stage. The fireplace was backed up by a deep blue plush cyclorama, and directly above the fireplace was a transparency picture frame ten feet deep by eighteen feet across. This, at opening, was dark, attention being drawn to the tenor by a lighted floor lamp which stood beside the chair and by an orange spot from the side and two orange spots from the embers of the fire. The tenor sang the first verse and chorus of the song, “If Winter Comes,” and as he finished lights came up in the big picture frame showing a winter scene, with four drapery-clad girls as the spirit of winter. An electric fan furnished the wind, and a snow bag overhead showered down the paper snow as the girls went through various poses to the accompaniment of a few bars of “Holy Night.” As this dimmed out the Mark Strand Chorus off stage went through the refrain, the tenor dozing in his chair. Then a soprano off stage went through the verse, and the lights again came up in the picture frame, showing the four girls in a summer scene, with a profusion of blossoms. The orchestra accompaniment for these poses and tableau was Mendelssohn’s Spring Song. At the close the first scenes of the picture were projected, showing winter and summer landscapes similar to the atmospheric presentation. Two back drops were needed in the big picture frame, the first being a winter landscape and the second one of spring. The change was made, as described above, while the chorus and soprano went through the song. Front lighting was a combination of deep blue, purple and green, from Mestrum floods and foots, these being up through the presentation and until the film went on the screen. At appropriate places during the running of the picture, the chorus off stage sang the theme-song, each time in a different way to avoid monotony of repetition. At the final clinch of the story the chorus swelled its collective tones to a mighty crescendo, the final note ending exactly as the title, "The End,” flashed on the screen. This effect was good for applause at every de luxe performance. cared to read while they ran. They could read it and walk, for that matter. And of course Levy ran a hook-up with the Penrod clothes. It’s a business maker, if you avoid the lottery feature in awarding the suit. The best way is to make it a voting contest, or offer it as a prize in a composition or impersonation contest. You may get away with a lottery, but you can’t ever tell when some post office inspector will happen along and just utterly ruin your day for you. Play it straight. Here ’s Another Now it’s the Criterion Theatre, Oklahoma City, which got a double truck on If Winter Comes, with seventeen merchants telling how useful their wares will be If Winter Comes. Just to be different, we are going to switch and report only those instances wherein a theatre did not get a hook-up. Wore It When the “original” gown worn by Norma Talmadge in Ashes of Vengeance was loaned Julius Hopp, of the Forst Armstrong Theatre, Rock Island, 111., he put it in a store window where it could walk around and show itself off. The motive power was supplied by a girl model inside the dress. It got much more attention. Copied Over in Philadelphia the Bulletin gave Potash and Perlmutter such a corking good notice that the Stanley theatre made it the copy for a larger than usual third day advertisement in all the papers. The notice was doubly valuable because the Bulletin does not rave over amusements, and the opinion of its critic carried additional weight. A Metro Release TALK ABOUT YOUR LONG, LOW RAKISH CRAFTS! OLD CAP I. KIDD NEVER HAD ONE LIKE THIS This piratical pulIman was constructed by Howard Price Kingsmore, of the Howard Theatre, Atlanta, for Strangers of the Night, and was sailed up and down Peachtree street and held up the trolley cars. Just above the cornice you will see the lower edge of a pictorial banner. This was used in the foyer the week before, as shown in the second illustration.