Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

Record Details:

Title:
Moving Picture World
Date:
Jan-Feb 1927
Publisher:
New York, Chalmers Publishing Company
Volume:
Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)
Leaf #:
000286
Language:
English
Collection:
Early Cinema and Hollywood Studio System
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
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250 MOVING PICTURE WORLD January 22, 1927 JJ hat A Long Run On the Big La?ie Means to the Bor n": A scene from the Fox production J “ Summer Bachelors,” showing a section of the skyline of Manhattan. Broadway < , . ■ i; . o' By CHARLES EDWARD HASTINGS HE BOX OFFICE VALUE of “long run” Broadway specials and superproductions, road shows' and key city runs, to the ultimate exhibitors is discussed, here, by some of the best showmen in the business, at a period in the history of motion pictures when more “long runs” than ever are holding down the screens in Broadway theatres. “The Big Parade” this week sets a new record for Broadway. With sixty-two weeks chalked up, and with upwards of $1,250,000 take in at the Astor Theatre, this King Vidor production for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer carries on, indefinitely. A remarkable advertising campaign has accompanied not only the New York showing, but also the road shows. This is true of “Ben-Hur,” and all other Broadway run pictures. The almost unbroken chain of long run pictures on Broadway, from “The Birth of a Nation,” the D. W. Griffith opus that ushered in the higher price era, down to the present time, clearly indicates, experts assert, the value of Broadway runs In building up business outside the Metropolis on any “big” picture. Pictures that have merited these prolonged showings, and have stood up under all governing conditions, show added profits, the experts assert, to the ultimate theatre owners booking them. Showmen in the motion picture field, deviating not at all from the facts upon which legitimate showmen operated in the past, and still operate today, look to the New York City success, and its attendant publicity, to enhance the value of the show in other cities. The big Broadway successes in the legitimate theatre, whether musical comedy, plays like “Lightnin’,” “Abie’s Irish Rose,” etc., Jack Gilbert and Renee Adoree in “The Big Ramon Novarro as “Ben Hur” for John Barrymore and Mary Astor in “Don Parade” for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (Left) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Juan” for Warner Brothers. (Right) Ivan Moskin and Natalie Kovenko in “Michael Strogoff” for Universal Film de France. Sid Chaplin in “The Better ’Ole” for Warner Brothers eats a “dog.”