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 #:
000363
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
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January 29, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 325 Broadway's Oldest Inhabitant Welcomes the New Movie Record-Breaker Lincoln Said It First /{X VERY little while someone rises to announce in more or less epigrammatic form that the public does not know what it wants. And all of the time someone is making an effort to prove to the public that it wants what it doesn’t want. And all the while the trouble is that the public knows exactly what it wants, but the producers do not realize that the public does know. The public knows, and generally it refuses to accept substitutes, no matter how powerfully these substitutes are urged. Some years ago the critics rose to the last individual to declare “Abie’s Irish Rose” the most atrocious dramatic affront ever offered the public. No one could see why the play should last the week out. You know the answer. Anne Nichols had faith, and the play is still running in New York City. It has broken run records in every city in which it has been played. The public wanted it. It disregarded critical opinion and went. Lately a him production was given notices that were the last word in laudation. And it failed to run more than the week originally assigned. On the strength of its notices it should have had at least a month on Broadway, but the public did not want it, would not take it, and that was all there was to it. Newspaper criticism means nothing. The public decides, and the success or failure of a presentation on stage or screen is largely determined by oral advertising. Intensive advertising may bring out more persons to disseminate their approval, but the most enthusiastic press comment cannot save a play that lacks the public appeal. It’s all very well to talk about “artistic successes” and “box office successes,” but the only real success is the play with human appeal. It may or may not be artistic, but it must be human. This being the case, why not give closer study to audience reaction and the reasons for such reaction, and pay less attention to learned opinions as to what the public should like? Study out what constitutes that human appeal. Inject it into the picture, and whether it be artistic or just box office, it will he a money-maker, and money made means an appreciative and contented public.