Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

January 29, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 367 Pathe Comer Cuts Dominate These Entire Spaces Makes Corner Cut the Basis of His Display While corner cuts, such as are supplied for exploitation of comedy subjects, are supposed to augment the main display, it sometimes happens that the illustration is used to put over the entire display. Here is a two eights from the Kansas theatre, Kansas City, in which a Pathe corner cut on a Hal Roach comedy is the only pictorial attractor. PLAYING UP COMEDY Meighan in The New Klondike, is dismissed with type, and an equal space is given to Lionel Barrymore in Wife Tamers with the cut supplied on that title. Possibly there was a missing delivery on the Paramount subject, or it may have been that the house prefers to play up the comedy. For small spaces these corner cuts are admirable and their use is growing. Probably during Laugh Month their use wiil be stressed. It would be a good plan to continue them throughout the season where, the space permits. They give a touch of humor that emphasizes the comedy, and comedy sells even where the main feature is a drama. Ample Space Carries Very Little Talking This is only the upper portion of the display from Loew’s theatre, Newark, and yet it carries four tens for the feature and three or four inches more for the vaudeville. Some managers might regard that as a dreadful waste of space since there is so little type employed, but it makes an exceptionally striking display chiefly because there is so little in the way of talk. Over on the left is a fifty word selling talk that makes for real interest and the further appeal that the picture is direct from the New York Capitol. The rest is merely selling through the appeal the story of the stage always carries. J * Frank _ Tcdd> l Alla/u?ee and Orcbcslra 1 * LARGE BUT BRIEF It is much better selling than to take the same space and load it down with a mass of argument that would not influence the sale of a single additional ticket and which might cost some of the sales made through this brief but sufficient appeal. This is an unusual layout, but a decidedly good one where the cost of space is not prohibitive. Mortises a Reverse For the Small Lines Here is an example of a reverse in which the money is not thrown away through an effort to bring eight point lines up through a black space. It is from the Aldine theatre, Pittsburgh. The M-G-M line in the WEEK OF CONTINUOUS 11A.M. to 11 *M. DELUXE SHOWS L30 330 7 C' 9. RM. LARGE LETTERED REVERSE turret is almost lost and there is a ten point “starring” just above Gilbert’s name that sinks in, but the rest is brought out in type and the reverse lines are large enough to come through. The black serves to suggest a castle wall, which helps to give the color of the play, but the important lines are mostly in type, which assures their getting over. Even the panel for the stage show is lined to suggest an embrasure in the wall to hold it in keeping with the top, and the result is much better than might be expected from a device which generally should be held to magazine pages( where black ink and careful presswork assure a clean impression. Does Effective Work In a Limited Space Taking only 75 lines, or about a three five and a halfs, the Rialto theatre, Washington, D. C., puts over The Old Soak both in pictures and text with a maximum of efficiency. FOR THE OLD SOAK The main character is sold in picture with a clear line cut, while romance is suggested by the man and woman on opposite sides of the space. The panel in the upper right hand character does the type selling very adequately through a six line bank telling who the old soak is without trying to tell too much. The lower part of the space is taken for the smaller features, the entire program being listed. It is a nice handling of a number of items, each of which is made to appear important. Gets Better Space With Type Faces Loew’s Aldine Theatre, Pittsburgh, has been doing excellent work of late using more type and designing the layout to get better display through contrasts. It still uses lettering where type would be better, as witness the star names in this example for The Temptress, but these are well lettered, though a little more space between the lines would have been advantagous. The Aldine spaces are benefiting from the use of white space, and give a strong splash as you turn over the pages of the theatrical section. The space is by no means the largest on the page, (though a three tens is nothing small when you come to pay the space