Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1927)

December 17, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 43 Boosting Business Through L ibrary Cooperation A practical help to exhibitors who appreciate the value of Libraries aid By Ina Brevoort Roberts HOW TO CONNECT WE will suppose that a film has been approved for co-operation by a public library. What can now be done and what is the way to go about it? Cooperation may take any or all of the following forms : showcase or bulletin board exhibits, book displays with posters and stills, bookmarks, lists of books on programs, lobby signs, screen slides. Exhibitors should visit libraries more in order to learn the differences between the various kinds of co-operation, the numerous angles that render cooperation possible or impossible and the importance of stills, the right stills, the ones that connect the picture with its books. Details Of Cooperation It is first necessary to discover what kind ot books connect with each particular film. It is these various kinds of books that make the differences between library and bookshop cooperation. The books that the film helps the librar) to circulate are not the same books, as a rule, that the film can help the bookshop to sell. Of course there are exceptions to this rule but in the main, library and bookshop cooperation are not competitive but rather supplement each other. Shop Window Displays The library tieup on a film, once worked out by the library, offers to the exhibitor various opportunities of carrying out the same ideas in other places. For instance, the exhibitor can, if he chooses, engage the interest of women’s clubs with literary, travel, drama or film aims to see the films featured by library cooperation and I follow this with courses of reading or study of the book connections. It may take a little time and thought to get this plan started, but once begun, it will grow like a rolled snow-ball. SHORT SUBJECTS HE short subject is a matter of exasperaJ tion and hope to the publicity representative of the library, exasperation, because library cooperation with short subjects is rarely accomplished although short films offer far greater possibilities in the way of cooperation than the longer ones; hope, because the difficulties in the way of this cooperation could so easily be removed. 1 These obstacles are three — • lack of stills, the fact that short subjects are not advertised, the I fact that they are too seldom shown in series. The greatest possibilities lie with the travel ifilms. At present these seem to be shown hit or miss to fill an empty space in the program. 1] A CYCLORAMA STYLE BANNER FOR THE GARDEN OF ALLAH J. A. Levy, of the Colonial theatre, Richmond, used a 30 by 7 foot painting by by F. E. Crosby as, backing for a desert scene with two tons of sand and palms, tents, cutouts and lettering. The foyer was open for inspection Sunday prior to the showing. There are no stills, no advertising to attract the public attention ; they are booked at the last moment to fill up, consequently there is not time for libraries to arrange exhibits. But suppose your exhibitor booked his travel films in series and took his patrons on real tours via the orchestra chair route, advertising his tours as the travel companies advertise theirs and transforming his theatre as far as possible to a bit of the country whose beauties he is for the week showing on his screen. He can decorate in the colors of the country, he can invite its consul to be his guest, he can arrange his musical program from the music of the composers of that country ; he can have in effect as well as in name “A Night in Spain,” or “A Tour Through Italy,” or “A Fortnight in England” and send his audience home with the sense of having really been to the country featured and not merely of having looked at some feet of travel film “cold,” without any trimmings, any atmosphere. Years ago, when the play from which the opera “Madam Butterfly” was made was given on the vaudeville stage, the performance was preceded by the showing of a series of Japanese views. This was a Belasco device to get the audience into the atmosphere of the play before it should begin. Much the same desire should actuate the exhibitor showing travel films. Arlo Bates, a writer, in a book written about the mechanics and the art of writing says : “A word denotes what it says ; it connotes what it suggests.” In the same way a travel film, shown cold, shows you what a place is like ; with the proper surroundings and music, the “Atmosphere,” the film takes you there. That is the difference. Enough films are made of animal and plant life to arouse in the mind of the general public a real human interest in these forms of life. Insects, for instance, are interesting if you understand them, but who can ever become really interested in the insect world by seeing an occasional film dealing with the life of the bee or the habits of the fly. A series of such films would enable the spectators to personalize the tiny actors. And films of plant life, especially those showing the actual growing by the slow-motion process. Why not give audiences the opportunity to observe in series the flora of a country or a section of country? With such a series as I have described above libraries should certainly be delighted to cooperate. THIS department will, from week to week, endeavor to help both exhibitors and libraries to establish, maintain and improve film co-operation. Inquiries will be answered on this page or, when this is not possible, by mail, if a stamped, addressed envelope is enclosed. Send your problems to Mr. Roberts I