Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1927)

MOVING PICTURE WORLD 4« Orchestraphone (Continued from page 44) an orchestra, its operator at the console watches the screeming and by the interchange of records and transposition from one record to the other, conducts the presentation of the scores in the same manner as the musical director functions in the orchestra pit. Simplicity in operation is an outstanding characteristic of the entire device. Like all loud-speaking contrivances that have been developed for use in the cinema field, its basic principle is radio amplification. With pickup and modulator its tones are transmitted to loudspeaking horns placed at most advantageous positions in the auditorium, concealed behind the organ grills or in the orchestra pit as desired. COSTUMES Rented for Orchestras and Presentations Send for Orchestra Catalog and Prices NEW YORK COSTUME CO. 137 No. Wabash Ave. Chicago, 111. MOVING PICTURE THEATRE FOR SALE New, modern theatre in live Florida city with good trade territory adjacent. No competition. Now earning about 25% on investment, including real estate, building and equipment. $6,000.00 cash will handle. Address REGENT THEATRE, Crystal River, Florida CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS Help and Situations Wanted Only 5c per word per insertion Minimum charge $1.00 Terms, Strictly Cash with Order < ojn must reach us l)y Monday noon to insure publcation in that week’s issue. SITUATION WANTED STU DENT desires position as assistant operator in movie theatre. Will go anywhere. Box 419 Moving Picture World, New York City. THE H. C. HIGH INTENSITY LAMP Can Improve Your Projection WRITE FOR BOOKLET HALL & CONNOLLY, INC. 129 Grand Street New York “Half -Sold’* Shoe (Continued from page 43) Sounds like LTtopia, doesn’t it? And yet when certain companies have gone as far as to give a sample, in the form of trailer service, how can one believe it would be impossible to go the whole way and back up the confidence of the producer in his product with real cooperation? Do you imagine the exhibitor would lay down and let your accessories end his effort on your picture? Not by a jugful. He would appreciate such cooperation and would go right along with you, selling his darndest, just as the druggist pushes the lines that have sales help backing up a good product. I think any producer who would actually give the exhibitor merchandising help, (and in such a case he would make sure the accessories would be real sellers for his product) and back his service up with good audience pictures, could just about sew up every house in the country on his books, at least until the others saw the light and swung into line. Colgate can do it and make a profit. Why can’t you? $ $ s in Accessories This is the completion of Dave Bader’s feature, continued last week. Let us have your ideas on his angle and that of Sidney B. Lust. doesn’t register, as it rightfully should, at the box-office, that it is a reflection against the company which they represent. And rightfully— -they should feel that way. They also know most exhibitors well enough to have their interests at heart, and in impressing that more advertising be used, they do it for the welfare of the exhibitor — just as much as for the welfare of the company they represent. Furthermore, they know the value of going back later to do business with a showman ivho has made money on the product which they sell • — and they want to see the picture click as it should, and will if backed by advertising material. Universal’s advertising is created by the greatest artists and writers in the business today. Large salaries are paid many men to prepare accessories, to put into them the best they are capable of. This advertising would cost the exhibitors, if bought singly and made up locally, five to ten times the amount they have to pay the producing companies, who, I mentioned, before are satisfied to “carrjr” this advertising, which has to be paid for immediately, over a period of years and are willing to “break even” as long as exhibitors will use and let it help them swell their receipts. Advertising has and always will be the greatest influence toward success in industry today. This has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt — because the most successful organizations today in the business world — Big Business, I mean — are those who dole out thousands upon thousands yearly for advertising. Take Coca-Cola — Wrigley — Ivory Soap — Sun-Maid Prunes and hundreds of others you all know well by name and reputation. What has given them the great grosses they enjoy — what has made their name part of every household use? Nothing else but advertising backed by good material. There are many prunes, soaps, drinks, gums, etc., on the market just as good as those mentioned here and those which you know, but the public will continue to flock to the well-known products as long as they are advertised continually. And why shouldn’t they? I personally have nothing in my home but advertised products, advertised radio, advertised batteries, advertised clothes, advertised toilet articles, etc. I won’t take a chance on unadvertised stuff — because I want to have confidence in the things my family and I use. There isn’t a general manager or a traveling salesman, or anyone in an organization, that takes for granted that they know explicitly how Graham, Texas, should be campaigned, billed or “worked” as far as advertising is concerned. But individuals, whether they sit in New York or cross the great stretches of Texas in Henry’s new car, have some idea of the best way to get the most out of a few dollars expended in advertising. Mr. Metzger knows that only one thousand heralds, one dozen window cards, a set of I I x 14’s and a set of 22 x 28’s in the lobby, about fifteen cards, (14x36’s) carefully distributed, and a banner — will go a long way in screeching from the house-tops, literally speaking, the wares that Graham, Oshkosh or Oskaloosa are endeavoring to sell. And selling pictures to the public is no easier or harder than selling a new cigarette. It takes hard work, careful planning and the spending of a small portion of the cost of the main article. But, please, Mr. Larmour, do not think Mr. Metzger or any other gentleman connected with a film company is trying to force the sale of advertising. Metzger tried to be emphatic in his statement that not enough thought is given to advertising film product, which, you know, is not like a commodity that can be sold next week in case it is not sold this week. A motion picture must be sold quickly and effectively. Once a patron or prospective patron decides to go elsewhere, you can do nothing. You have lost that patron forever, as far as that particular picture is concerned. That is why advance advertising is so important and so effective. But forcing the use of advertising is no more probable than forcing one to smoke Lucky Strikes when you prefer nothing but Murads. Larmour mentioned that he cannot understand why the American Legion can sell twenty-four sheets at $1.00 when producers must get in the neighborhood of $2.00 and slightly more. That is easily explained. There are suites of furniture that sell for $150.00, while the same number of pieces in a better shop, made by better manufacturers, costs $500.00, while still another suite will cost $950.00. The Workmanship is what counts. The American Legion only has one or two pictures to sell a year. They do not need high-priced artists to sit down and plan their advertising. They turn over a few stills or an idea to the lithographer who quotes them the best prices, and this lithographer will then set an artist to work making an effective job, of course, but executed simply and only in several colors. But take the posters issued by producers who have product to sell every day of the year. These posters have to vibrate with life, color, action, vivid attention-getting qualities. There can be no compromise. The job must be as perfect as man