Moving Picture World (Jan - Feb 1919)

January 4, 1919 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 81 Theatre, Mamma, it only costs a nickel." But Mamma happened to be intelligent, and she went where she received greater value for a little more money. Pictures are like anything else we use every day. Quality counts with our great American family. While our prices are the lowest in the city, we have the best pictures. New pictures. Lovely pictures before the rest. Just look at our program. Whether you have opposition or not. that is the big idea. Make your patrons realize that it is not merely a case of showing pictures, but of showing them properly. You can take the best picture ever made and give it such a showing that people will think it the worst, and you can take a poor picture, and with good surrounding, proper projection and good music, make it seem acceptable. That's the difference between being a picture house and a place of entertainment. Steve Farrar went a bit further than this, it will be remembered. When people pointed out that the other man sold the same number of reels for five cents less, he urged his patrons to go and see the ten-cent show, just so that they might learn to appreciate the difference. They did, and he got his own and some of the other man's. Missionary Work. A. C. Raleigh, of the American, Butte, Montana, writes that he proposed a joint campaign against the "flu" scare, but he got little encouragement, and went ahead "on his own." His recent advertising carries a tag similar to those shown here preaching against the scare, and he writes that it is working. We think, however, HANDS UP I. WARREN KERRIGAN one Collar bid I* M E R I C 'HANDS UP" TODAY ONLY '^AMERICA'; ANSWER i i i i 'i HANDS Two Displays from the American, Butte, in Which a Part of the Space Is Used in an Effort to Combat the Influenza Scare. that it would have been better to fight the "flu" without questioning the wisdom of the closing order so strenuously^. The Board of Health is apt to get sore and look for a comeback. At the same time there is sound sense in this argument: "Selling" an epidemic is just like selling soup or soap. Just advertise it, and you will Ret a flock of "customers." Where three really have it, seven are scared into it. We object to again being closed unless every place in Butte where people congregate is likewise closed, in other words, we refuse to .be the "goat" as the theatres were during the last 30-day closing period, which entailed tremendous financial loss on theatre men. The American theatre is well ventilated, lias been repainted and decorated, and we consider it absolutely safe from a sanitary viewpoint. Everything that human ingenuity can devise has been done to protect our patrons. The air in the American is better than that on the street. Rough figures show that as a result of the peace celebration one person in each thousand caught the "flu," which does not seem to us an epidemic percentage. A less truculent phrasing would have helped, but it is a trespass upon the individual rights to close theatres and churches and not stores. Part of another paragraph is better taken. It reads: When a burglar is caught, the authorities do not lock up the public to make them safe from the burglar — they lock up the burglar. In the present scare, why quarantine the public and let the "flu" cases run at will? Why not quarantine the "flu" and let the well folks go about their busi ' ? f ? But the big point to realize in this Raleigh advertising is the fact that you can mould public opinion in your advertising if you go about it right. You can make your advertising space do more for you than merely tell the film you offer. You can write your own editorials and get them printed if you will pay the space rate, and often it is better worth while to advertise to the public than to advertise film offerings. Philadelphia Programs, It has been a long time since we ran that heading, for our regular Philadelphia correspondent has been gone for some time, but Louis Goldstein, who prints a majority of the local programs, sends in a few samples. We knew the Goldstein shop when he had a little place in Eighth street. Now he has grown with his business, and specializes in theatrical work. But Mr. Goldstein says that he cannot do his best work because the managers still regard the program and other printing as the first point at which to practise economy. It is the same in many towns besides Philadelphia. A man will pay two or three prices for a special subject, but lie won't pay two or three times his usual printing bill advertising it, and so he does not get what he pays for. It is not just the big subject that sells. It is the advertising for the big feature that really does the work. Picture managers have to figure closely, but they should figure special advertising as part of the essential expense. The Bright Spot, of Haddonfield, N. J., a suburban house, prints a map on the front page, with the house title, rule and house location in red and the type in blue. It uses a sun with an oblong of rays similar to that shown on the back page for its trade mark, and one of these is used to locate the house A Suburban Program with a Map to Show the Location of the House. on the map. The town is not so large that a map is really essential, yet for thai very reason a map is a novelty, and will be welcomed and preserved. The scheme is even better for a neighborhood house. People will preserve the sectional map, and each time they consult it, it will remind of the house. Most of the programs are along the lines already familiar to our readers, but a novelty is a song book for a local sing. Tt is a four-page folder of cheap news stock about 5 by 8, but it contains the choruses of twenty old-time and popular songs, and they are given out each Thursday night at the Jumbo Theatre. It is a good plan to use the chorus slides for the actual sing, but such a song book will be preserved and taken home, so that it is an advertisement both before and after the evening. It is an idea worth copying. That sing idea is going to be stronger than ever now that the boys are coming home. Don't get the impression that it is all over because the war is done. Now is the time to make it a permanent feature. You can, if you work it right, make it just as big a feature as a good five-reel picture, and it will advertise for permanent good. Telling It. There is one bank in this advertisement from a Southern theatre that can sell any war time play or War Weekly. It is the second of the panels to the left, and it reads: "See more than any soldier or Beart for A ' Peace of Vic torv ,,■ 11, Mill .*? the wliole colossal ilrornn . .i the tour years of mat passes before your eyes. Fighting on limit, od I. Belgium, in I'.u.!. mil "' *■"«"»■ SEE THE BOYS WHO DID IT rt uli.,1 Hiiil wav-tt l,,^ rome you will wnnl lo ■<■■■■ il.i liuy Wj.n I'i.I II iti H, ..I -I .I-.. ml. i i, ,1 -.u .1, ...,...,, Crashing Through to Berlin DIXIE THEATRE SENATH, MISSOURI Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28 Prices: Children 20c, Adults 30c A Small Town Advertisement with a Big Town Idea. soldiers could see — the whole colossal drama of the four years of war passes before your eyes." You can scarcely beat that for a pulling line. First the truth of thf Statement gets hold 'of you, and then you realize your advantage. The Dixie is in a small town, but it certainly has a big town advertising man. The layout is not. artistic, but it is effective, and it is excellently written. I,. F. Whiteside, of Universal publicity, sends it in because it hit him in the same light. It's pretty work. It is not the size of the town, but the size of the man that governs publicity work. Another ad uses, "Not a love story, but pictures made by a thousand cameras during the war." That's good, too. Coming Events. Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays are going to mean more than usual this year. Arrange to celebrate them with special exercises, and be particularly careful to get the right sort of film to go with the literary program. Picture Theatre Advertising liy EPES WINTHROP SARGENT Conductor of Advertising for Exhibitors In the Moving Picture World a TEXT BOOK AND A HAND BOOK, a compendium and a guide. It tells all about advertising, about type and typesetting, printing mid paper, how to run a house program, how to frame your newspaper advertisements, how to write form letters, posters or throwaways, how to make your house an advertisement, how to get matinee business, special schemes for hot weather and rainy days. All practical because it has helped others. It will help you. By mail, postpaid, $2.00. Order from nearest office. MOVING PICTURE WORLD 516 Fifth Ave., New York Schiller Building, Chicagro, III.