Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 877 Gauge your style to suit the class of patrons you make your appeal to. You would not call a minister "Old Sport," or address your chum as "Reverend Sir," neither will you use the same address to the boy on the street and the man of education. Plan to fit your audience, but never gauge your appeal too low. Be breezy, but neither coarse nor vulgar. It takes an expert to write in slang, but anyone who can talk can write as he talks, simply and with conviction. Bright Lines in Lobby Work. Take the same tone in your lobby advertising. It never is a good plan to plaster the front of your house with home-made signs. Do not use too much reading matter of any sort, but with the wealth of well planned printed matter that is offered by various concerns, it is absurd to resort to the wrapping paper and marking brush to save the very small cost of the poster work that will give the appearance of solidity to your house. Even experienced exhibitors do not always appreciate the impression on the public that is made by regularly printed paper. At the same time there is now and then the need for a quickly made sign, and you want to be in touch with someone who can do neat lettering in a hurry. If you have the trick of expression, a daily hint will get your regulars looking for the bulletin. Here, too, you want to get away from the "great show" idea. Get a snappy line and leave the great show for your audience to use. If you were an outsider, which would get you quickest: "This Is the Best Show in Town" or "You want to be around when Gus and Bessie fall out of the hammock in 'Cupid and Charlie Chase.' It's great!"? In almost every photoplay there is some little thing that may be "played up" in this fashion to rouse curiosity, perhaps some humorous situation or tense dramatic moment, perhaps only a background of unusual beauty, or a trick of the camera. There must be something in three reels. Dig it out and use it. The Moving Picture World will give you advance hints, . . film stories, criticisms and the advertisements of the manufacturers. A Simple Card System. If you want to do things the right way, get a card catalogue system. At the start you can get an outfit large enough at a cost of two or three dollars. Get a set of alphabet cards for each manufacturer and several packs of the plain ruled cards. When you get your World, go over it carefully and write down the names of all films that have not been mentioned before. Some of these will be in special items, others in the manufacturers' notes, while others will make their first appearance in the list of releases. Use a card for each title and mark the volume and page number of each mention on a line. You will have ten or eleven lines on which to write in the data. The World numbers consecutively for a volume instead of starting page one for each issue. This greatly simplifies looking up the material, particularly if you are careful to keep all copies in some cheap binder. If you have entered a title before, add the new page numbers and keep the card up to date. Drop the "A," "And," or "The" from the title to avoid confusion. The Biograph's "The Last Drop of Water," for example, would be filed under "L" instead of "T" in the Biograph Section. This keeps half the cards out of the "A" and "T" classifications. If you are careful to keep your entries up to date, you will be able to tell all about any film in less than five minutes. It may take a couple of hours a week, but it may save much more time than that, and you are always well posted. Unless you go back and enter up the past six months, the file will not be immediately useful, but it will become invaluable as the records grow and as your business expands, and you are enabled to better your service and make more effective use of advertising you have your card system ready to your hand. You are not always going to be content to drag along in the rear. Get ready now to get ahead. The New Montgomery Theater Some Views and Features of the Magnificent Picture House in Atlanta. From time to time the Moving Picture World has mentioned the progress of that photoplay exhibitor par excellence, Mr. Frank T. Montgomery, whose enthusiasm and advanced ideas of picture exhibition has placed this popular amusement upon a high plane in those cities of the South chosen for his operations and gained for it a measure of popular approval not equaled elsewhere. While recording Mr. Montgomery's success in Memphis and Jacksonville, mention has been made of his latest venture — the construction of the Montgomery Theater at Atlanta, Ga. This project was brought to a happy climax in the formal opening which took place on Monday, July 31. The delay in our story was occasioned by non-receipt of the photographs which are reproduced herewith. The pictures tell a better story than it is possible to put in type. Note the solid magnificence of the interior, which is treated in a manner quite different from anything we have ever seen. All will agree that the facade is one of attractiveness. Some of the details, not visible in the picture, should be mentioned, and which is taken from a description published in the Atlanta Georgian upon the occasion of the opening: The Park Photoplay Theater, 819 East 180th Street, New York, is under new management and reports the largest business in the history of the house. Many improvements have been made, including the addition of a full orchestra and better film service. Mr. S. Crystal, who has formerly managed theaters in Chicago and Baltimore for the past four years, is in charge. No vaudeville. Entrance to Montgomery Theater, Atlanta, Ga. "Notable among the features is the ladies' rest room, pe1, fectly fitted on the balcony level. From this vantage poiil a view of the decorative effect is exceptionally pleasing, tlT graceful swing of the balcony, which extends almost ha way around the house; the truly wonderful blend of restfil harmonious coloring throughout the whole interior brinjl the eye to a peaceful, pleasant gaze upon the elevated curtai"^' where the pictures are shown in deep-toned beauty. Abo-«fl|1 the curtain is the magnificent organ, the largest pipe orga in any theater in America. The full, resonant tones of tl" organ only serve to intensify the harmony of the whole housl as does the artificially draped balcony at the left of tht. organ. "There is an abundance of fresh air circulating from rightly placed fans, that do not blow with sudden force but gently cool the air, making the feeling even more restful. The seats all wear linen covers and the ushers appear in full dress. "Harmony — harmony is the keynote everywhere in the most beautiful of all moving picture shows. It is indeed a departure, a novel and beautiful feature is this, that F. T. Montgomery has built in Atlanta, and the city can easily boast of having an amusement house second to none in the S6111611 country for beauty and design and quality of entertainment."