The Moving picture world (January 1920-February 1920)

866 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD February 7, 1920 tioned ability, who will title the pictures in the spirit of the production itself. Radical improvements and developments in this line are promised. What the Convention Accomplished. The inauguration of a completely new plan of exploitation and distribution of Paramount-Artcraft picture was brought about by the convention just closed. The change from old methods, in themselves highly successful but outgrown, is almost revolutionary in character. The plan is to give the exhibitor of Paramount-Artcraft pictures the maximum financial returns on every picture of that brand that he shows. Each picture will stand absolutely and solely on its own merits, without relationship to any other picture. Each picture will make its own record for the exhibitor and for the producer. The good ones will stand on their merits and will not serve to bolster up the occasional weak ones. The motion picture going public will be the sole judges of the compensation received by the exhibitor and the producer. To the exhibitor it means that he will get the full pressure of the exploitation, sales, advertising and publicity departments back of every picture he shows. This force will be concentrated on the individual picture instead of being scattered among the list. The adoption of this plan will bring about a complete reorganization of the exploitation and sales departments to meet the new conditions. First Step in Reorganization. The fii-st step in the reorganization will be to double the number of the existing force and train the new men to carry out the work in the field. This work will be outlined by a corps of experts in the home office and in the field. Each exchange headquarters will have assigned to its territory one or more of these trained exploitation men whose services will be given direct to the exhibitor. A zoning system will be worked out, as quickly as it can be done, with an intelligent consideration of all local conditions and requirements. Exploitation salesmen will be assigned to these zones and will carry the exploitation to the box-offices. The adoption and application of this plan will open the way to every exhibitor of Paramount-Artcraft pictures for longer tuns of pictures with merit, to greater profits from the showings and to more thorough and satisfactory conditions in every element of their relationship to the distributing organization. To Announce Profit Sharing Program. It was announced during the convention that the finance committee and the executives of the corporation are completing a profit-sharing program, the details of which will be given out in the near future. The committee has been at work on this plan for several months, mvestigating the operation of various similar plans that have been adopted and put into eflPect by other corporations, and taking the best elements from all these for their use. "Pep" Issued Daily During Convention. r^?,'''"? convention a daily edition of Pep, the confidential house organ of Famous Players-Lasky, was issued by the publicity department. It was edited by Gordon H Place, editor of ProgressAdvance, directed by Mr. Flinn Accompanying the New York delega tion were George W. Weeks, of Toronto, general manager of Famous-Lasky Film Service, Ltd.; N. L. Nathanson, Toronto, and A. H. Blank, Omaha, who operates an important chain of theatres in the Middle West. The following district managers were present: Harry Asher, Boston; W. E. Smith, Philadelphia; C. E. Holcomb, Atlanta, Ga. ; Louis Marcus, Salt Lake City; Herman Wobber, San Francisco. The special representatives present were Melvin bhauer. New York; J. W. Allen, Chicago; M. H. Lewis, Kansas City; W. J. Pr?tt, Atlanta, New Orleans and Charlotte, N. C. ; 1^ L. Dent, Dallas, Texas. The branch managers present were J. A. McConville, Boston; William O'Brien, Portland, Me.; Henry T. Scully, New Haven; H. H. Buxbaum, New York City; J. D. Clark, Philadelphia; Paul J. Swift, Washington; Herbert E. Elder, Pittsburgh; H. P. Wolfberg, Cincinnati; G. W. E. dman, Cleveland; Fred Creswell, Chicago; J. W. Hicks, Jr., Minneapolis; H. A. Ross, Detroit ; C. L. McVey, Kansas City, Mo.; R. C. LiBeau, Des Moines; C. L. Peavy, Omaha; R. E. Bradford, Atlanta, Ga.; H. F. Wilkes, New Orleans; G. E. Akers, St. Louis; T. O. Tuttle, Dallas; Joseph H. Gilday, Oklahoma City; David Prince, Charlotte, N. C. ; F. B. McCracken, Salt Lake City; Milton H. Cohn, Denver; H. G. Rosebaum, San Francisco; H. G. Balance, Los Angeles; G. W. Endert, Seattle; C. M. Hill, Portland, Oregon. The exploitation representatives present were Oscar A. Doob, Cincinnati; John P. Goring, Kansas City; John D. Howard, Seattle ; Fred W. McClellan, Philadelphia; Paul L. Morgan, New Haven; Herman Phillips, Cleveland; H. Wayne Pierson, Atlanta; T. J. Planck, Detroit; Al Price, Los Angeles; Daniel Roche, Chicago; Wayland H. Taylor, New York; Lester Thompson, Boston; Leslie F. Whalen, Dallas, Tex., and Charles L. Winston, Denver. Robertson-Cole Has Release Righ 's to Johnson s "Who's Your Servant?*' WHO'S YOUR SERVANT" has been secured for release by Robertson-Cole from L. L. Hiller, who controlled the world rights to the production penned by Julian Johnson, a motion picture critic of national importance. This special feature has attracted the attention of hundreds of exhibitors in all parts of the country, owing to its exploitation possibilities and the timeliness of its story. The picture is based upon a stage play that had a successful run at the Princess Theatre in New York City. The plot lays bare the astonishing conditions prevalent in some homes owing to the confidence which the family has in its servants. To carry out this theme, Mr. Johnson was in constant communication with one of the leading police officials of the United States, who took a personal interest in the making of the drama. Statistics compiled by Mr. Johnson show that every city in the country at the present time is having its own troubles in settling the servant problem. Murder, theft and fire are placed directly at the door of the servants in Mr. Johnson's story, and he shows how these evils have their origin and what are the methods of bringing peace and qniet into the home via the servant route. Well Exploited. One of the leading first run exhibitors in the United States, while on a visit to New York, asked to see the film. After the screening this man of national importance in filmland said that "Who's Your Servant?" was without doubt one of the best pictures ever given to the trade for exploitation, according to Robertson-Cole. "'Who's Your Servant?' is without doubt one of the best exploitation pictures ever sold by me," said Mr. Hiller. "As soon as I heard the title of Mr. Johnson's version of the up-to-date servant question I wanted to see the print. To see this picture is to book it, for after I had the production screened, I secured the world's rights to the sensation of the year. 'There is a tieup for every exhibitor in the land in this picture. The police approve of it, and as Mr. Johnson's theme is true to nature, exhibitors will receive all kinds of assistance to put this picture over with a bang. It is a big picture with a big theme and contains a wealth of exploitation possibilities." Many Accessories. No matter what the exhibitor wishes to feature in his exploitation, whether it is his lobby, stunts, advertising tieups or window displays, he will find his problems all solved when he books "Who's Your Servant?" The campaign book and the special publicity supplement cover every possible angle involved in selling the picture to the public. Besides these there is a long list of accessories that range from a tiny sticker to elaborate four-color designs for postals and window cards. Special attention has been devoted to the development of ideas that will enable the exhibitor to build up his advertising in co-operation with public service corporations, merchants and others. This plan gives the theatres the benefit of whole page newspaper advertising at a no greater expense than he customarily spends on an ordinary production. To Stage Fight Scene in Mountain Pass. British and Indian troops numbering 900 will battle in the Santa Susana Pass during the coming week for scenes of "The Hope," the Drury Lane melodrama now being filmed by Screen Classics, Inc., as a Metro release. This pass, located in the mountains above Chatsworth, Cal., is the division between the San Fernando and Ventura valleys. It was chosen as the location for the fighting scenes because of its similarity to the famous Khyber Pass in India. This historic "gateway to India." is the scene in Cecil Raleigh's and Henry Hamilton's melodrama of a spirited engagement between Afghanistan savages and troops of the British India army.