The Moving picture world (January 1920-February 1920)

February 7, 1920 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 881 Advertising for Exhibitors By Epes Winthrop Sargent Washington Advertising Director Takes Issue on Hand Lettering NELSON B. BELL, of the Crandall theatres, Washington, takes courteous exception to our comments on the Crandall advertising in a recent issue. To save you the trouble of looking back for the reference, Mr. Bell sought to cut down the size of his displays while retainmg their prominence. He sought to do this with cut work and hand lettering because the other houses were all using retaining border. We suggested that type would have been better. Mr. Bell comes back with the one defense of hand lettering. He got more in the line than he could have done with the most condensed type in the newspaper's sample book. But that does not apply to the advertisement in its entirety. Mr. Bell concedes this by using part type in one of his later displays. Now and then a wide title can be put into one line of lettering where no decent looking type would fit, but these constitute the exception and not the rule. Mr. Bell also points out that he is advertising to m&et his local situation, where he has to fight two pages of theatrical advertisements on a Sunday. He got attention for his space hy a departure from the conventional border designs of the other houses. He accomplished hi-s object, but we think that he did so at the cost of plain reading. It is of no great advantage to have your advertisement seen if it is not also read. There is room for a compromise. We think that both Harold B. Franklin and Samuel Sivitz have solved this problem more advantageously. Both use hand lettering and both use comparatively small spaces; smaller spaces than Mr. Bell employs, but they go in for lightline rather than for heavy art work, and if the idea is to fight heavy borders, then lightline, by all means, is the best weapon. Mr. Bell sends in two more recent examples. He disarms comment by admitting that the Farrar display does not show prominently, yet adds that it was the most conspicuous display in the papers. And yet we think that the same frame mortised for the message in type would have been even more conspicuous m eyes, twice the size of the present cut, with the lettering of the title immediately below and the star's name above, preferably the "Eyes of Young in Eyes of Youth" idea. Mr. Bell raises another interesting point. He says that with hand lettering he escapes the monotony of display due to the use of the same faces by all advertisers. The choice of type faces is limited in a newspaper composing room. Hand lettering gives him variety. For the cost of three or four hand-lettered designs, plus a Sunday afternoon with a type book, he could lay in three or four fonts of title type which would be as much his own as the best of hand lettering, and would also be more legible. We think if Mr. Bell will go over the pages of this department for a couple of months back he will find many interesting suggestions. As he says, our comment is from a general viewpoint and not from the Washington angle, but we think that he can better his displays with less art work. Here's Another Pretty Pathe Poster to Advertise "Lost City" Episodes PATHE seldom turns out a poor poster and generally turns out better-than-usual results, but this 24-sheet for "The Lost City" is a little above the average. It is not merely a pretty poster, but it tells the story of the locale. CMRAKlMBAIfrYiMIM M HOt f IRST GReAT OdAMATIC PRODUCTION "eves OF YOUTH" THe PWV OF THE S>»«€ NAM« BY MAX MMON Two Displays from Nelson D. Bell, of Crandall's Washington Houses because of the white space and black lettering within the grey border, which here would serve much as white space might. He gains a better effect with the Clara Kimball Young display. but if his object was to command attention we think he could have gained an additional saving in space and greater attraction by using just a strip showing the A 24-Sheet for "The Lost City," a Pathe SeriaL It tells that this serial differs from the usual eastern or western product, and it is going to sell film. It is done in five colors, with a brilliant tropical landscape against an orange background. —P. T. A.— "Everywoman" Lends Itself to Unusual Advertising Effects JUST as "Broken Blossoms" was responsible for many unique advertising effects, "Everywoman" is capable of unusual treatment. The character of the story is best told pictorially, and this is one of the few plays in which art work sells better than straight type. One of the best di'iplays we have seen comes from the Rialto, Atlanta, Ga., in PJALTO IN HER STRANGE AND WONDERTUL QUEST OF LOVE REMAINS AT THE ^ | >9V LJT'C^ ALL THIS WEEK A SPECIAL EXTENDED ENCACEMENT OF TWE_ GPEAT MORALITY PLAV A Cross Page Fives with Large Publicity Value. the form of a cross page fives. Through the use of heavy letters illuminated by sketches of the characters from the morality, this forty-inch space has the value of the average half page at half the cost. Display value is measured by