The Moving picture world (June 1921)

June 4, 1921 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 515 Selling the Picture to thetPublic telling that you have a clean and interest- ing plajf, and it will be better for your box office; better by far. More than half the censorship trouble has been caused by in- judicious advertising and an effort to make the readers believe that attractions were more vicious than they really were. Give emphasis to the good stories and you'll create the right sort of sentiment. —P. T. A.— Roth and Partington Like New Style Ads Apparently Roth and Partington, manag- ing directors of the California, Imperial and Portola like the new style cross page space with the condensed news columns, and Jewett Bubar has given an unusually good display to "The Gilded Lily." It is one of the best proportioned spaces Nick Ayer has yet sent in. The text in the panels is still driving on the Granada. The house does not open until August, but that makes no difference to Nick. He is putting it on the map now just to make sure they know all about it when it is really ready. By August they will find it possible to an- nounce the opening and the public will rush in. In looking over the display, note that the faces look like they were on hu- man beings and not on dummies.. That is where Bubar conies out strong. —P. T. A.— Checkerboard Design Shows Up Strongly G. W. Griffith moved "Dream Street" over to the Town Hall, which is different from the City Hall here in New York. And he put in talking pictures to get a new kick. To announce the move he made use of a checkerboard design. The Lily Cups have made the alternate black and white squares their trade mark, but there is no patent on the idea, .and it works in well to give the idea, as the copy shows. You have to see this in the Rage to get the right efTect. It stands out no matter what the company, for it has the ate-ntion-getting value of white space and the dominance of the black mass, and the lettering is large enough in the black squares to stand up well. The original is 85 lines across three columns. A STRIKING DESIGN which is a lot of space to take in the New York papers at present rates. If you use this design use only large letters in the black squares if you follow the original design, but you can get a very good efTect by leaving these solid black and setting your California ANOTHER STRIKING ROTH AND PERTINGTON SPACE announcement in small type in the white squares. This will give you one space for the signature, two for selling talk and one for the title and date. Using eight and ten point with a display letter around ten and twelve, you can say a lot and still get it all read if you are careful to keep the lines open with lead. But don't try to tell too much. Boil it down. You will require fewer words and you will find this a very serviceable "just once" design. It will work even better, perhaps, as a throwaway. An- other good use would be to present a full eight square board with a checker problem printed on the black squares and your talk on the white, and they will read your talk while they are puzzling over the problem. Prizes can be offered for the solution if desired. - P. T. Get the Ball Fans Baseball is essentially a daylight game. Most ball team managers feel that they will get the money without a fight. They will be willing to let the theatre manager stunt his crowd, and you have a better audience than you can find on the streets. Help the ball team on your screen and then let the ball park help you on the diamond. You can at least get banner space, but pull a live stunt now and then, just before the game starts. You can make baseball help you. Give the local and visiting players passes for the playing season and then tell what the star players think of your show. It is a pretty small town which does not boast at least a semi-pro team. Get them to help you by helping them. —P. T. A.— Thompson-Bracker Ads. Possess Individuality One merit of the Thompson-Bracker ad- vertising for the Star Theatre, Rochester, N. Y., is the ease with which the house dis- play is found. The designs are so charac- teristic that you spot it on the page the moment you open up the sheet. You don't have to read the other advertisements if you are looking for the Star. It calls to you as you come along. It aims to sell on the talk with the design getting attention to that talk, and, if the subject lends itself, to supplement the type with illustration' rather than design. This is a point many illustrators overlook. They think that if they have a pretty picture or a striking pose they have done their best. Mr. Bracker, on the other hand, studies his subject with the design of discovering some character or situation he can use for the illustration to help put over the idea. Both the lettered title and the figure sell you "Sentimental Tommy" and Mr. Thompson comes along . ; THOMPSON-BRACKER SAMPLE with his talk and finishes off the sale. It is an excellent example of co-ordination between the artist and the copy writer, and only through this combination may the best results be obtained. This series of dis- plays from the Star is in itself a liberal education in ^ood advertising. It will not do for sensational subjects, but the Star does not play that class of attractions be- cause it has built up a clientele which de- mands something better, and the advertis- ing accurately represents the class of at- traction and the class of patronage.