The Moving picture world (November 1921)

December 24. 1921 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 971 Selling the Picture to the^Public Yearshy Designs the "My Boy" Lithographs C. L. Yearsley, head of the First National promotion department, got his job because he knew how. He can write a story, devise an exploit or lay an advertisement and in a pinch he can do the lithograph work. For the Jackie Coogan picture, "My Boy" he could not get just what he wanted from his artists, so he sat down and designed the suite of paper himself. Six West Forty-eighth street rocked to its foundations when he kidded the sacred trade mark by giving it legs and a little hat, but it helped to put over the announcement, j ii st as it is going to get a laugh when Jackie wonders why Sol Lesser has to present him. But the gem of the collection is the bathtub picture, which is not in the play "because the baby cried." Hundreds of other lithographs have been shown based on scenes cut out of the finished production, but Bill is the first one to make capital of the fact. It's close to a stroke of genius, for it saves a selling pose and makes it better than if it were in the play. Piggery in Lobby Was "The Wonderful Thing" Steve Willitt, of the Liberty Theatre, Astoria, Oregon, was not asleep at the switch when he played Norma Talmadge in First National's "The Wonderful Thing." He knew of the great hog farm scenes, and he knew that the breeders were sending their stock in to the Pacific International show at Portland so he borrowed a brood of prospective prize winners and put up a sty in his lobby, with a cutout of Miss Talmadge looking into the pen. Each of the small porkers wore a ribbon around its neck and was blanketed with an announcement of the play. A card to the owner and the cost of the sty was the only expense other than the boardbill of the porcine guests, for they were lodged in a livery stable nights and given a bath and a manicure each morning. It was something unusual, and it made a lot of extra business for the play and its influence went beyond the play, for like any novel exploitation, it lasted beyond the playing da c. MAKIi IT A M T.RRY CHRISTMAS . [VOU VfONT SEE THIS IN THE PICTURE I CAUSE IT AINT THERE WE CVT IT OUT [CAU5 THE &ABY CFUBD BUT YOU dAN SB ME TAKE A BATH THE DIRECTOR fA*£>£ *E* BUT | PIDN'T NEED IT ONLY ACTING I DO NT K.NOV/ WHY I ALWAYS «OT-rDS<W SOU LESSER PRESENTS ME JACKIE CO°(i/\Nl ♦MY AoY* IT -•• A F ! w • v tiitf\ * ? ' f" «-'K!aT jMl MYO.RCCT0R5 H*^ i Almost foRto' to than*; \flCTOH HBtHHAH THIS iSWHfKt ME AND THE P cap we both Get o</R om NEK A WT H E ©or LONG LE Gs THE PiCfy«.fc IS CALLED TMIS »» MV Ui<>K<H$ MAD AflSR TM% 010 OR6AH 0RI*«gR TAKS MY SHARE THE MOMS Y BUTOBOy WHAt it OOHK TO HIM >AN0HS MONK} !»IT you UKTV" MY FRIEND SOL LESSER PRESENTS Mf n ■ ewvr picture an* w«£f*»*H " -MY BoY PS CLAtiOB (MUJNGWATfX *HO HA Munp/Vi'C 1$ m IT TO AK1> A Bi6 COP Hf CHASfS nt BUT-i. roOL HIM , Sot Letter ?*€sehts rtfc IV)ATHilvA BHu^pAOfe is IN iT TV, JS A r=/ft*T NASHN&^J^ jKt^ THE ORIGINAL SKETCHES FOR THE POSTER DESIGNS OF FIRST NATIONAL FOR "MY BOY" C. L. Yearsley (yes, that's "Bill"!) drew up the sketches to get something that would be characteristic and appealing, and he even "kidded" the First National trade-mark, than which there is nothing more sacred; but he wanted to get something wholly in keeping, and he did. Bill knows good advertising and knows how to get it, and this is many miles from being his first attempt. That paper is going to sell a bunch of extra tickets