The Moving picture world (May 1922)

82 MOVING PICTURE WORLD May 6, 1922 Selling the Picture to the^Public and the stunt is not only a money maker for the paper from an advertising point of view, but it is also a circulation builder, which is an angle not contemplated when the idea was formulated. The paper gives the house a free column down the center of the page used the first week to announce the contest and the second to name the winners, but there is always space for an additional sales talk, and each advertisement is hooked to the play. Some managers feel they are doing much when they work a single page now and then. Bain makes it a weekly event and is asked for more. —P. T. A.— Slate Trademark Used for Warner Attraction The slate idea for advertising "School Days" is being used by practically all houses. The cut shows how the Stanley Theatre, Philadelphia, used the idea, making its own slate to get in the added attraction. This drops seventy lines across three columns, which gives an emphatic display. The most interesting point in the advertisement is the matter in which the signature is set in. This is the regular house cut, a black letter, and it is set into a routed opening on the cut. Probably it would have looked better in white on the black ground, but apparently the designer figured that the public was used to the black cut, and set this in. There may be something to be said for the use of the same signature. Even changing the color might detract from the idea, though we do not think that it would have been the case in If SCHOOLJ ' DAYS"! WEStEY 8ARRy|{ JTACeo WITH APPKOPRIATE PKOLOCUC THE PHILADELPHIA "SCHOOL DAYS" this instance. The usual objection to hand lettering in a reverse does not hold good here because the slate frame suggests hand work on the black surface and because it is natural to look for the white lettering, many persons will read this who would not bother with the usual white on black without similar excuse. A chalk sketch of Barry would have been better than the inserted half tone. This just goes to show, however, that the small town advertising and the big city stuff can be worked along the same lines, for the slate works just as well wherever it goes. Between the cartoon style and the slate, the exhibitor who has "School Days" has little chance of going wrong. —P. T. A.— Combination Display Is Unusually Good Sometimes the Stillman Theatre. Cleveland, produces some very poor work, but the average is good or better than that, and this layout for "Fool's Paradise" is worth looking at twice. It provides a wonderfully good model. The talk is put where it is bound to get attention, and the picture is so disposed that it adds to the value of the type. It is a small point, perhaps, but the eye is accustomed to reading from left to right. If that picture had been so disposed that the action fell to the right hand of the advertisement, it is possible that some readers would have let their glance slip from the space without reading the text. Placed as it is, the eye takes in the picture and then passes naturally to the type on the right. It may not have been planned with that nice attention, but that is the result arrived at. It is not so important here in a four column display as it would be in a one or two column space, where it is easier for the glance to slip over PHOTOPLAYS A NICE STILLMAN AD. the boundary, but it is always good practise to get the type where it will get the best display and as a rule that placement puts the cut over to the left. An eflFort has been made to identify the three characters, and their names are lettered in white against the shadowed ground, but the artist did not allow for the reduction and you have to look closely at the lines to make them out, though they may be read if they are held close. This was a hold-over week and we infer that the artist was trying the experiment at a time when failure would not greatly matter. If it came up he knew he could do it again. If it did not he knew he would have to letter larger the next time, but meanwhile no harm was done here since the names had been driven home through a week of campaigning. We have a real respect for an artist who can do good lettering and yet who has the sense and good taste to cut up a good drawing to let in a proper type display. No hand lettering could have given the results this type inset yields. We admire what the artist did not do even more than what he did. It requires skill to make a good drawing, but it takes real intelligence to sacrifice drawing to the greater advertising value of type display. —P. T. A — Boomed "Miss Bett" to Sell All His Tickets M. Rosenthal, of the Walkerville (Ont.) Theatre, made an unusually heavy campaign for "Miss Lulu Bett," feeling that the popularity of the book and play would enable him to clean up with it. He ran teasers for a week, giving sayings of "Miss Lulu Bett" and on Sunday he took three elevens to use the stock cut ad on the book, play and picture. He also used tack cards telling that "Miss Bett" was due. backed these with snipes, and sniped the .Mdewalks in the early hours of Monday to put the opening over. He also got out a fake summons issued from the "Court of Extra Sessions" and signed by the "Judge of Good Entertainment." It was well gotten up and the cover was really deceptive, but inside you were summoned to one of the two nights to pass judgment on the play. The fake sum mons is still one of the best of the stunts as well as one of the oldest. So many managers have used the auto summons that they seem to have forgotten the value of the court summons for the pedestrian. Mr. Rosenthal handled his campaign excellently and cleaned up on the picture. —P. T. A.— Smart Selling Talk Backs a Good Cut The California Theatre, Los Angeles, has done exceptionally well with a holdover ad for "Come on Over," using original copy, but keeping entirely in the spirit of the Goldwyn play. The selling is done in the three lines under "one more week" and runs : "This new Rupert Hughes Irish-American comedy-drama is so saturated with laughter that it has made a hit with everyone. There is no problem and no villain, for the theme is too full of laughter and lovable folk for evil to creep in. It's just a dancing, prancing comedy, alive with action and brimming over with laughs." That ought to sell to anyone who is tired of the average story, and the cuts carry on the suggestion of a likable play. That "positively the best picture we have shown this year" THE BEST PICTURE WE VaVE SHOWN THIS YEAR ONE MORE WEEK tRipert Hu^s' TON Over FF-ATURIWG CollGGn Moore A CLEVER HOLDOVER AD should sell a bunch of tickets for it has the ring of conviction and the fact that it is being held over confirms the statement. It offers many interesting points of contact. When you can say a thing as though you meant it, you have the reader already sold on the idea. All you have to do is to argue a little more and give him a few reasons he can advance as Iiis own. —p. T. A — What "Theodora" Didn't Have Something new in "Theodora" publicity was hooking up an electrical store to the Byzantine story. ^Iost of the window was given over to the "Theodora" paintings, with a display of home helps, electrically operated, and a card which read to the effect that with all the splendor of her period, Theodora never knew the comforts of electrical housekeeping.