The Moving picture world (May 1922)

290 xMOVING PICTURE WORLD May 20, 1922 Selling the Picture to the^Public A Benday Background Throws Up a Panel This panel advertisement for Crandall's Metropolitan Theatre, Washington, gets much of its strength from the Benday background with the inset portraits, but the background is a bit heavy for the panel. Nelson Bell is in his usual form in getting plucky showings for his big lines by putting six-point italic in between and he gets as good a display in a space 85 lines long as though he made the entire space a single announcement and used more display faces. He gets just as much display. A BENDAY BACKING and he has all of the display value of the backing in addition. It is just as though he got that additional space free. Of course, he has to pay for it, but he would have had to pay for it just the same had he run the usual advertisement, so it is all clear profit. We do not think much of the cuts, for they are fine screen and too nearly the color of the background. Here it falls short, but it is a minor lapse as compared to his major accomplishment. We are glad to see the Crandall house ads back, for he has been having a hard row to hoe through no fault of his own. —P. T. A.— Character Drawings Sell Vitagraph Play Drawings that are in keeping with the character of a production will go far toward selling that production and we think the sketch of Maclyn Arbuckle will do much of the selling on "The Prodigal Judge." He looks like a character from Dickens and will sell the story to those who are interested in this type of story, and they will find that there is much of Dickens' atmosphere in this quaint story of the South. The text added by the Parkway Theatre, Baltimore, will help the idea along. If it is not press book stuff it is an accomplishment for the Parkway and worthy of picking up. It runs: "A stirring play of the old Southland that excells all others because the characters are real, the situations are actual and the play ers forget to act." That seems to be a pretty good description of the play and it will sell to those who want to see that t^pe of story. The cuts will help to sell as strongly as will the text and we think that the story will help the house in its effort to get the better class of patrons, for "The Prodigal Judge" is a PARKWAY . ^VHPHOMr OtBECTED Sy PROF \ WHERE CUTS HELP SELL rarely enjoyable play; something that is different from the usual run and a story that will help to persuade the semi-hostile that there can be real good in the pictures. The Parkway has handled it in a manner to appeal to those most likely to be pleased. It is intelligent advertising. —P. T. A.— Made an Affidavit a Personal Guarantee Frank L. Browne, of the Liberty Theatre, Long Beach, Cal., has gone the "personal guar The Most Honest advertisement ever printed y2. Read His Sworn Affidavit AFFIDAVIT: RICHARD BARTHELMESS "Tol'able David ALSO THE AFFIDAVIT AD antee" one better. When he booked "Tol'able David" he went before a notary and made an affidavit which he made the chief selling point in a four twelves. He figured out that while most persons would take his word for it — for he has a good reputation with his patrons — the affidavit would give the statement a solemnity that no mere statement would carry. Ordinarily that cut should have gone to the left, but since David is looking to the left, his glance would have carried the attention out of the advertisement. It would have been better to have reversed the drawing to show him looking to the right, but since this was not done this cut placement is more correct. One point to consider in looking at this is the attraction value of the fist broken into the border of the affidavit. —P. T. A.— Made a Fashion Show Cover Three Weeks Most managers seem to feel that they are getting theirs when they can put a fashion show over for a week, but the Crandall Theatre, Cumberland, Md., found that it could run three weeks and not lose interest. This seems to be a record for length of run, and should encourage others to make the trial. The first week the showing was of the usual street wear, with local and imported models displaying clothes for both men and women. The second week sport clothes held the stage, and for the third and last week the June brides were given opportunity to get the lowdown on what was likely to happen through watching the Easter bride costumes. As all of the local merchants were tied up to the show, the combined weight of all their advertising went to put the show over and also served to influence the editorial write-ups. The first week drew almost a column, the second ran a little more than two columns and even the third week was good for a half column, though this was the shortest exhibition of the trio and had to be stretched out with a skit. It should be noted that the show ran only two nights a week — Monday and Tuesday, for the town is too small to supply a 2,500 audience every night for six consecutive performances, but where the public is larger the number of nights can be lengthened. The big idea is that the same persons will respond three weeks in a row to the same appeal. —P. T. A — Conventional Layout Presents Good Copy The copy is better than the layout in this display from the California Theatre, Los Angeles. "The drama of a woman who wed not wisely but too well" is a bit stale, but there is a real kick to "An entrancing romance that asks and answers the question, which shall be broken, a man's life or a woman's heart?" Apart from the small stuff this is the only kick A CONVENTIONAL LAYOUT line, but it will sell. Most of the Los Angeles layouts follow the same lines. As Claud Saunders remarked the other day, in reference to another town : "Each house seems to be afraid to do something the others are not doing." We do not call to mind a single instance of a clever freak layout in a Los Angeles paper in more than a year. They never