The Moving picture world (November 1922-December 1922)

December 9, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 565 Ruf filer's Solution on the Long Film While others have been talking of the long feature and the best way to handle it, Ralph Ruffner has been working it out to his own satisfaction at the Capitol Theatre, Vancouver, and doing it in a thoroughly Ruff way. He booked in "Orphans of the Storm" and he wanted to get his money back on it. He knew that an increase in prices would result in a decrease in attendance. He could not give two shows at advanced prices and break it that way. He had to adhere to his maximum fifty-cent top, and he held off the picture until he could play it at regular prices. But even at regular prices he had to sell intensively if he hoped to break with a little profit, so he decided to grind the show. He wanted two night shows, and he is far too good a showman to race the film. He allowed it the full two hours and a half. This made it necessary to stage the first night show at seven, with a second at nine. He put in an extra matinee, which shoved his de luxe matinee up to two o'clock. He did not want such a late start where his patrons had been trained to come in around half past twelve, so he put in a second extra show which started at 11 :40 and admission to which was only 25 cents. To test out his idea he gave only four performances on Tuesday, starting at 12:15, 2 :S0, 5 :25 and 8. He writes that he played his morning show to the average afternoon matinee attendance, played to a large house at the regular matinee, got some in for the supper show and played to two large houses in the evening. The Tuesday result proved very conclusively that the other scheme was not only more profitable but more to the liking of the patrons, and he offers this as the solution of the extra length picture. Suppose you try it out on your next long picture. He worked the same idea on "The Old Homestead," giving the de luxe shows at 2:30, 7:05 and 9:15. For this he used some pictorial displays, but we Monday rharacltr actor, Thcodare Roberta, in the role h* was bom (or-'-Undt Josh." A storr mxle of the Eorroog and joyit «f pttin folki and ■ gruit lave that weathered ad> verally. Reaching iti dlmai lo a mighty cyclone icene ftiiC dwarf 1 I I the I bcTor. Vox 930 7«a 0 r=v 3 A Paramount Picture CAPITOL A Paramount Release RUFF'S "OLD HOMESTEAD" like better this characteristic decagon, though this would have been even better had the white outline circle been angled to conform to the design. The play is sold simply but thoroughly, and the initial impression is then strengthened with the use of cuts for later displays. Ruff handles particularly well these type displays, and he has the happy faculty of making his talk convincing. —P. T. A.— This Reverse Strip Keeps Dark Secret J. H. Lichtenstein, Fox exploiteer at Cleveland, send in a strip advertisement he prepared for the Strand Theatre. It shows the house name and the title very clearly, and some of the rest will come up in a good printing, but in the newspaper the most of it was lost in the grey reverse. Only the title stood out. This is 100 lines on seven, which is a lot of money to spend telling one word. In another form it would have made a great display, but the talk and the cuts are alike lost in the mess of black ink. The same thing could have been done in black lettering on white, with some real type instead of all hand letters and it would have been a beauty, but in the reverse does a terrible flop. Advertising men never seem to learn. They always live on in the hope that they will get in the paper what they put into the drawing, and yet they seldom or never do. Here are seven hundred lines of space with only the title and the moral effect of bigness. Only the most interested will stick to the space to puzzle out the lines, and yet it has all the makings of a fine display and would have been a good one had less ink been used. —P. T. A.— Grauman Displays Growing Readable The Grauman theatres in Los Angeles are swinging back to decent displays after an orgy of ink-smeared surfaces. It is again possible to read about the attractions being advertised without taking half a day off. The Sunday w'cMILLION „ JesseLIasiy 'DcxiAP ^ J^w\ THEAIPE H ■*1NK CODS" IHL.OLD HONESTDU) TriEODORE ROBERTS, Georde FaWcett TRqg Barnes HarrircmlbrcL a fa A Paramount Release FOR THE "OLD HOMESTEAD" advertisement for "The Old Homestead," for example, is a 140 by 4 and yet does not attempt to tell more than the offering and the prologue. A few weeks ago the space would have been loaded down with a lot of scene pictures, cuts of three or four of the players and a detailed program, This gives only a character drawing of Roberts, an announcement of some of the other players and a small panel announcing that many of the players in the picture would appear in person in the Grauman prologue, wearing their original costumes. The panel just below the signature announces the last performances of the current attraction, for the Los Angeles houses still open their engagements on Monday instead of starting on Saturday, to get the verbal advertisement of the larger houses. If you will turn back a few issues and compare this space with the intricate pen sketches then being used, you will realize GRAU/nAN'S HUUYU/AUQ EGYPTIAN T/AEATRE Hoirrvooo blvd. ua lascasat place OPENING WED. OCTOBER ISTTL WITH WORLD PREMIER^ DOmiMSrAI IN ROBIN HOOD KUaiNEE tPlA t EVENDMS B^Fi 50-75 -LOO lys-ioo-j.so'' hxsuis BfSKvn) ron tmre pi ON SAU OKI WEEK MACUUKI THEATue A United Artists Release THE ROBIN HOOD PREMIER how much more forceful the present announcements are with their strongly drawn figures and with some open space to give better display to the lines. There is little more than a suggestion of a scene cut, yet it gets over the idea of the title more admirably than would a detail cut with a multiplicity of confusing lines. In the same way the advertisement of the new Hollywood Theatre gives only a single dominant figure; that of Fairbanks in "Robin Hood," and a sketchy background which is not permitted to cloud up the announcement of "Robin Hood," which was given its premier at this house. A little type would not be amiss here and the lines below the signature if set in twelve or eighteen point type would not only have stood out better in themselves, but they would have given greater emphasis to the lines above and below through the contrast between the hand lettering and the type. It is the same idea as contrasting three bands of identical color with two bands of one color and another of strongly contrasting shade. It can be figured that red, yellow and red will stand out ^\/Tp\'rV A l^TTX S'l^ARTING TO-DAY I /\ I 1 FIRST TIME AT POPULAf V ^ -mJ^JT^l. ^ m W PRICES ANy PLACE ON PROSPECT at E. 9 TM. .^^fe^ EARTH X J Ocvdon Edmvdf. Oiu Cireatet MoHon Picfure Spectacle of all tinw A Fox Release ANOTHER FINE DISPLAY SPOILED THROUGH THE USE OF REVERSE