The Moving picture world (November 1924-December 1924)

250 Novel Cut Device Puts Over a Title By all the rules this plan book cut for The Side Show of Life is a poor one because it does not clearly display the title, and yet it really is good because the novelty of the display leads the reader to stop long enough to get the title, even though he may not be looking for the amusement advertis A far amount Release AN ATTRACTIVE SELLER ing. Doing this, it does more than the most eligible type lettering could effect. The Ohio Theatre, Indianapolis, employed the cut in this 130 x 4 to very good effect, and held the selling talk to the centre, where it became a part of the cut. This line cut, with little detail, is better than the average and one of the most useful that Paramount has worked out for the Famous Forty. Ingenious Hooks A nice co-operative page was used by the Gateway Theatre, Glendale, Calif., on Never Say Die. No prize stunt was used, the aptness of the title getting the interest of the readers. A tire company advertised that its product never says die, and a candy concern urged a similar sentiment with the suggestion that she could be won with a box of candy. They even hooked in a tent repertoire show to advise that after seeing Never Say Die the reader also see the tent troupers. That's something new. Poor Typography Hurts Big Space • This display from the Circle Theatre, Indianapolis, looks like one of those things you find in some little backwoods sheet when the compositor is trying to spread himself. It's "yap" clear through to the bone, with its excess of all capitals, carefully centered banks and even that old time "! [Enormous ! I" Some comp from away up the banks of the famous Wabash must have blown into the composing room of the newspaper. It is one of the poorest displays ever originated by the Circle. The copy is good and probably the original layout was better than this. It looks as though a good idea had been foully murdered in the printing office. MOVING PICTURE WORLD The worst offense is that three line bank of all capitals eleven inches long. And this bank is the keynote of the play and the main line of the advertisement, apart from the title. The space is a six nines, and that gives ample room in which to gain real effects, i but there is no use trying to get a nice lay I out with a compositor who has no ideas. About the only thing he did not do was to centre the title, and probably that was marked so he could not. Centre the title, and you would have a typical back-country layout. Bi-colored Letters Hurt Display Value We do not often get a chance to find fault with Milt Crandall. Generally it is the other way around. Perhaps this will help to keep his head down a little, for Milt has been pulling stuff that justified a swelling of the A First National Release ROTTEN LETTERING skull. But this space from the joint ad of the Rowland and Clark houses in Pittsburgh is very much small-town. The alternation of white and black in the lettering of the title is atrocious. If there is a stronger word than atrocious, slip it in, for we never got anything worse. When Milt did fall he surely went ' November 15, 1924 the distance — all the way down. And there is so little excuse for it. The sea hawk did not have to be that size. Lots of theatres have managed to get along without any hawk at all and still fill all the seats for a couple of weeks or more. The hawk should have been reduced to a size that would bring the tips of the wings below the main title. We imagine that Milt knows that as well as we do. Probably the artist sprang it on him too late to make a change, and we don't imagine it will happen again. Certainly not in just that way, though newspaper artists find more ways of breaking out than smallpox. The Liberty did a big business with this picture, as did the downtown house. But there were few tickets sold on this appeal. The campaign was so big that a single poor advertisement could not affect the run, but that does not alter the fact that this is a darned poor piece of advertising drawing. Taking Chances Out in Milwaukee Someone took a big chance out in Milwaukee, and came through with it fairly well. Appreciating that The Sea Hawk was out of the ordinary, an effort was made to suggest this fact in the displays. And they decided upon what was more or less on the magazine style. But they knew they were taking chances on getting the cut work mussed, so they shrewdly put enough type into the layouts to ensure sales even if the cut did not come through. Take the first example. This is 10J4 across three. Save for the top line and the panel the face of the display is a grey tint that seems to be benday rather than a halftone screen. The portrait, however, is halftone. In a magazine this would be a very pretty display. In a newspaper it is up to the printer. He can blotch it and utterly ruin it, but it came through better than was to be expected. But had it gone wrong it still would have been a good seller because the talk was in the panel, where it could not be hurt. The effect over to the \JUner M£ One in Our Greater Jdotiies Season. SUNDOWN' A FIRST NATIONAL PICTURE "YOUR BREED WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE THAT LAND FROM THE CLAWS OF THE WILDERNESS, BUT NONE COULD BE STRONG ENOUGH TO KEEP IT FROM THE GENTLE FINGERS OF PROGRESS" In those few words lie the pathetic passing of those romantic figures of a by-gone day— The Cattle Kings of a Mighty West A PICTURE THAT TINGLES EVERY MOMENT ! ! ENORMOUS ! ! A Dozen Stars— 100,000 Cattle — Hundreds in the Cast OVERTURE IISTSPIEL" Be Kolcr-Bda BAKALEIN1KOFF Conducting CIRCLE PRESENTATION A ProWwu* •SI NDOWN" Fealurinr -The 3 Sun of Harmony" ANIMATED CIRCLE NEWS ROBBY VERNON COMEDY •BRIGHT LIGHTS" A First National Release A VERY POOR DISPLAY FOR SOME WELL-WRITTEN COPY