The Moving picture world (November 1925-December 1925)

December 5, 1925 M O V I N G P I C T U R E W O R L D 473 Cliff Lewis Shows Good Effects in Small Ads A Pathc Release A FOUR TWENTIES FROM J. W. SAYRE, OF SEATTLE held back because in that area a one column slug is just as prominent as would be a four column enlargement an/d the smaller cut permits the better display. Up in Oregon and Washington they do even their advertising in a big way and use spaces that would bankrupt some theatres. It's pretty work, where you can afford it, and effective. Sells yiany Seats With Vive Inches Here are two good examples of the wajCliflf Lewis puts over his pictures at the Strand theatre, Syracuse, without much cost. Both are 35 by 2, which is just about a two two and a halfs. These are not standard style, for one dates back to last Summer. Cliff waits until he gets fifty or seventy-five samples before he shoots them in. The panel on Dix in The Lucky Devil shows what display may be had in a small space with comparatively straight makeup. The star name seems to have been cut from a STRANI' TOPICAL BEV1E\\ — STR AN D COMEDY j SYRACUSE CENTENNUl REVI^EW ^ j A Paramount Release A NEW FIVE INCHES mat, with a lot of talk set in around it, the title running in type. Because Dix's name is the only large face in the space, the display is just as prominent in the page as though he used a* two inch letter in a quarter page space. It's not the size of the letter, but the prominence you give it that determines the display value, and with nothing to fight but the signature and a twelve point title, he A First National Release ANOTHER FIVER gets the same relative display. There are four lines about the picture, the news reel and the comedy, and a special panel for a local feature tying to a celebration. And his space bill was for only five inches. Twenty inches probably would not have sold a single additional ticket, so what's the use of paying for the additional fifteen inches just to be a good fellow in the eyes of the advertising solicitor. Cliff can't see it. He's working for his boss and not for the news paper. For Sills, in The Knockout, he cants the panel to get a little more display. Here he gives almost equal value to star and play, though setting Sills' name in all caps gives this a little more display, though the title is more legible. He gives two lines of sales talk and three lines to the other features and still has time to tell that the house is "Cool as the mountain top. The ice plant does it." In the reduction the six point lines look very small, but it is a clear letter and as easy to read as the average ten point bold. We are using many of these Lewis ads because we think they are admirable examples of good display in a reasonable space. Sometimes it may pay to take a half page splash, but as a rule it is more profitable to hold the space bills small if you can get the display. Of course you cannot get the same effect with five inches where two or three other houses use twenty to forty inches, but unless you have to fight along those lines, it will pay to hold the space down and get the display through v.hite space and the intelligent use of small lines. Merchant Display Sells the Window More than one Metro-Goldwyn picture has been put over with the aid of a make-up girl in the window. The stunt has been worked The Leader Store Presents Miss Bernice Macateer Of The Metro-Goldwyn Motion Picture Corp. Producers of "A Slave of Fashion" Whclh Will Be Screcni-rt at SIGMA THEATRE In Their North Front Window Demonstrating the Famous Viegay — Karess — Fiancee A ids lo Beauty THl'lt.SD.iV. I'RU)/\V AM> S.XTUKD.W A Metro-Coldwyn Release THE MERCHANT AD on a number of titles and always with success. Apparently the M-G exploiters use this whenever they get a chance, knowing that in these days of paint and powder the stunt will interest almost every woman — and all men. Generally the stunt is purely a store window proposition, but in Lima, Ohio, the Sigma Theatre got the advantage of a store two threes announcing the event. The store evidently figured it would be worth while to use the newspapers for its display and get a still larger crowd. The idea is good, but the copy is a little too formal. It is just an announcement. A boldface, "The Art of Make-up" would catch the eye better than tlie name of the demonstrator, which means nothing at all. The name could have gone down to a ten point, with an eighteen point line for the stunt with profit to both the theatre and the store. The idea is not to put over Miss Macateer, but the display, and this should have been made the high light. But don't wait for an M-G man to come around and work for you. Sell it to your own druggist with a clever local girl in the window if you cannot arrange for aid from the makers of the cosmetics. There are many titles other than The Slave of Fashion for which this stunt will work, though that title seems to have been selected with an eye to its hook-up possibilities. It has been worth a lot of extra money to exhibitors quite apart from the drag of the title with the women customers. Flied Freshman Pat Argust used a novel advertising curtain for Harold Lloyd in The Freshman at the Rialto Theatre, Colorado Springs. A drop was lowered with a huge pair of glasses outlined in scrim. When the house lights went up, the glasses faded, giving place to a large football on which was lettered the announcement of the attraction. A Banner Idea For Griffith in A Regular Fellow D. Roscoe Faunce made a lobby display of two court tlunkies carrying an enormous silk hat, brim up, on which was a picture of the comedian and the necessary announcement. It made a striking display and did not require much building. Three thousand doorknobs were put out on the same title.