The Moving picture world (January 1926-February 1926)

February 13, 1926 Moving Picture World 621 The Tie-Up of Tomorrow — ByBaiReiiiy The Rowdy WHEN radio took u]) the MANTLE of the "infant industry," dropped from the shoulders of the picture business, ])honograph manufacturers were inclined to PATRONIZE the youngster. The DOCTORS gathered round and gave the CHILD a short time to live. As time slipped by, the doctors were surprised to see this offspring of the air grow lusty. AND cut in on their business. Still they figured this state of affairs could not last. THEY were institutions, these phonograph houses. Their organizations girdled the globe. Their foundations were DEEP and SOLID. This adolescent Samson could not shake their temple,! The PUBLIC would tire of his stuff and put him in his place. That's the way the old-line FOUNTAIN PEN manufacturers figured a few UPSTARTS who dared to trespass in their BAILIWICKS. It would be all over in smart time. Far from being all over yet, the fight for fountain pen business keen as it is, is just BEGINING. It is common knowledge that phonograph manufacturers have buried the HATCHET against radio. . The ENEMY is now the ALLY, both in manufacture and selling. Radio cannot be much of an enemy, to the movies. But it DECIDEDLY can be an ally. It is a great promotional instrument, the possibilities of which have been hardly more than topped by the picture industry as a whole. "Radio Movie" Over WJZ The most recent tie-up between radio and the movies — First Nationals' broadcast of a "RADIO MOVIE" over WJZ — has proved such a success that the station has made it a WEEKLY feature. To make the tie-up more effecttive, the half hour playet on the air Thursday night is taken from a picture released the following Sunday. Letters from radio fans and from EXHIBITORS have been most encouraging to First National and to WJZ, a station covering a po])ulation of 60,000,000 people. The picture of tomorrow will not be released until a RADIO TIE-UP has been effected on it. The form this tieup will take is necessarily a matter of experiment, evolving LEGITIMATE radio entertainment. Which is at the same time an effective advance agent for the picture. The tie-up brains of the picture business are entirely too FERTILE to let this angle go UNEXPLOITED. If NEWSPAPERS and MAGAZINES find morning picture views indispensable to circulation holding, RADIO stations will find that the movie is an attention getter and an attention holder, when properly presented. The movie edition of BOOKS becomes a hack job compared to the RADIO tie-up. If a PLAYING CARD company can cast Work and Whitehead, the bridge experts, in radio roles, our own PICTURE Exploiteers can go that one better. Suppose Queen Marie were to go on the air? Suppose Cecil de Mille were to shoot a picture before the MICROPHONE, after instructing his stars with the studio bell ringing, and an orchestra giving the dramatic tempo? Suppose Charlie Chaplin becomes one of the Happiness Boys for the night? Or one of the Smith Bros.? Suppose the MANY commercial organizations using radio time are consulted and a tie-up WITHIN a tie-up effected, with advertising copy and window displays worked out on a mutual benefit basis country-wide? We repeat : The Picture of TOMORROW will be STEPPED UP by radio. It now remains for our own advertising and publicitv engineers to STEP up and DO THEIR .STUFF. r> AT L Moving Picture World By Nyherg g^^g Artist