The Moving picture world (July 1926-August 1926)

July 17, 1926 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 163 Malaney Has Novel Background for Kiki Opening Novel Background For a Kiki Space M. A. Malaney recently set a Harold Lloyd advertisement against a repetition of the name, but he did even better for Kiki at the Stillman Theatre, Cleveland, when he set this play against a background of checkerboard pattern with one letter in each square. A First National Release A NOVEL BACKGROUND He has been taking chances with halftones again, but this time the cut came through very nicely and adds materially to the effect of the space. One thing we like about Mr. Malaney's planning is his cautious avoidance of reverse panels and clouded letters. He feels that when he pays money for a display he wants display and not an excess of art work. It's all right to use trick grounds and art work, but put your announcement where it cannot become lost. You seldom catch Malaney throwing his space money into the art room. He uses art work to enhance his display, not to kill it. A Shaded Qround For Capitol Ads The Capitol Theatre, Montreal, sends in three examples of recent spaces from which we select one on Don Q for reproduction. It suffers from the usual fault of letting the artist trying to do it all when the type founder can produce much better lettering, but apart from this it is a nice display. Some day we hope to be able to vivisect an artist and find out why it is that artists as a class think they can print better than a printer. The Capitol artist has a very bad case of this particular form of bighead, and he wastes a lot of his employers' money in an effort to do more than he is paid for. In this particular display he has spoiled what might have been two good banks below the title, and that panel off to the side would have been better had it been mortised, but he complacently does all of the lettering. He has some excellent ideas as to makeup, and this space is very nicely laid out. He has reproduced well the characteristic face in the upper left and the full figure on the right has real spirit, but he will not stick to what he does best. He wants to do it all and succeeds only in spoiling the general effect. The lined background seems to be a Benday; either machine or paper, and it gives a good backing that is more effective than a border would be. The space is a four sixes. He uses the same ground for Infatuation, but with a slanting instead of a straight line. This space is fourteen inches across four, with two ovals taking most of the space. One of these is given to Miss Griffith, with a sketch" that seems to be handwork, but which has a halftone quality. It is a very fine piece of drawing. The other oval is devoted to an orchestra and a toe dancer, with small panels below for the added attractions and the underlines. This is a pretty layout, but rather wasteful in space unless there is some reason for endowing the newspapers. A third example is only fourteen inches deep over four, and is split between Gilda Gray in person and The American Venus. This has a white background, with a twopoint rule on two sides and twelve point on the others. The layout is attractive, but is spoiled with the same all-hand work. If the Capitol artist would only be willing to co-operate with the printer he could turn out some of the prettiest displays in Canada, but he simply will not realize that he is not able to do good small hand lettering. Eddie Hyman, of the Mark Strand Theatre, Brooklyn, has the only good small letterer we know of, and we understand that Eddie has a second man for the art work. This Capitol artist works in larger spaces and can let in real type if he only would. Hyman needs handwork because his spaces are necessarily small. You do not need small hand letters in a space of four tens or larger. Kiwanis Assisted The Kiwanis Club of Oklahoma City started a safety campaign with three prize slogans and had the idea over strong when Bob Hutchinson, of the Liberty Theatre, added his own snappers, with "Don't kill a child, or you'll be Outside the Law." Co-operating with Universalist Jack Meredith, he used one inch scatters all through the newspapers, and pleased the Kiwanians immensely. It helped him to get permission to use a bucking Ford that clearly was Outside the Law, and^o park all the wrecked cars the garages could spare at stragetic points afong the traveled streets, each with its safety drive banner and reference to the Chaney issue. A United Artists Release A NICE DISPLAY ON FAIRBANKS IN DON Q SPOILED BY HAND LETTERING