The Moving picture world (July 1926-August 1926)

''What's New"? By Bill Reilly We Need Public Opinion — Lets Qet It PROPOS of what was said in the editorial just one page forward. It is important for the public to .know just what it is voting for whenever it goes on record favoring any particular shade of picture material. Without knowing it the public might say that it liked a certain type of entertainment when unconsciously the work of certain stars in that specialized division would be the cause of its removal. * * * "The Covered Wagon" was more than a historicsd subject. "The Ten Commandments" was more than a bibtical picture. And, paradox as it may seem, it would be wrong to classify "The Big Pjwade" as a war subject. The success of any one of these does not at all indicate that pictures patterned after them will, in turn, succeed. The basic ingredient in picture making is picture brains. Not just brains. PICTURE brains. You may copy the product of these brains, but you cannot copy the functioning of a fine cinematic mind. * * * Some day the picture going public will not only know what it wants but will be able to tell its wants to the producers. The circuit of opinion is not closed yet. There is no outlet for the voice of the people. The box-office is its only mouthpiece, and at that, we cannot completely analyze why one picture registers at the box-office ; why another just misses greatness ; and whv another is a flat flop. We hear the box-office, but not always do we imderstand it. * * * The public must be trained to speak, but first it must be given a chance to speak. Some time ago we suggested "Picture Applause Cards." By such a device the radio stations know what entertainment is getting over and what is not. The "Picture Applause Card" we have in mind is not the general "Howdid-you-like-the-picture" card sometimes used, with a space for "Remarks." It would be framed to direct thinking in screen values. THE national advertisers in our business are pleased to get response to their copy. In fact, several campaigns are pointed for such a response, and keyed copy is used. Pathe's copy gets a good kick-back, and so does Carl Laemmle's "Watch This Column" advertising. When the sales campaign to the exhibitor on a particular picture is over, and when the exhibitor's campaign to the public is over wouldn't it be constructive if a producer had on record a composite picture of public judgment? Not box-office judgment, but an analytical dissection of the qualities that made the picture good', bad, or indiflferent in the public mind? After all, the screen does not belong to us. It belongs to the public. The picture theatre is not our own particular holy of holies. It is a public, not a private institution. And the public rushes in or fears to tread according to what's on a thin white sheet inside. Let's train them to tell us WHY they rush in and WHY thev fear to tread. Herr Rothax:ker — Innocent Abroad DURING the current hub-bub about the conduct of American tourists abroad, it is refreshing to note that one of our own boys overseas, Watterson R. Rothacker, behaved himself like an American and a gentleman under particularly trying curstances. Waiting in the New York Evening World under date of July 27, Karl K. Kitchen relates how he and Rothacker were sold down the river on the "Great German Exhibition" in Dusseldorf. Arriving there from The Hague in the rain they found the "Great German Exposition" made up of "two rows of two-story buildings filled with thousands of charts, models in miniature of water works and sewers, various types of garbage wagons, fire engines and chemical products for extinguishing fires." Kitchen continues "To escape the rain Rothacker and I sought shelter in building after building filled with statistical exhibits dealing with industrial hygiene and methods of combating occupational diseases. And when we stumbled into the anti-alcohol section of the social welfare exhibit which had scores of charts showing the effects of drunkenness, we were literally driven to drink. "My request to be directed to the nearest brewery resulted in our being escorted to an exhibit of a model l_/TTl_E F£ OVER. , FOf PLAY