Moving Picture World (Jul - Aug 1918)

July 20, 1918 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 393 Well Put. E. P. Cox, of the Theater Louisiana, Baton Rouge, gives a new twist to the old war tax announcement. Others have found that you help the Government when you pay the tax, but Mr. Coe puts it — KEEP THIS IN MIND— that every time you attend any theater (through the war tax) you TAKE A SHOT AT A HUN, and statistics show that it takes several thousand shots to kill one Hun. Mr. Coe works another good idea. He runs a calendar underline, and when he has an open date he merely writes "Not booked" instead of announcing "Great surprise" or some similar rot. It gives the impression that he books with care, and it does not get the goat of the intelligent part of the patronage. He does not cry "Wolf" until he sees what it is. Getting in With the Town. The Theater Wilbert, Plaquemine, La., was only opened this year, but it has been hustling right along. Lately, Lionel Delacroix donated the house to the Thursday Music Club for an organ recital by a New Orleans organist, thereby winning the attention of the town to the fact that the organ in the house was a superior instrument, bringing out many who do not usually attend picture performances, and getting himself solid with the club and their friends. The club got out a 32page program that is as much an advertisement for the house as it was a source of revenue to the club. It is good work along the right lines, but we can't see a five-part feature being run through in 55 minutes even if there was an otherwise long program. Had to Run. Manager Charles W. Decker, of the Majestic, Grand Junction, Colorado, was up against it the other week. He had "Intolerance," "A Dog's Life," and "Tarzan of the Apes" all in the one week, and he was hard put to get all three on the front page of his Movie Fan, but he managed to locate them all. The Movie Fan, by the way, has closed its third year, an excellent record for a newspaper size four and eight-pager. Most houses drop down after a few months, but the Movie Fan stays put. It pays because Decker makes it pay. That's the secret. Ruff Stuff. Here is an example of what the patient exhibitor is up against. The stills or The Sign Invisible did not work well from an advertising point of view, and Ralph Ruffner worked up this three-sixteens from the press book, adding some groundwork to the figure taken from the press sheet. It would seem that good stills should accompany the state rights stories, but most of the stills are prepared by the cameraman, who may have no idea as to what constitutes a good advertising photo. This is the trouble that managers face all the time. The stills are made by persons who have no knowledge of the advertising end, and who probably would not care if they had. They shoot "dramatic" scenes and send them along whether they fit or not, and it is only by lucky chance that they fit. In this case a single figure was picked up and made use of, but there should be some effort made to supply exhibitors with proper materials for advertising purposes. We have passed the days when a ten-inch space was considered remarkable. This display is 48 inches, and it is through no credit of the company making the picture that the space was provided with an attractor The lower part of the space is given to a news film, featuring some pictures of the leper settlement, but the display can well take in two features of one bill, and it does not detract from the longer length to play up the single reel. A corking good advertisement is shown in the five sixteens reproduced here. The major portion of the space is taken up with the house name and the slogan, but it brings attention to the double bill with the major portion of the space driving In the house name. The house gets about two-thirds of the space, and it is the only advertisement we recall having seen that drives the house name in so prominently. Wo think it pays, because the house will still be there when the films are playing elsewhere, and it Is just as Important to feature the house as the attraction. Of course this day or every week, but for a always has favored the block sort of thing would not do for every "just once" it is hard to beat. Ruff letter in perspective, and used it frequently in Spokane. It looks just as well in the Portland papers. The small cut shows a special two-tens for a scenic. Apparently Ruff finds that it pays to play up these scenics and educationals, for he has several times played up the Finley Nature Pictures, but this special advertisement for an attraction to be shown the following day is something new. It is an unusual scenic, for that matter, but it takes nerve to pay newspaper space for a scenic, and it is in glaring contrast to the days when the scenic was tolerated as a necessary filler and left as severely alone as possible. As a matter of fact, sometimes a good scenic or educational will draw more business than a five-reel feature ; particularly a feature that does not utilize the services of a star of the first rank, and people who get the scenic habit will pay just as good money as those who come in for the drama. If you can get both classes you will be getting more money and more money will more than pay the cost of the extra advertising. Make more of your own educationals, play them up to the schools and give them special readers now and then. The experiment will not cost much and it certainly will interest you if you follow up the results. All in German. The Box Office Attractions Co., of Detroit, has gotten out a very effective bit of advertising for The Caillaux Case and other Fox war pictures. It is printed with German type, but in English, and purports to be a warning from the German Government against displaying the propaganda films for the sake of the extra money you wili