Paramount Pep (1923)

8 PARAMOUNT PEP Australian Paramount Pep Club Picnic On February 27, the newly formed Paramount Pep Club at Sydney, Australia, stepped out on their initial social event at Clifton Gardens. The picnickers left Paramount House via a fleet of trim autos, each displaying two banners, one to identify the passengers and the other referring to one of our forthcoming productions. The autos transported the picnickers to a boat which took them to the Gardens via Chowder Bay. The minute they arrived at the grounds the program of events commenced which kept everybody busy indulging in the many sports such as running races, swimming races, potato races in which both men and women participated — however, the greatest race was that for the eats, and everybody came in first on this one. Mr. N. B. Freeman, formerly a member of our Albany Sales Force and now Special Representative of our Sydney office, is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the club and he gave a brief talk on the purpose of both the club and the picnic. Mr. John W. Hicks, Jr., gave a short talk, one however, that was very impressive. He predicted every-success in the world for the club and stated that it was bound to bring about a better cooperative feeling among the members of the organization. Wm. R. Hoggan also gave a very interesting talk. When the sun went down about 6:30 they all gathered together to return home after pronouncing it a bang of a success and an exceptional fine start for social activities of their Paramount Club. We will show you photos next week of the interesting events of this picnic. Hoggan on His Way to The States General Sales Manager, Wm. R. Hoggan, of Sydney, Australia, has left there and is well on his way to the U. S. A. Mr. Hoggan will come direct to New "Vork to confer with E. E. Shauer, Director of our Foreign Department and will also bring with him a film taken of the first annual Paramount Pep Club picnic in Australia. _ A hearty welcome awaits Mr. Hoggan. Our Foreign Department Traffic Keeping the world satisfied and happy through the medium of its motion picture entertainment is no small task, as is reflected by the operations of our Foreign Department during the first quarter of the year. General Traffic Manager P. H. Stilson, has just reported to E. E. Shauer, our Foreign Director, that shipments of film to all foreign countries during the first three months totalled 4,638,503 feet. This is at the annual rate of approximately 18,500,000 feet. This does not include all of the footage used abroad, as our British organization manufactures prints for its use from negatives shipped to London. Every three months our Foreign Department places on board ships and trains for foreign countries enough film, if placed end to end, to reach from New York City to Chicago. No wonder Paramount is a household word in every civilized country on the globe! One shipment of film and advertising accessories for Australia and New Zealand consisted of 630,168 feet of film which, with advertising matter, filled sixty-five large packing cases. We think of Cuba as being a small country, but this does not apply to the standard by which Paramount is judged in that island republic. As an illustration, one shipment of advertising matter despatched to the Caribbean Film Company at Havana, recently consisted of twenty bulky cases of heralds, posters, cuts and other advertising matter. One begins to appreciate the immensity of the labors falling upon the shoulders of Mr. Shauer and his department if they are to keep the world smiling for the remainder of 1923 and the years to come, when a moment’s consideration is given these statistics. “Blood and Sand” Excites Fans The sensational success scored by “Blood and Sand" and “The Sheik,” in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, has created the most intense excitement among the motion picture fans of those countries, if one may judge from the frantic demands for photographs from these two Paramount productions which are pouring in upon the foreign publicity and advertising department. One young woman in Christiania, Norway, has been so overcome by these two productions that she has expended $12 of her savings in purchasing stills and by the time the summer is over will be the proud owner of several hundred stills showing her favorite sheik and toreador in action. This probably will stand as a record for all time.