Publix Opinion (Jun 22, 1929)

~ 2s oe & | mons Tuesday calling for his presence at +| ‘The Trial of Mary Dugan,’’ at the mount theater NTAIN|& olly-| = KEN; ; San); KIRK: hours of | some of | 8 of the air) aT * is, : val 3 W : é l : ¥ uk c a 4 rt of AA PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF JUNE 22np, 1929 _A SURE-FIRE GAG! Manager Raymond B. Jones, of the Paramount Theatre, Omaha knows that the picture of the mayor will always crash the newspaper, so he used this method to get some valuable publicity for “The Trial of Mary Dugan,” when it played his theatre. : SUMMONED FOR TRIAL Mayor Dahlman was served with a sum the summe ger of the theater Para LET’S TELL THE WORLD ! tldn't we Tell the world! wh find with ourselves, business, the ains that Publix and Paramount helds the highest place of all in the amusement industry, int effectiveness. By effectiveness, we mean that our as directed by duly constituted leadership, are the most profitable, in the business. At the same time we possess undisputed place on the pinnacle of public good will Why sh y it No matter faults we may or with our fact re Pp: ot efforts lil. but we ARE the greatest out’ Yes, we still have faults fit in the world | improving! Our leadership is reliable, permanent, and effective, and our places in the rank and file are aS secure as we can make or better them. — We've all worked hard—we are all working hard, and intelligently. ereat pride. executine our efforts sanely, We have leaders in whom we justly take We have associates within our organizations of whom we are equally proud. We take great pride in ourselves, as individuals, for being a part of these distinguished groups. Man for man, and post for post, show business in all its history can offer no parallel to rival Publix and Paramount We have honestly won our honest part of bettering our job to let the us. So let’s tell the world That Messrs. Zukor, Katz, Lasky, Kent and other leaders in Paramount and Publix are cognizant of this, and want the story of Publix and Paramount to be told, is obvious by the sponsorship of the Publix-Paramount Edition of “Variety,” the bible of show business. Everybody in the industry reads “Variety,” and in addition, it is read by every newspaperman who writes of the theatre. So we are telling our story r weeks. We should tell all the story. We want it told conservatively and truthfully. The public wants and is entitled to know. the facts about the organization that their most appreciated recreation, In order to do it requires thought and effort on the part of a great many people in both organizations. Messrs. Botsford and Holman are preparing the edition of “Variety” that will contain the statistical matter and stories of our man-power and our subsidiaries. if anything is omitted, it is because you have failed to submit what you know or can do, to aid them. A vast amount of material is necessary. A vast amount of advertising is necessary. There are a great many firms and connections outside of Publix and Paramount. who by excellent service or merchandise, have helped us to our surpremacy. These people are entitled to advertise their connection, if they wish, and you should tell them, a right to our pride, the laa were yee the world accords us leadership, So e tefully acknowledge the compliment. The “Variety” Ditien provides the medium if you will do your part. position, and it is an world know about in “Variety” in a few provides and we have a right to tell In the picture with the mayor are Police Lieutenant N. B. Jensen, who served and Raymond B. Jones, mana INO NLA NETL =| picture SMUTTY ADS ~~ PUBLIX (Continued from page 1) clean-up campaign instituted by | the Hays office and has promised \its ready cooperation, as far as | Publix theatres are concerned, in | |coping with this menacing evil. “There is, of course, no ques-| tion but that distributors as well | as theatre managers have, in| many instances exceeded the | bounds of propriety in advertising certain pictures,” declared Mr. Sam Dembow. “Prom our standpoint, we are ready and willing to cooperate with the Hays organization to) the fullest extent so that at least | Paramount-Publix will not be) counted -among the future of-| fenders in this respect. The entire matter will be brought up for discussion at an early, Cabinet meeting.” | Mr. Botsford, too, announced |that Publix advertising men all ialong the line would be instructed to exercise the utmost care, in the composition of their ads, to eliminate any copy or picture which might be in the least way questionable or offensive. “Publix is solidly behind this | effort to remedy the present situation,’ said Mr. Botsford, “] do not think any of us have been sufficiently on the. job in this respect. We are all apt to blame the other fellow. We will have to do something besides call the attention of the Hays organization to the other fellow’s advertising. “We correct our theatre whenever we catch them using advertising copy that is objectionable. We shall continue to do this and enlarge on it in a firmer manner than ever before.” . Paramount will also take steps to insure a strict surveillance over its advertising. ‘We want to form a clearing | house for ideas for advertising,”’ | declared Mr. Kent, “just as we now have a clearing of ideas} for story treatment — similiar | to that which Col. Joy operates on the Coast. When a doubtful | scene arises in production, Col. | Joy comes over to the studio | and sits in with the producers. | We want to do the same thing) on our advertising and publicity, in order that we can prevent) any legislation against us. “We are starting a very big! campaign in two states to have) censorship repealed instead of letting it spread. We cannot) start these campaigns unless we | are sure that we won't be blown | out of the water by our own mistakes.” | Many striking examples of the nefarious effects of carelessly) |supervised advertising were fur-| ‘nished by the Hays office. In one town, “Our Dancing Daughters’) which in itself contained nothing} objectionable, was banned by the} mayor who, without seeing the picture, ordered it off because he objected to the advertising. “The cuts advertising this show,” \the mayor said, in announcing that ithe picture had been banned, “are | | indecent, immoral and lascivious land it is this character of enter-| |tainment that lowers to the very }depths the moving picture shows. I wish you to understand that you! cannot pull anything like this in| this town.” Refuses Ads One of the most influential | newspapers in Washington, Dog. where the Brookhart Bill stares | Branch lwere addressed by Mr. Kent and |Representatives. J. ‘Sales Manager addressed the Ad | Sales men. ;A number \from a theatre when the picture offensive advertising, unfavorable one in the face, where a federal censorship bill is introduced with each new Congress, where the Federal Motion Picture Council maintains a lobby against moving interests, where more newspaper correspondents are assembled than in any city in the world —informed the Hays office | that it continually and repeatedly CHEER NEW PARAMOUNT “PRODUCT (Continued from page 1) At the end of the fourth day, so great was the enthusiasm for the Paramount product for the coming season that even the most conservative among the delegates felt |no hesitancy in prophesying one of the greatest peaks of Paramount progress within the, next few months. The fifth day was devoted to imeetings of the Branch and Dis tict Managers, Bookers and Salesmen and Ad Sales Managers. The and District Managers their respective Division Managers. The Bookers and Salesmen were addressed by Stanley Waite, Miles Gibbns, Frank Garbutt, the West Coast Laboratory; William Sussman, Herman Lorber and G. K. Haddow, Home Office A. Clark, Ad ed So ————————————— has to turn down motion picture advertising because it is too “filthy for our standards of what a selfrespecting newspaper sheuld earry.”” That same newspaper, be leause of those very advertisements, has editorially urged the need of federal censorship, not because of the contents of pictures, but beeause of the advertising and flashy titles! One of the pivotal men in the movement instituted by scientists to diseover if the movies were an incentive to crime, Dr. Joseph L. Holmes, of the Department of Psychology, Columbia University, eompletely exonerates.the movies; | but the victory is marred by this statement: “JT cannot talk on motion pictures and preserve my honesty without stressing frankly my belief that advertising of pictures is unwholesome and bad. I shall also have to express myself on the abundance of deliberately tiltillating titles. I believe the content of the picture is guarded with reasonable care but I know of no defense that can be set up for-a great deal of current motion picture advertising.” The Hays organization does not demand any curtailment of creative imagination and inventiveness on the part of advertising and publicity men. They merely point out the absurdity of allowing employees to jeopardize the property of the company they represent by the continuance of such obscenity. They suggest that the real trouble might be with a very limited number of men, “too close to Broadway," and their imitators; and that the breeziness, frankness and vulgarity which too often is confused with sophistication, is not acceptable to the cities and towns which make up the bulk of motion picture business.” The Hays office further points eut that a great deal of business is lest by. salacious advertising. of people stay away there is advertised in such a faskion as to create the impression of being salacious. Inasmuch as, in ithe majority of cases, the picture litself hasn’t the lightest trace of | anything objectionable, the theatre manager loses two ways—from the patrons who don’t go in because of and from the impression in the minds of those who, believing the picture to be of the type advertised, go in and find that it has been misrepresented. The number of objections to this type of advertising is steadily growing larger, even within the industry and those closely connected with it. The concensus of opinion seems to be that this kind of advertising serves only to provide effective talking points for Canon Chase.