Reel Life (1915-1916)

' (1UT0AL i PICTURES] Reel Life The Mutual Film Magazine Published by the Mutual Film Corporation John R. Freuler President Edwin Thanhouser, Vice-President Crawford Livingston, Chairman of the Executive Board Samuel M. Field Secretary Felix E. Kahn Treasurer J. C. Graham, Assistant Treasurer Terry Ramsaye Editor Subscription rate, $2.50 per year; single copies, 5 cents. Ad dress all communications to Reel Life Department, The Mutual Film Corporation. 71 West Twenty-third Street New York City Telephone, Gramercy 501 Variety “Why do the profits follow the Mutual Pictures? I’ve got two houses. I use — pictures in one and Mutual in the other. Every time I switch the Mutual from one house to the other, the profits go right over to that house and the other proceeds to lose money. Why?” That was the question put up to a film expert in a big southern city the other day. A rather spirited debate arose in the little group of exhibitors and film company men gathered about. Out of it all came the common agreement that the Mutual pictures drew the box office returns because they presented a wide range of interest and variety that the pictures did not have. “Those pictures are good enough pictures, some of them great, but everything that concern turns out is on the same strain, the same sort of stories in every release, the same treatment. It gets monotonous and the people just naturally refuse to be amused. They want variety in their film drama just as surely as they want a mixture of comedy to relieve the tension of tragedy stuff.” The diagonsis made in that ante-room debate is probably correct. At any rate any observing exhibitor can find a most remarkable range of interest in the Mutual’s pictures, a big collection of stars of widely varying types, all kinds of stories in the films, selected from the works of authors and scenario experts who produce the best in the world’s market for screen literature. Mutual pictures present particular value because of this infinite variety. Everything goes by contrasts. The things which attract our attention, which amuse us, rest us. give us entertainment, are always the things that are “different.” Mutual pictures are all different. Always new, always up to a standard. * >1= * * Success Grows Every day or two the Mutual Film Corporation gets a letter or a message that tells of the taking over of a string of theatres by some successful exhibitor. There is evidence of the constant trend toward centralization of the exhibiting business in the hands of the exhibitors who have learned the business of “presenting pictures.” The man who does not know how to run his theatre is losing it into the hands of the man who does know how. A certain western exhibitor who two years ago was ust attaining a modest success with one house in a small town now has about twelve houses in the same territory. Week after week President Freuler is urging exhibitors to study the business of presenting true entertainment to their patrons. The future of the motion picture industry is very highly dependent on the success of the exhibition side of the business. The future of that phase of the business will be worked out. It is up to the exhibitors now in the business to work it out and to gather the profits from the successes to come in the future. Those who do not so exert themselves will go out of business. Boosting The Atlanta Journal believes more of the people in its territory ought to be patrons of the motion picture. Hence a series of "editorial ads” in which the following appear : Everybody knows that old tale about the Man Who Wouldn’t Wake Up. The children would run in and tell him about the beautiful procession that was pasing. He’d rub his eyes and say “Um-hm.” And then he’d go right back to sleep. Friend Wife would talk to him about the gay goings-on in the town and what fun the neighbors were having and all that. He would turn over and beg her to let him take another nap. So of course, first thing you knew, the Man Who Wouldn’t Wake Up came to be a Dull Old Thing. He got fat and soggy. He was behind the times. He didn’t know what was going on. He was a regular Sleepyhead. He didn’t know what he was missing. Do you know there are lots of people in Atlanta today who are exactly where this fellow was— they haven’t the faintest idea of what they are missing. They hear about the “Movies” — “Photo-plays/.’ They see the gay posters and the shimmer of lights at the playhouse doors. They gather that there’s something very entertaining about it all — but they don’t Wake Up enough to go after it. They like plays, they’ll tell you — REAL plays; but the price is prohibitive. They think a ten-cent show can’t amount to anything. Gee Whiz ! Why, Man Alive, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Don’t you know that today you can see the very biggest personages of Stage Life — the stars — the cream — the top notchers — the bigwigs of the drama, of the opera, of the ballet — at their very best in the Photo Picture Plays? You are of those who think the Movies are a sort of a toy business — just as some folks laughed at the telephone and called it a toy. Ditto the talking machine. These “toys” are serious business today. The Motion Picture of today is the wonder of the world — you don't* KNOW what you’re missing if you are not seeing it. Take SCENERY, for instance. You like scenery? Your stage actress flutters up and down a paper staircase, is wooed on a papier-mache bridge beside a canvas waterfall under painted pines, and wanders among gardens stuck with calico flowers by the stage carpenter and the property man. In the Motion Pictures the WORLD unrolls before you. Your motion picture heroine gallops across the REAL open on a REGULAR horse. She is a Japanese maiden in Old Nippon itself. She is Carmencita in Sunny Spain. She is a mountain lass in the heart of the Blue Ridge and you can all but hear the sigh of the million pines and smell the scent of the moonshine that they’re making in a real still. You see the plays staged in real tropical islands, in far cities and in remote jungles. You go aboard REAL ships and you view REAL storms. You journey to the gayest cafes of gayest capitals. You visit the heart of the Ghetto and you are whirled across vast prairies. You go under seas with the diver and you are spun through space with the aeroplanist. You don’t KNOW what you’re missing— if you're not a Movie Fan. Wake up — NOW. Show’s on — NOW. Take in at least one MOVIE a day and catch up. REEL LIFE — Page Twelve