Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

— And Slide — imiDinaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiffiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim^ Industrial Film and Slide Section MARCH, 1918 81 Out of 86 Are Buyers After Seeing Motion Picture (Note: "A Modem Black Art" was produced by Essanay Film Film Mfg. Co., Chicago, exclusively for exhibition among the business men of America, and in order to instruct them in wsurding off a danger to which every business man is subject today.) 4 i A BLACK ART" was written to /a prove a pet theory that I have cherished and burned to test out for a dozen years, ever since the use of motion pictures became a commercial possibility— viz., that people learn more through pictures than through words. The proof of this theory, I believe, is that the film has been shown to thousands of bankers, members of chambers of commerce, rotary, credit men's associations, etc., in every state, and we have seldom had a report on anyone who witnessed it without admitting to our salesmen afterward that the Protectograph is a highly important item of office equipment. We have 500 salesmen in our organization, and they can "demonstrate" and spill out eloquence until they are black in the face, without convincing some men that unprotected checks are as dangerous as dynamite. But the film "gets across" where the most skilful salesman sometimes fails — proving that the motion picture has a place all its own in propaganda work. Myself, I claim no credit for special skill or "high art" in the writing of the "Black Art" script. I have written the whole thing, piecemeal, a thousand times before, in countless booklets and magazine advertisements. Some of these enjoyed circulations of "Over Two Million a Week," at an advertising rate of many dollars per word. They were carefully prepared, attractively arranged, entertaining, and illustrated by some of the best artists in the country. An Aid to Unsuspecting They appealed, probably, as widely as any printed advertisement for an office "specialty" can appeal — that is, to a certain fluctuating percentage of all the active business men who received the booklets or bought the magazines. But never, I must say, has any "copy" of Jack W. Speare, of Todd Protectograph Co., Tells How "A Modern Black Art" Was Filmed, Distributed and Tabulates Actual Results Obtained By Jack W. Speare, Advertising Manager, Todd Protectograph, and Author of "A Modern Black Art." iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii "Films are sure fire salesmen," declares Jack W. Speare of the Todd Protectograph Co., who uses them. iniinuiuiuiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiniii mine "pulled" 100 per cent of its total circulation, or elicited universal response — until I finally wrote it in the one universal advertising medium that never fails to deliver its message to every subscriber; the one medium that is indelible, that sinks in 25 so deep that it can never be entirely erased from memory — the film that carries a timely message in story form. The whole story of the "Black Art" is merely a slice out of real life, something that has actually happened to thousands of flesh-and-blood "Crustys" — honest business men who thought others as honest as themselves — and will happen to thousands more, so long as we pay for 92 per cent of all our purchases in this country by check (as we do), and some of them are allowed to go out unprotected. The characters, the incidents, the raised checks used as "examples" in the "Black Art" close-ups; the men who signed them, and those who raised them, are all taken from life. Real names are given, real banks are shown, and we have letters and the original checks themselves on file to prove the genuineness of every detail in the film. 94 Per Cent Sold All the parts except one in the picture are played by professional actors, and some of them are very good — particularly that old veteran, Harry Dunkinson, as "Crusty," and Ed Ashley, the director, as "Scratcher" the penman. But the greatest thing in the picture, to my mind, is the sincere and utterly natural work of "Sunny Jim" Gooding, the star salesman of the Protectograph organization, in the "lead" of "B. Good." It is the skilful work of this real salesman, in sticking to an apparently hopeless customer, with a velvet smile but an iron grip on his attention, that has made this film talked about among business and professional men as a novel and helpful entertainment feature. Something approaching a world's record for percentage of sales out of a "possible" 86 was made by our sales organization in Chicago, in connection with one of the many "Black Art" showings in that city in 1917. This particular show was given at one of the meetings of a certain merchants' association. Some 60 odd of the members were present. Three of our salesmen then took a copy of the entire membership list — 86^ names in all — worked it closely, and at "the end of sixty days we had checked up 81 sales of forty-dollar Todd machines. Out of the entire 86, not one failed to