Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

— And Slide — iiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Industrial Film and Slide Section APRIL, 1918 Screen Proves Its Selling Power For National Cash Register Co. EACH day brings forth new ways to utilize the motion picture. When the first movie shows were opened, the world scoffed and predicted failure. The art of motive photography had not as yet been fully developed ; the fine points of illustration were still imperfect. The only professionals who would play, with a few brilliant exceptions, were out of engagements and felt passionate yearnings to resume the pleasant habit of eating. In brief, the moving picture was an unexplored, untried, and unproven science. It was an experiment and unprecedented, and the people had little faith in it then. As a glorious monument to the determination and courage of the few men who saw the vision and followed it, we have the huge motion picture industry as it is today. The films are better, and afford a far better vehicle in many ways than the legitimate. Now the whole world is learning rapidly that the movies can instruct as well as amuse. The news weeklies and travel series have conclusively proven this. And if these can be called adequate proofs, one can easily understand why the public schools are incorporating moving pictures in their regular courses. One of the first men to give the screen a fair opportunity to prove its educational worth was John H. Patterson, head of the National Cash Register Company. He has always believed in "teaching through the eye" and, as early as 1891, was using stereopticons in instructing an industrial school, composed of his employes. He developed this, and still uses it to a great extent in connection with the many lectures he maintains on the road, and many of his sales agents have projection rooms in their salesrooms, where they show motion pictures and slides to illustrate the uses of the cash register to their prospective customers. Makes First Industrial The N. C. R. now owns, perhaps, the best non-professional collection of slides, numbering over 100,000 which are used in schools, colleges, Y. M. C. As., churches, clubs, commercial and civic organizations. They cover a large range of topics, such as landscape gardening, boys' gardens, industrial and health activities, welfare and John Patterson, User of First "Celluloid Salesman" Now Owns 500 Reels Which Exploit Products in All Parts of the World— Slides Enlisted Too By Clarence B. Greene Of the Ptiblicity Staff, National Cash Register Co. improvement work, travel, history, and many others which can be borrowed by responsible societies and schools. An excellent response has been given this generous offer, and the 65 stereopticon machines $13,000 IN SALES— ONE WEEK'S RECORD FOR THIS FILM 4 i rpHE N. C. R. film, 'TrouI bles of a Merchcint and ■■■ How to Stop Them' (3,600 feet) was shown to a quarter of a million merchants and clerks. In one week recently $13,000 worth of sales were directly attributed to the lesson it taught. Hundreds of letters proving its pulling power are in the files of our company. It deals with retail failures and causes, store organization, retail advertising, window display, clerks' efficiency, selling methods, credit business, delivery problems, system in retail stores, etc., and it stimulates the sale of National Cash Registers and N. C. R. Credit Files." — Clarence B. Greene. owned by the company are in constant use. As soon as the preliminary experiments in motion pictures were made, Mr. Patterson saw the unlimited future and applicability of the new vehicle, and in 1902, after using rented films with indifferent success, had the first industrial picture in the history of the commercial world made for exhibition in Dayton. 27 This was called "The Dream of the German Storekeeper" and compared the success of the average small storekeeper working without and with the N. C. R. system. The film was made by Gaumont, and a revised version was produced by the same company shortly after under the title of "GROCER JOHNSON." Another similar film was soon made, called "The Awakening of John Bond," perhaps, the most ambitious film of the time. The first Kinemacolor film ever produced in America was taken for the N. C. R. in 1911. The company now owns several of these films, and is the only industrial concern in the country using them, the enormous expense almost prohibiting display outside the best theaters. They cover many subjects, and Kinemacolor films showing backyard and neighborhood improvement, and the development of flowers, from seed to full bloom in a few minutes, are used in the lectures Mr. Patterson sends throughout the country to stimulate landscape gardening for residences, and welfare work. The N. C. R. film library covers 500 topics. From it are drawn the materials for many illustrated lectures that Mr. Patterson and his speakers present on many subjects throughout the country. The Company possesses the necessary equipment and facilities for taking and developing pictures, and during the recent convention of the wives of N. C. R. salesmen, it presented a daily snap film showing the ladies in impromptu groups throughout the big plant and about the city. "Troubles of a Merchant" The most important selling film owned by the N. C. R. is "The Troubles of a Merchant and How to Stop Them" of about 3,600 feet, which was produced for the company by Essanay. The film is used in connection with a store management lecture, and together they represent the results of 34 years' close study of business methods. It is a complete course in store management and is presented free of charge by the company in all parts of the country. It is probably the most successful industrial film now being operated. It has been shown before a quarter of a million