Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

M A G A Z, I N E iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ INDUSTRIAL FILM SECTION OFFICIAL ORGAN. SCREEN ADVERTISERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE WORLD Films in Public Service Propaganda SHORT time ago there flashed upon the screen at the Strand Theater in New York a feature film that bore the caption, "Whispering Wires of War." It was a short film, lasting some ten or fifteen minutes, but it gripped the audience and pulled them up stiffly in their seats, as few films do. One saw thousands of soldiers training for signal corps work. One saw them parading before the men who led them in telephone work in time of peace, saw them in companies stringing wires up to the firing line to keep the fighting men there in communication with headquarters, connecting up with the batteries and directing the fire of the guns, which will growl and thunder until they have the opportunity to send their compliments to the Kaiser in Berlin ; signalmen carrying wires out into "no man's land" with the charging Yanks in khaki, and these same wire experts going out in the face of heavy shellfire to repair breaks in the telephone lines so that communication with front line observation posts could be maintained. The telephone in balloon observation work was illustrated, and the wireless telegraph and the wireless telephone, too, came in for attention. It was a real film. In Reality a Publicity Film There was hardly a hint of business publicity, and yet "Whispering Wires of War" was produced by Leggett and Gruen How the American Telephone and Telegraph Company Get the Public's Co-operation and Improve Their Organizations With Educational Moving Pictures By A. B. Stearns Corporation and issued by the Pathe Exchange in co-operation with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, the parent organization of the nation-wide Bell Telephone System, to show the people of the United States something about a little known, but tremendously important phase of modern warfare — telephone communication. We do not realize it, but the fact is, the United States is the world's greatest developer of mediums of communication, particularly the telephone. We have a telephone system — the Bell — which provides direct communication with more places than there are postoffices. We have a transcontinental telephone line 3,400 miles long, that is unmatched, and we use the telephone more often and in more ways than the people of any other nation. We have turned our peace-time knowledge of telephony to splendid account in the great war. Our people ought to know something about it — hence the film, "Whispering Wires of War." For a long time the telephone people have appreciated the educational value of motion pictures. Five or six years ago they issued a two-reel picture, entitled "The Telephone Girl," which told the story of the selection and training and working environment of the telephone operator. It was designated to give information to young women who might be interested in telephone operating as a profession. It did that, but without constantly intruding irritating propaganda upon those who saw it. I mention the lack of irritating propaganda because of a remark made by a Y. M. C. A. secretary, who recently returned from service in France. At his hut they received a film which was designed to take the audience on a trip through the most picturesque sections of America by automobile. It made the trip all right, but the name of the sight-seeing car was the most prominent object in every scene, and it wasn't long before the dough-boys became disgusted and left before the trip was completed. Resented Too Much Advertising "If the producers of that film had shown the auto in the first scene with whatever advertising they wished to give, and had shown it again with publicity at the end of the film, they would have put their message across without difficulty and would have won the favor of their audience. But their anxiety to advertise caused them to overdo things to their cost." Thus the Y. M. C. A. man summed up his indict The effectiveness of the "close up" in demonstrating the solution of the labor problem in a modern telephone exchange. "^^mmm mis^nstcr The picture shows how the linemett work at far distant points, away from civilisation. Make Your Dollars Fight