Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

REEL and S LIDE " Dramatizing" the Adding Machine Educational Interest and Amusement Combined Cleverly in Burroughs Film Screen Story of Inventor, Invention and Development of the Accounting Art S' By E. J. Clary OilE time ago Reel and Slide described the Todd Protectograph moving picture production, "A Modern Black Art," which set the pace in screen exploitation of office appliances. Between the successful attempt and the present Burroughs Adding Machine Company's campaign, there seems to be a gap. The Todd screen story was designed for special showings before selected audiences of business men and to that degree it was filmed for what might be termed "class audiences." The Burroughs film, produced by the Bray Studios, Inc., and supervised by J. R. Bray, was designed to get and hold the attention of selected audiences of business men and also the general theater-going public. To arouse sufficient interest in a subject so apparently dull as an adding machine so that the miscellaneous audiences in our theaters will become interested, was the problem Mr. Bray faced in his undertaking. As a part of this 2,000-foot Burroughs production was to be used as an industrial feature in the Paramount Bray Pictograph — the magazine on the screen — the subject called for unusual resource and a through grasp of the motion picture angle of the undertaking as well as of the advertising angle. Dramatizing a Machine The complete Burroughs picture in its entirety is 2,000 feet in length, or two reels. It is being exhibited before Rotary and other clubs and before conventions of business men. Certain parts of it were extracted, edited down, elaborated on and included in issue No. 6091 of the Bray Pictograph, going out over the regular Pictograph circuit and getting exhibitions in the leading theaters of the United States served by Paramount Exchanges. It was Mr. Bray's problem to make this industrial feature of sufficient interest and educational quality to meet the editorial standards of the Pictograph. He did so by means of a clever combination of humor, educational interest and human interest. He pictured, as it were, the "romance of the adding machine" and he called it, "The Machine That Thinks." The result was striking. In no instance is the Burroughs Company or their product given precedence over the editorial interest of the feature itself. Taking into consideration the wide national circulation of the Pictograph and the almost continuous showings of the Burroughs 2,000-foot unit, it is estimated that the films will carry the adding machine message to between 2,500,000 and 5,000.000 people in 1919. This production was primarily designed to aid the Burroughs salesmen in convincing their prospects of the high degree of development and the advanced degree of service that goes with every Burroughs machine. A scheme of co-operation has been worked out by the Burroughs advertising department so that the salesmen and dealers can reap the direct rewards of this screen publicity. The element that impresses the advertiser most in connection with this campaign lies in the subtlety with which the publicity was secured without obvious advertising and without alienating the attention of theater goers. Entertainment Par Excellence The Burroughs picture as it appears in the Pictograph visualizes the development of book keeping and accounting from the good old days of Mr. Stonehatchet to the present day of the adding machine. The scenes are rapid fire. They are a combination of cartoons and life pictures, taking the audiences to many lands and showing how the most unusual and curious systems of accounting are carried out. With this brief but complete history of accounting, the film merges into the modern way — the Burroughs way, and the many marvelous things accomplished by the modern adding machine are demonstrated on the screen. A brief synopsis of the history and development of the original Burroughs model and a portrait of the inventor are included. Of course, the 2,000-foot production is more complete, showing the Burroughs factory and delineating more detailed information concerning the machine itself and what it is designed to do. The Burroughs Company consider this screen campaign as merely a part of their general advertising and promotion work. We quote from their notice to dealers concerning the film : "Two million persons — and that is a conservative estimate — will see Burroughs propaganda during the coming year. They will see it projected on the movie screens of thousands of theaters throughout the country. Two million is the estimated minimum "circulation" that will be given to Bray Pictograph No. 6091, a section — in fact, the greater part — of which consists of an entertaining "picturized" Burroughs message. The two-reel Burroughs film, "The Machine That Thinks," was shown first at the agency managers' convention in February, 1918, and has since been exhibited before Rotary clubs and similar organizations throughout the six districts. Working with the Burroughs advertising department, the Bray Studios have shortened the epic of Mr. Stonehatchet and succeeding keepers of books into a single "topic" which has been incorporated in a magazine film. Sent out through film exchanges as other Bray Pictograph "releases" are distributed, the picture will be shown as a part of the regular program of theaters from coast to coast. Picture Shown at Strand "It is to be understood that the Pictograph is supplementary to the Burroughs advertising program and that it does not supplant any feature of that program. It will not take the place, to any degree, of magazine advertising, or supersede the tworeel, all-Burroughs film now being shown before clubs. But the Pictograph, with its powerful appeal to general interest, its broad circulation and the lasting impression it is bound to leave upon the minds of those who see it, is certain to be a potent factor in the sum total of our advertising effort. Burroughs representatives "out in the field" will be interested, of course, in the Pictograph ; they'll want to see it when it comes to their towns. The picture has recently had its "premier" at the Strand theater in New York and is now being shown in a number of other cities." The use of the film in a nation-wide way is made possible by the use of portable projectors. The advertising department has seven district advertising manager in the field, and these men book the film and exhibit it in their respective territories. As a rule, special trips are not made for this purpose, the machine and film being a part of the traveling equipment of each field advertising field men. A new Burroughs film on the bookkeeping machine is being prepared now and will be released early in March. This will be a one-reel subject. Like the first film, it is produced by the Bray Studios. Projector Installed in Charleston Y.W. G. A. With Miss Sutherland Griffith of Los Angeles, Cal., at the head of its program, the moving-picture section of the National Y. W. C. A. is planning to both give and make "movies"' on a large scale in its after-war program. Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and her committee on housing of the National Y. W. C. A.— the same committee that handled the housing of girls in government employ in Washington, D. C, during the past year — has just approved the buying of a projection machine, booths and screen to make possible the giving of moving pictures in the first of the Y. W. C. A_'s new recreation houses which is soon to be opened in Charleston, S. C This means that the girls who will make the recreation house their home will enjoy one evening each week of moving pictures in their own hall and conducted by a Y. W. C. A. committee. Miss Griffith is taking great pains in the selection of pictures.