Screenland (Sept 1922–Feb 1923)

The exploitation of "Beyond the Rocks" is really a preliminary step in its sale and distribution and is closely related to and connected with that part >f the work. Whatever the merits of a salable product of any kind, that product will not score a success unless the market is apprised of its existence and its merits. In the case of a motion picture, the market is primarily the general public and then the exhibitors who show pitcures. The purpose of the division of exploitation is to acquaint the public with the merits of the picture before it is released, by the medium of publicity and advertising. Publicity is prepared right at the west coast Paramount studio, some of it placed with news mediums in Los Angeles and other material sent to New York, the home office of Famous Players-Laskv Corporation where it is handled and distributed all over this country and abroad, by the efficient organized efforts of the far-reaching publicity department. The advertising on the picture is also handled from the New York office, where skilled artists and advertising experts draw up the advertisments, cuts lithographs and other adverti* ing matter, placing the ads m some of the most highly circulated magazines of the country. The lithographs, cuts, still photographs and other matter, known as accessories, are sent on to the exchanges and are there available for exhibitors in advertising the picture when they show it on the screen in their respective cities. P UBLICITY is that reading matter concerning the picture which is of news and feature interest and involves stories about the picture, the story, the people in the cast, incidents of unusual interest, news announcements, etc. The studio publicity department is one of the most thoroughly organized departments in the studio. At the Paramount studio the publicity department is composed of seven writers, under the direction of Adam Hull Shirk, west coast publicity director, two skilled news and portrait photographers, and a department secretary. Affiliated with the department are also three laboratory men who print and develop still photographs, and one SCREENL&KD Cdifi»* negative retoucher. Linked up with the department's activities is Jerome Beatty, who holds the important position of studio representative of the sales department and works in an advisory capacity with the publicity department among his other important duties. _ _ _„ ,. Four of these men, B. C. Kieslmg, M M Riddle (the writer of this series), Alfred D. Wilkie and James M. Fidler, handle the publicity for certain pictures in production, each man taking one or two pictures and handling all publicity and photograph D This is the way "Beyond the Rocks'* was titled— q D ree or Sam Woods and Elinor &y*t the authoress collaborated in writing them, submitting their work to the title department. material for those particular pictures. W. A. Reeve, assisted by Robert I. Alien, handles the placing of publicity with local mediums, such as the daily papers, news syndicates with headquarters or branches in Los Angeles, and correspondents of magazines. All of the departments activities are under the supervision of Mr Shirk. The photographers are Donald Biddle Keyes and Eugene Richee, who are well known in their profession by virtue of their photographic work, both news photographs and portraits. . The majority of all the personnel have had valuable newspaper or literary experience prior to their work in the publicity department. The avenues of publicizing and advertising "Bevond the Rocks" are newspapers, "fan" or motion picture magazines, technical magazines, periodicals, etc. Most of the publicity is directed to the ultimate consumer— the screen patron. The interest of theatre owners is aroused through the medium of publicity and advertising placed in theatre trade journals. For "Beyond the Rocks" something 47 like fifty stories were written. These included short news stories, magazine stories, newspaper feature stones and trade articles. About fifteen specially posed lithographs and advertising stills of Gloria Swanson and Rodolph Valentino were made and a number of offstage pictures of the star, the director and various members of the cast. Portraits of Miss Swanson, Mr. Valentino and other important members of the cast were also taken. As explained, some of this material was placed direct from the studio department and a large amount of it sent on to the New York home office where a large staff of experts placed it in the various mediums and sent it out over their comprehensive news lists. CHAPTER NINETEEN. Rental and Distribution. Distribution, as explained in the preceding chapter, is the third great arm of the motion picture industry. The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation maintains in the United States twenty-nine exchanges. The country is divided into districts, by population, and one or more of these key exchanges is in one or more large cities of each district. For instance, the Los Angeles exchange of the organization is in District No. 9, in which district are also the San Francisco. Portland and Seattle exchanges. Over each district is a district manager. Over each separate exchange there is also a manager. This Los Angeles exchange, which we will use as a model for our discussion of the distribution of "Beyond the Rocks," has for its sales territory Southern California, all of Arizona and a part of New Mexico and Nevada. The personnel of each exchange includes a number of film salesmen, the booker, the auditor, the accessories salesman and the exploitation agent. The latter co-operates with the individual theatre in advertising and exploiting the picture when shown at that theatre. Five or six prints of a picture are sent from the Lasky studio laboratory to the Los Angeles exchange, as to all other exchanges. This picture has been previously viewed by executive heads of the parent organization and classified as to merit, box office value artistic value, and a scale of rental (Continued on Page 60)