Showmen's Trade Review (Jan-Mar 1945)

The layout and cutting department in the production line of American Display's plant. Mass Production Spreads Use of Deluxe Posters "Lithographs and chickenwire" — remarked a theatre executive upon his return from a Bermuda holiday only a few years ago — "why it took me back to the days when I was starting in showbusiness as a kid projectionist's helper." He had been more impressed, it seemed, by finding one of Bermuda's leading theatres still using lithos held in the frame by chickenwire than any other thing he had observed during his vacation. Many showmen can recall the days when this was the accepted method of theatre lobby display and you may still be able to find a small village theatre here and there which clings to the practice. Lithographs were the basic medium of theatre front displays for many years and great strides were made in improving the quality of both the art and reproduction. Harry A. Samwick Where there is progress there is bound to be restlessness and showmen are among the most progressive and restless individuals in the world. Desire to improve the appearance of theatres, to out-glamorize a competitor in the manner of display for screen attractions, has led to great refinements in the design and treatment of lobbies and fronts. In this effort to improve display advertising, theatres large and small turned to the local sign shop for more distinctive posters. The large theatres began setting up their own art shops and a host of embryo artists became theatre poster men. In the development of the Baloptican projector it became possible for these flledglings to enlarge and trace heads of the movie stars and then paint them with opaque colors on cardboard. The Cutawl was developed on the principle of the electric sewing machine which enabled postermen to cut out intricate patterns from heavier cardboard and the art of applique lettering or back-lighted shadow-box displays developed. In these early days of poster art the likenesses of the stars, in many instances, were barely discernible and had the stars' names not been appended the posters would have been valueless from the viewpoint of the exhibitor— but, the showman could proudly stand in front of the theatre and explain to patrons : "My boy did that painting of Garbo, ain't it deluxe?" The poster artists who possessed talent for portraiture soon were in heavy demand by the big houses which could afford the higher tariff for display art, while the little exhibitorsblessed with a 'stooge' in the art departmentyearned for better likenesses of Garbo. About this time (1926 to be exact) Harry Samwick opened a small poster and frame manufacturing shop in New York City called The American Display Company. Samwick, recognizing the desire of showmen for better lobby display and aware of exhibitors' penchant for signing up for a service to get a new frame and then (after a brief use of the service) cancelling his poster orders and reverting to the good old lithographs while continuing to use the frame, decided on an odd-size poster frame which would not hold either a one or threesheet. This was a smart way of discouraging discontinuance of his service. The size of poster Samwick standardized was the now commonly accepted 40 x 60 which possessed a 'bull's-eye' effect in concentrating attention. His first service was a series of slidein paper snipes in transparency form with provision for local merchant advertising snipes at the bottom of the shadow-box display. The first installation was made in the Babylon Theatre, Bay Shore, L. I. for John Fitzgibbons, now chief of the Famous Players-Canadian Theatres. Fitzgibbons encouraged Samwick, helping him to obtain other theatres for the service which cost the exhibitor $2.00 per week, with Samwick receiving the advertising revenue to cover frame, sales and installation cost. From this modest start the service was expanded first to a 30 X 40 frame with the entire poster devoted to the selling of a single feature. These posters were also paper transparencies with heads of the stars cut out of stock lithos and illuminated from behind. Next another odd-size frame (which since has gone by the board) 36 x 64 was added for theatres deOne of the new Neo-Art displays which combines third-dimensional effect with neon-like lettering and handcoiored photo enlargements. siring larger displays on individual pictures. Then came the demand for overhead shadow-box banners and 24 x 60 and 24 x 82 transparency banners were added to the American Display line. The advertising heads of numerous large and still growing circuits swelled Samwick's list of clients; The production of so large a volume of pieces involved such a quantity of lithographs for cutout purposes and exhibitor demand for handpainted poster art led Samwick to venture into the field of silk-screen process display which had been developed with considerable success for commercial window displays. This move required further plant expansion and artists were employed to paint the heads for processingreproduction on translucent paper. This new form of poster art was used in place of the litho cut-outs on all sizes of posters and banners. The larger theatres — seeking to dispense with costly individually-supported art shops — sought distinctive displays and a new service (Continued on Page 40)