We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
108 TITLES dent to get good ones. If you are denied what is apt to lead to trite- ness you will have to hustle to get live titles, and if you get good ones you are more apt to sell. 16. Avoid the suggestion of preachment or controversy in your titles. Even if you are writing a propaganda story, because you have been asked to, it really is not necessary to advertise the fact. Do not call a story on tuberculosis "The Great White Plague." "When Faith Grew Faint" will suggest an interesting story, but when faith grew famt then the heroine was led to proper treatment and a return of health. 17. Where possible suggest the style of the story in the tide, as ad- vised in paragraph five. There is no mistaking "Dough and Dyna- mite" for a drama, but "Love in Armor" suggests a romantic drama and not a comedian in a suit of tin clothes. Comedy titles should be in themselves humorous, if possible. Get them started on the laugh before the picture shows on the screen and you have that much start. This cannot always be done, but if it can be done without giving the effect of straining for a laugh, it is certain to be of good effect. 18. The iise of titles of copyrighted plays should be avoided, not because the copyright protects the title, but because there is common law to be dealt with as well. Lubin produced a farce done from an earlier story called "Will Willie Win?" The staff adapter called it "A Fool There Was." Its use was prohibited and damages collected because this latter title was already in use to designate a drama based upon the Kipling poem. In the same way "The House of a Thou- sand Scandals" was held to be an attempt to trade upon "The House of a Thousand Candles," and it was ordered to be abandoned. On the other hand "The Victoria Cross" was used as the title of a melo- drama presented some years ago with no very great success. When Bannister Merwin used the same title for a war drama it was sought to enjoin the use of the film title, but no injunction issued because it was held that the London Film Company was making no effort to trade on the reputation of the almost forgotten stage play and that the latter property could suffer no injury. It is better not to use any old title, but if you do by chance use a title already employed, you need not concern yourself. Most companies maintain some form of record for released titles. If they do not, it is because they do not care and if they do not care you can spare yourself anv mental anguish on their account. 19. As has been shown, a bright and suggestive title may be the start of a play as a whole, which is another reason why you should try to gain proficiency in title writing. Use the card system as suggested, and make title work a daily exercise. Look for titles in street car advertisements, in magazines, in the newspapers, in shop windows and wherever your glance may fall. You never can tell where your titl^ will come from, and you are as apt to find it in the bottom of your cocktail^ glass as on top of a twenty-stor>' building. Wherever you see it note it down and see what it suggests to you. Read the titles in the