Tullar's Weekly (May 1924)

WILL ROGERS AND THE CALIFORNIA THEATRE Here’s an actor as good as any, and a theatre as good as any. The latter is especially exploiting the exhibition of the former, and they both pay money to me for my paper. Makes me think I have some- thing when such people, and plenty more like them, buy my' stuff. LOOK IN THEIR FACES Exhibitors tell me that it’s a good practice for the manager to go down in the front of his house, while a picture is being screened, and look at his audience. What he sees will prove whether the picture is hold- ing attention. I have addressed enuf crowds to know this test is a good one. This is more dependable than what patrons say, or don’t say, even when they are doing a lot of thinking. PATHE’S KICK BACK ADVERTISING ON “THE WAY OF A MAN”—A POOR SERIAL This is a very ordinary serial. The story had a real author, Emerson Hough, and that is all that can be said. The picture will not help the author to rest in peace. Exhibitors won’t have any love for the salesmen that sell this one. Yet, Pathe goes ahead with double-truck ads and boldly states that this serial is as for above other serials as the Eiffel Tower is above the Paris roof tops. I never knew before that these roofs are so high and the tower so low. Pathe underscoringly claims this serial has eveiy- thing, when, as a matter of fact, it has nothing. There is no poorer serial on the market that I know' of and I make it my business to know. There will be’ a just kick-back from the exhibitors who fall for the advertising in this case. How foolish to make people believe a picture is good, and buy it, only to lose a lot of trade in the future. It is unfair to ex- changes to have to take the kicks that are going to come. THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED Mr. Exhibitor, you have some empty seats on cer- tain days which you would like to fill, haven’t you ? There are plenty of people w'ith money, looking for entertainment, waiting to fill them. The trouble is with you. Your shows are not good enuf; you run too much sick film. You are probably running too much of the non-entertaining feature-length stuff without carefully selecting this part of your program. You show' too many cheap comedies, about as funny as a funeral. You are not using carefully selected, funny comedies, and other good short subjects. You are overlooking novelty films like the cartoons and scenics. There are a few good serials which you might! use. Maybe you go on the theory of the public be damned. Well, you can get away with that plan for a little while, but, ultimately they get your number, and then they snare your goat, with apologies to Will Rogers for the expression. I do not want to run your business. I give you credit for knowing your own business, but you can not deny what I am telling you about your goat. BLUFF This is the working title of a new so-called fea- ture. I have seen a lot of them lately that were maae from the same material. FEATURES Entertaining—Book Them Slave of Desire Broken Hearts of Broadway George Washington, Jr. Meanest Man in the World Call of the Wild Judgment of the Storm The Acquittal Rosiat The Unknown Purple Flaming Youth Big Brother The Fog The White Tiger The Humming Bird Secrets Little Old New York Fool’s Highway Non-entertaining—Pass Them Day of Faith Trilby The Stranger’s Banquet The Law of the Lawless Bella Donna The Hunchback of Notre Dame Wild Bill Hickok Broadway Broke Thundering Dawn Palace of the King- Wild Oranges The Courtship of Miles Standish His Children’s Children Under the Red Robe The Eternal City Why Men Leave Home Galoping Fish //