Universal Weekly (1923-26)

Vol. 18, No. 18 UNIVERSAL WEEKLY 17 We Want To Do What You Want Mr. Laemmle is perplexed. You, the exhibitors of the United States, have perplexed him. It is because the perplexity ,is due to you that we are going to ask you to help straighten us out ,on this Hoot Gibson problem. This is it. When Hoot Gibson attained prominence on the screen it was as a cowboy actor, a "western," as we say. Gibson was right in his element. He took a firm Jiold on the fancy of a lot of people who liked fast riding, keen fighting and swiftly moving western pictures. Then, a year or two ago, exhibitors began telling us that their audiences didn't like western pictures any more. Well, that seemed too bad, because we had a crackerjack western star, but if the exhibitors said that people didn't want, westerns, they ought to know. So we tried to reconstruct Gibson into a more versatile line of characters and pictures in which the western atmosphere was largely subordinated to other elements. For a year we made this kind of pictures and they were mighty good pictures, in which if Gibson rode a horse he usually fell off, pictures in which he played soldiers, sailors, firemen, policemen and just plain ordinary human beings on foot. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed that exhibitors began to really appreciate Gibson in western pictures. They wanted us to put Gibson back in westerns. At the same time we have been mighty pleased with the comments that we have had on the pictures that Gibson made which were not technically westerns at all. So we don't know what to do. The Production Department is waiting to go ahead with eight more pictures of Gibson. We want to make these pictures suit the Public and we are relying on the exhibitors to tell us what kind of pictures these eight should be. So Please Tell Us By This Blank I prefer Hoot Gibson in _ Name Theatre.. City