Wid's year book (1919)

'll A Standard Feature In the light of the remarkable evolution and devel¬ opment of the serial, it is amusing to look back to a period of some five or six years ago. At that time when the pioneer serials, “The Perils of Pauline,” “The Adventures of Kathlyn” and “The Million Dol¬ lar Mystery” were being issued the attitude of the majority of the larger theaters was one of undisguised contempt. This unflattering opinion was reflected in the trade magazines, which, while they welcomed the extra advertising which serials brought to them, re¬ fused to enthuse over the innovation in pictures which from the very start made gigantic strides and wrote film history. I can remember time and time again in those early days the results of various “questionnaires” conducted by the trade papers on the vogue of serials in various parts of the country. The majority of these reports were pessimistic. Correspondents wrote that serial popularity was problematical and prophesied their early demise as business bringers. And we, in the Pathe offices, reading the hundreds and hundreds of letters from exhibitors just smiled. Pathe has been so successful with serials, has so accurately gauged the public taste, and has issued so many of these continued photoplays, that today many concerns are seeking through serials what seems to them a sure road to wealth and the industry is being confronted with the prospect of an early flooding of the market. I do not know the exact number of in¬ dependent producers and others who are making se¬ rials, but have reason to believe that there are some twenty in all. The market cannot digest this large number. Many producers will lose much money, for the writing, the producing and particularly the mar¬ keting of serials is a specialized art and if one link in the chain is weak the verdict is merciless, “thumbs down.” As the making of a serial, even a cheap one, is not a poor man’s proposition those producers who are attempting their first serial in the face of the com¬ petition existing are taking a long chance. Pathe has released more serials than any other con¬ cern in the business, nearly thirty. We have made a science of them. We know how they should be writ¬ ten; the kind of a star most apt to retain and strengthen popularity through the long and exacting period of fifteen weeks or so; the kind of a director best adapted to this particular kind of a picture; the elements upon which a serial must depend for suc¬ cess. Yet in spite of all this vast experience and specialization, in spite of a sales organization trained to know and market serials, on some of them we have lost money. With the exception of a few of the very largest houses in the country, serials today are to be found in every kind and condition of a house, and in every section of the country and in practically every town and village that can support a theater. I believe that eventually we will be able to prevail upon the few that do not run serials and convince them that it will be to their advantage to do so. It is significant that those houses that do try them out never are without them afterwards. The reason is obvious ; magazines for years have found that in their continued stories are their biggest sales arguments. If the monthly maga¬ zine reader finds much entertainment in a story the installments of which are a full month apart, how much more entertaining is it to see that same story visualized upon the screen with all its life and action ! To the exhibitor the proper kind of a serial is a bo¬ nanza for it keeps his public returning week after week and he benefits materially by most valuable word of mouth advertising. One weakness that our present feature methods have lies in the fact that the average exhibitor does not play his features long enough to benefit by that word of mouth advertising. About the time when a good picture has really struck its stride at the box office it is taken off for another. It means that greater advertising effort is necessary to put it over. The character of story in serials demanded by the public has changed considerably during the past few years. At first all that was demanded was a succes¬ sion of sensational incidents thinly strung together. Today the public demands a logical story with a real reason for each sensational incident. We are giving likewise the best feature production. Today, in many of our serials, each two-reel episode costs more than a corresponding length of feature film. Serials, then, are today a big factor in the business very profitable for the exhibitor if they are of the right quality, and with a constantly increasing im¬ portance. We have found that in order to success¬ fully sell our serials to the exhibitor we must sell them to the public. Therefore we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly in straight-to-the-public advertising. The overhead on each serial is enor¬ mous. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us and should be upon every other serial producer, to see that serials progress and do not stand still, and that public ap¬ proval, gained after such a bitter struggle and the expenditure of such large sums of money, is retained and deserved. FRED C. QUIMBY, Pathe. Influenza Figures Why the picture industry was hit so hard by the “flu” is shown in the following bulletin of the Census Bureau dated November 17, 1918: “The influenza epidemic has thus far taken a much heavier toll of American life than has the great war. The total loss of life throughout the country is not known, but the Bureau of the Census has been publish¬ ing, for forty-six large cities having a combined popu¬ lation estimated at 23,000,000, weekly reports show¬ ing the mortality from influenza and pneumonia. These reports, which cover the period from Septem¬ ber 8 to November 9, inclusive, show a total of 82,306 deaths from these causes. It is estimated that during a similar period of time the normal number of deaths due to influenza and pneumonia in the same cities would be about 4,000, leaving approximately 78,000 as the number properly chargeable to the epidemic. The total casualties in the American Expeditionary Forces have recently been unofficially estimated at 100,000. On the basis of the number thus far re¬ ported, it may be assumed that the deaths from all causes, including disease and accidents, are probably less than 45 per cent, and may not be more than 40 per cent, of the total casualties. On this assumption, the loss of life in the American Expeditionary Forces to date is about 40,000 or 45,000. “Thus, in forty-six American cities having a com¬ bined population of only a little more than onefifth the total for the country, the mortality resulting from the influenza epidemic during the nine-weeks’ period ended November 9, was nearly double that in the American Expeditionary Forces from the time the first contingent landed in France until the cessation of hostilities.”