Part 21

“As Miss Walker is Famous for Her Dimples, so Are We for Our Candy.”

At the side of the slide you should have your slide manufacturer reproduce a photograph of this popular Vitagraph player.

This item about Miss Walker, you will note, implies no recommendation from her, so the same can not possibly be misconstrued. Here follows the original paragraph, as submitted by Lillian Walker’s press agent: “Don’t you dare attempt to manufacture dimples; they are a monopolized product, and Lillian Walker has the motion-picture field all to herself. The other day the popular Vitagraph player received a letter from a girl admirer, who, desiring a beauty dent on each cheek, endured great pain, but all to no avail.”

The press agents in the motion-picture field are so prolific that seldom a week goes by without one appearing which may be adapted to your business.

If you adopt the photoplayer slide, it is imperative for you to change the slide frequently, not only because spectators dislike to see the same thing over again, but because each fan has his or her favorite, and by constantly changing the players you eventually cover them all, and thus please each and every patron.

If your local newspaper runs a motion-picture department, study it thoroughly for possible material. If it does not, one of the many motion-picture publications will admirably serve the purpose. As the items are news, there is no copyright.

XLI.

ATTRACTING TRADE WITH PHOTOPLAY STARS

Both the legitimate and vaudeville professions have their followings, but neither can even slightly approach the huge and widespread popularity enjoyed by the motion picture. A conservative estimate places the number of fans in this country at twenty millions, which number support the twenty thousand photoplay theaters.

The personal element counts big in this industry, and the leading photoplayers come foremost in the affections of the fans. There are more than two hundred well-known motion-picture players appearing before the camera to-day, and each movie patron has his or her favorite. And this is just where the enterprising storekeeper can pounce upon this opportunity for all it is worth, which is a good deal.

If in view of what has gone before, you are still skeptical that an amusement can not be mixed with publicity, I have only to cite the method adopted by a trader in Los Angeles. He gave over his window display to photographs of famous film players and arranged them in an artistic manner. His window happened to face the sidewalk, and the pictures created so much attention that the sidewalk was congested. Two policemen, to cope with the situation, had to have the crowd line up and only allow each spectator three minutes in which to view the photographs. All day long the line extended over a block, the windows arousing the same amount of interest during the subsequent days of the exhibition.

It might hardly be a sound business policy to display only photographs in your store window to the total exclusion of your ordinary wares, for the underlying idea to get passers-by to view the goods set out in the window and act as a sort of temptation to buy. I would therefore propose that the photographs be mounted on boards at the back of your window, so as to allow the window to be dressed in the ordinary way. This should achieve the desired object satisfactorily.

You will find, on approaching the motion-picture producing companies, that they will only be too willing to give or loan you photographs of their stock players. The local exhibitor will supply their addresses.

Another dandy plan, if you are in the custom of offering premiums, is to present each person making a purchase of a certain small amount with a post-card of a popular screen player. You can purchase these for $3 per thousand and have the selection you prefer, for you will naturally require more of Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin than players of lesser renown.

I am not acquainted with any instances where retailers have adopted the preceding plan, but if same can bring full houses on dull nights to motion-picture theaters that distribute such pictures to spectators, then it is a positive thing that it will help along your slack days.

Popularity contests are all in the fashion to-day, and it is possible for every town to arouse the patriotism of the fans by permitting them to vote for their favorite player, presenting, perhaps, the one heading the poll with a suitable souvenir on behalf of the town. This stunt, of course, must be worked in co-operation with the near-by motion-picture theater.

It can be arranged that each patron on entering receives a voting blank, which he is to fill up and return to the girl in the pay-box. The exhibitor should announce on a slide that the standing of the contestants will be announced each day in the window of your store.

You will secure, for practically no expense at all, plenty of publicity, resulting in increased business.

XLII.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ERRORS IN PHOTOPLAYS

Every now and then a motion-picture producer comes a cropper. With the speeded-up production methods at present prevailing, he can seldom give adequate attention to the little things that count. It matters little whether the play is historical or modern--it is almost certain to contain at least one error of some kind. Now, photoplay fans pride themselves upon their smartness in detecting these silly slips, and therefore an added stimulant would please them greatly.

In addition to your ordinary slide at the local movie theater, why not have same preceded with one worded somewhat as follows:

“If You Find a Mistake Pertaining to the Dry-goods Business in a Photoplay Screened at This Theater, We Will Present You with 25 Cents’ Worth of Goods Free”?

The first thing is to determine as to what constitutes an error. In one photoplay a daughter ran away from home and returned to the family fold five years later with the same dress on her back.

Almost as bad was another picture in which the chief character, an old gardener, began his day’s work with an old overall. At the end of the day he blossomed forth in a new garment.

Mistakes are quite as prevalent in Western dramas. Imagine, then, as I did, seeing an Indian girl wearing silk hosiery.

There are much worse mistakes in historical films. You will remember that “Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Bronte’s famous novel, was set in the early part of the nineteenth century, but the heroine in the photoplay version was up to the minute in fashions.

It is quite likely that more than one spectator will detect the same error, in which case it will prove too costly a stunt, so it is advisable to limit same to the first four persons who report the error. As the average motion-picture theater changes its program daily, it will be hard to verify the mistakes, which may not prove to be such. To guard yourself against the unscrupulous, it is well for you or somebody you can trust to see each program. Failing this, stipulate that spectators report the error to the exhibitor immediately after seeing the picture.