Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-14
ANOTHER TRICK PLAY, =
THIS TIME ON "ADS"
Some Complex Thoughts on the
Very Simple Subject of "It
Pays to Advertise"

nay kaftin's., Act Ill same as Act l. '''N
sTt Pays to Advertise" Is one Of those
things they can't do twice. First to last
u is a trick play" II comes Of the
-seven Keys to Baldpate-"On Trial.
family--fathered, we had almost said by
Cohan q Harris, until we remembered
that one Shaw sprung the breed on us
with "Fannys First Play" and Arthur
Hopkins followed with "The Poor Little
Rich Girl"
The type develops some idea" or
stunt which nobody has tried before
and the more Il goes against the cRnons
OF ssagecraft the better. We listen to
critics surrounding little Shavian deviled
ham with the bread OF yeasty discourse.
We follow three acts of mock melodrama
with a delicious sense of the danger OF
Its unreality, only TO find out in the end
that Il was novelist's joke which we
almost took seriously. We listen to yards
OF delightful dream-nonsense with no sort
OF a plot at all. We plough backward
through 13 years of the most common
place crimes Imaginable and find It a per.
fectly fascinating job. Not one of the
plays could have got over on Its merits
aside from the stunt" Not one of the
stunts can be done again. And there you
are.
or rather. here you are with new
trick play" that makes a whole evenings
! nearly entertainment out OF the nltnertO
unexploited field of advertising.
There's no denying that you laugh
heartily over the adventures of soap
kings son who goes into the business of
making trade mark instead of a soap
and OF selling II to his father. There's
no denying you get pleasant, blase,
Satevepost feeling out of hearing all the
money the big buyers of advertising spend
in persuading their patrons to help them
pay for II. There's no denying that you
get a good deal of amusement out of the
half dozen scenes of conventional drama
angry parent, heartless fiancee, girl
crooks confession, etc.-whch turn out TO
be the fake stage stuff' instead of the
genuine article.
But there's just as little chance of de-
nying that you wouldn't laugh over the
rather obvious ''wallingfords" pulled Off
by the inventor OF "13 Soap, Unlucky for
Dirt" IL It wasn't for the advertising
talk: that you will never listen TO an
other play on the same subject, and that
II many more playwrghts fool you about
their fake" efforts that you take seri-
ously, you'll stop taking their genuine ef-
forts hurnorously.
SO far this is an attempt to understand
the enjoyment of 81 per cent of large
audience which was saluted with samples
OF well-advertised tooth paste in the |
lobby, delegation Of Poor Richards in |
the auditorium, and the novel legend, |
Curtain 8:13," on the program. We ad- |
nit the entertainment that most every |
body got out of the soap which was |
bought from the Trust" for three cents, |
advertised with words, 1.-THE average |
cake Of soap gives you 30 washes A cake |
OF l3 Soap gives you only 18. But what |
washesl' and sold to Gimbel's public for |
one dollar. But this reviewer must also |
record the opinion of the prominent, sue
cessful and altogether enlightened adver-
tising writer who accompanied him last
night
And the verdict of the expert agrees |
with the verdict of Judge Brack when |
Hedda Gabler committed suicide people |
don't do such things" His more exact |
words were, Its a travesty on great |
science" He failed somehow to swallow |
that 3c.-S1 bit Of finance. He didn't be- |
iieve. with the broke press agent who is |
the principal prophet of advertising, that |
'9T per cent of the people are sheep and |
you can get them all by advertising" He |
doesn't think that shouting is what counts |
He doesn't hold that plain and fancy lying |
is either good business or good advertising. |
In fact. he doesn't think that the play |
wrights know any more about his "shop" |
than they know about any other includ. |
ing their own.
And, or course. the expert advertising |
writer can't take the whole thing as a |
good joke on his lIfe-work. Any more
than the reviewer can find out where the |
good" part of the joke comes in. outside |
the fact that nobody has tried the trick
before Hence. this double-barreled, COM
plex and crank-sided explanation of a |
very simple and obvious entertainment.
K NJ.
P. S.-Al of the cast did their best to
prove that 1t pays to advertise them
on the billboards. They interfered
with no laughs. and they put a good
many in that weren't In the dialog A |
great deal might be written about the alb |
soluteiy opposite methods of Grant |
Mitchell and VIII Demlng, players OF the |
principal characters about the formers |
knack OF staying completely ''in the pic |
ture" while putting over''>a very broad |
comic version Of naivete, and the latter's |
ingratiating and delightful manner OF for |
getting all about his fellow characters,
and or acting almost everything clear out |
in the audiences laps But enough OF |
subtleties. They have no part In the |
.'ad. art of Messrs. Megrue and Haclxett |