Great Falls tribune., 1921-12-04

| side their retreating foreheads and
began to apply it to motion pictures.
Most of them have fallen beside the
way. The business was too big for
them. When they had to count over
one hundred the task became too great,
"hokum" still clings Some of the old
ethics still exist.
This condition is not general. If it
were, motion pictures today would have
wiped themselves off the map. But
with some exhibitors-and some pro-
ducers, too--it is not question of how
much to give the people for their
money you can get the people for and
get away with it. To them it is still
the show business-and the show busi-
ness means but one thing-get 1t while
the getting is good and don't worry
too hard about methods.
Some Of the biggest producing COM
panies hate this thing just as whole
heartedly as do right thinking men and
women who have no interest in the in.
dustry save as it entertains them. And
yet some of these same companies find
change the names of pictures SO that
they will have a greater-shall we say
it quietly ?-sex appeal.
MOST Pictures Are Cleah
The other day / was talking to an
official Of one of the biggest produc-
ing companies.
"Why do you want to take this up?'
he asked. Most pictures are clean.
Ours are. And we see to it that our
exhibitors keep their advertising as
clean as the pictures. Here, look at
this advertising"
He pushed toward me pile of
proofs, exhibitors advertisements of
the company's pictures, collected in
over 100 towns from coast to coast.
They were just as clean as any ad-
vertisements to be found in the best
newspapers. He then went on to tell
me how this company had taken the IL
cense away from one exhibitor in the
middle west because the exhibitor had
taken small clay figures and repro
duced them in his advertisements so
as to give the impression that they
were naked men and women. He
showed me a poster which had been
pronounced by the Metropolitan
museum as one of the most artistic
posters displayed during the present
year.
"There," he added conclusively,
there is the evidence. Now few ex-
hibitors who advertise salaciously can
not overcome the woodwill of this
Advertising Nor can they bring dis
credit on our business any more than
defaulting banker can bring discredit
to the banking business. There is
precious little rotten advertising and
what little there is won't hurt"
One Exhibitor Goes Astray
Yet inst that morning I had read in
a newspaper al indignant letter from
reader who condemned the business
as a whole because he had seen one
salacious film advertised. His con-
demnation was sweeping-on the
strength of one picture. One exhibitor
out Of $4,000 had shown the picture
and in one city had appeared letter
which did the industry damage not
easily repaired.
Oh, it is easy enough to minimize
the wrong done by one exhibitor. But
after all, $4,000 is not a large number,
and the advertising of one exhibitor
reaches a whole lot Of people.
Another thing this official did not
recognize was that the motion picture
business, whether or not it likes the
idea, is on trial. 1t is new, lusty, and
a trifle blatant. People aren't used
to it even yet-and they've got to be
shown that it is good. Every salacious
advertisement is a proof to the man
in the street whose mental processes
are comparatively simple that the trial |
q few rotten advertisements can work |
a lot of harm.
There are just two ways Of killing