Evening star., 1938-02-06


TINE first movie trailer ever made
was titled Ladies Please Re-
move Your Hats one-slide
reminder to selfish cinema la
dies Of 1909. The second trailer, in
1910. also concerned headgear-"The
New York Hat" starring Mary Pick
ford and Lionel Barrymore. This
trailer consisted Of 20 titles and 2
scenes From then on-and more par
ticularly in the last two years-crailers,
ie. the brief features announcing and
illustrating the next offerings Of the
theater, have assumed more and more
importance, and now rate as much
preparation and care as the average
picture.
The word trailer" originated from
printed slides. tackled on the end of
the old silent serials. bearing the
words ITO be continued in our next
The current trailers. designed to bring
the 100000 picture spectators back
to the theater, are now referred to by
the trade as "teasers," and. like the
pictures they advertise, they change
with the wants of the public. More
action, novelty, disguised advertising,
brevity, less super-colossal adjectives
and few or no bus-titles at all-see
'Goldwyn Follies" trailer (no SUBJ
titles, and Happy Landing" (which
has one)-are the present-day COM
mandments Of this highly specialized
branch OF the picture business.
The National Screen Service" with
Is exchanges in the United States,
manufacturer Of trailers for 20 years,
distributes Hollywood's trailer output,
with the exception Of Metro Goldwyn-
Mayer and Warner Bros products
serving exhibitors with $50 trailers q
year. including Christmas and New
Year briefles.
The average trailer runs two min
utes-with record of II miputes for
the No. "Buccaneer" trailer and
80 seconds for the latest Mae West
teaser. Incidentally. the trailer for
Every Days Holiday"-in which
Miss West is designated the greatest
Frenchwoman-including the Statue of
Liberty-to visit the United States
has aroused the wrath Of the Decency
League. the first time this has hap
pened to a trailer.
midsummer Nights Dream" had II
trailers-the largest number for one
picture. But they were very brief, each
one lasting only 80 seconds on the
screen. For "Buccaneer" there were
five trailers. three for general use and
two extra for New Orleans, the pic
lures locale. For the same reason
Swing Your Lady," an unimportant
Warner picture, was advertised with
two trailers-one for the South and
West, home of the Weaver brothers
popularity.
The current tendency is to sugar.
coat and disguise the trailer so that
the audience swallows it without real
izing the presence of the advertising
pill. The chief wells Fargo" trailer
was an interesting expose of how music
is allied to a pictures entertainment
value-with Wells Fargo" of course,
as the orchestral peg. Music, by the
way, is now recognized as an i'm
portant ingredient in trailer success.
The second wells Fargo" teaser
showed the pictures preview in Holly
wood, with all the notables at the
microphone.
Pictures with historical backgrounds
are invariably exploited from the edu-
cational angle-"High, Wide and
Handsome" which rated q two-reel
trailer titled Men and OIL" and Maid
of Salem" heralded by q two-minute
silent" explaining Puritan customs.
"The King of Gamblers" trailer, pat
termed on THE March of Time" news
reel, received several editorials on its
true-to-life revelations of the slot ma
chine racket. March Of Time" treat
ment also went into the seven-minute
trailer for Anthony Adverse, in which
the audience was taken behind the
scenes, tracing the story from the in
ception of the book to its canned"
picture condition.
Angel was trailer-exploited with
q fashion short arranged by Gretchen
Messer, head Of Paramount's fashion
publicity.
(Copyright. 1888, BY the North American
NAvsua nap Alliance 1Uc)