The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-03
Man bout

By George Tucker

ABOARD THE FORTY-NINER,
Anri, 2.-on a junket like this you
have a lot of time to reflect on
the nature of movie publicity and
it's growth in recent years. ana
also time to talk to some OF the
old.timers-if anyone a be called
an o7d.timer in a young industry.
They recall the days OF the
nickelodeon and the penny arcade
when movies consisted of knives
and forks moving on tables with
ont anv visible reason and When
movies consisted Of The GREE
Train Robbery. In those days, no
publicity was necessary, for there
was only a curiosity-seeking pub
lie for pictures. People went to
the movies then the way people
today go to La Guardia airport
but in much fewer numbers.
Adolph Zukor was n OF the
first men in the world to realize
famous books and plays with fam
Gus actors and actresses would
make pictures which made money
Some of his friends told him he
was crazy and refused him their
capital. Some of them thought he
had something and are millionaires
today. "Queen Elizabeth" with Sa'
rah Bernhard, was the first Fam
Gus Players venture, and it created
attention.
With the growth Of pictures
came the growth Of exploitation
of them. At first, simple throw
Always, such as are used for small
store bargain sales, were enough
for the infant industry. Today,
s~ixteen-car railroad trains filled with
correspondents sending news ane
pictures are considered necessary
to make the public realize another
picture is coming to town which
people ought to see. In addition,
every medium for supplying infor'
nation finds it necessary to de-
vote some time or space to telling
the public about the moving pic.
lures for which it has such an in
satiable appetite.
The public has not only develop.
ed a tremendous appetite for fic.
ton in celluloid, but it has ere.
ated it's own heroes and heroines
from among the actors and &C.
tresses who appear in the pictures.
Just as in past centuries Euro.
pean peoples had their kings and
queens, dukes and ~duchesses, to.
day the American public-and a
large part of the world public-has
its Carlos and its Gables. They
place them on pedestals, n
sometimes they take off their heads.
A star who feels herself slipping
is as worried as a queen who
hears the roll of the tumbrils.
But she has one advantage over
the queen-she always a hire a
better publicity man. Publicity men
work day and night to make the
public feel that they know every.
thing about their favorites. No
popular moving picture actor or
actress can go to the hospital for
an appendectomy without making
the front page of every metropoli.
tan newspaper, and most Of the
in smaller cities. PEG.
pie collect the autographs of stars
the way they used to collect the
of signers Of the Dec.
laration of Independence.
This great interest in moving
pictures and the people who ap.
pear in them is no accidental
growth, and the publicity men who
have contributed to it have had
comparatively easy time, for
they have a product the public
wants and people the public wants
to know all about. Often, of course.
are stimulated to make peo.
pie more interested than they
would be ordinarily in a mediocre
package of personality. But, on the
whole. motion picture stars have
to complain that they live in gold.
fish bowls, rather than nunneries.
They cannot afford privacy, and
the public always will take to a
new glamour, if the old is not