Although the motion-picture theater is a democratic institution, the well-to-do working classes prefer to patronize the classy building which has been exclusively erected for motion-picture entertainments. It is not because they refuse to associate with their poor brothers and sisters; quality is the deciding factor. For five or ten cents more they see a longer and better program, amid more comfortable surroundings.
So far, so good; the rest depends on the managerial policy. The best way to discover this is to visit a desirable theater as an ordinary patron. If you note your trade is already represented on the screen, then the theater is unavailable for the time being.
This may strike you as peculiar, since no newspaper grants a monopoly in one particular trade, but it is the custom in slide advertising. The healthiness of a newspaper may be judged by the volume of advertising it carries, but, in so far as the photoplay is concerned, the fewer the slides the better. Time is precious, and, if the exhibitor is to give each advertiser the service he pays for, he can only do so when the slides do not exceed one dozen. When the number is more, the operator usually whips each off before spectators are able to read it.
After you have satisfied yourself on all these things, you can take the matter up with the exhibitor. You may frown upon a six months’ contract, but the rental, which will vary from $5 to $10 per month, according to size and location of theater, will work out more cheaply than on the weekly basis. It will also afford you protection in that your competitor can not put one over. Another thing, the public may only give your first slides the once over, but the constant seeing of your name will go right home.
The slide manufacturers find that there is so much correspondence involved in executing orders of less than one dollar that they prefer they be given to the exhibitor, who orders slides in quantities.
XXXVI.
HANDLING THE ANTI-AD. SLIDE EXHIBITOR
Have you ever had legitimate advertising turned down by a newspaper? I don’t suppose this rare experience has fallen to your lot, so it is perhaps as well if I acquaint you with the conditions that exist in the motion-picture theater advertising field.
The motion picture has not reached maturity, and consequently some branches of the industry are not so far advanced as others. In the former category comes slide advertising.
There are some exhibitors who throw up their hands at the very mention of slide advertising, yet the strange part about it is that they themselves can not get along without this excellent form of publicity. They run a bunch of slides on the screen pertaining to current attractions and house announcements. These occupy the screen for five minutes or more, and are repeated at every performance for fully one week.
It is not necessary to advertise productions so far in advance, and this would allow “foreign” advertising to have a look in, but this type of exhibitor generally refuses to listen to reason. And the worse still is the fact that he knows he has the upper hand of you.