This item about Miss Walker, you will note, implies no recommendation from her, so the same can not possibly be misconstrued. Here follows the original paragraph, as submitted by Lillian Walker’s press agent: “Don’t you dare attempt to manufacture dimples; they are a monopolized product, and Lillian Walker has the motion-picture field all to herself. The other day the popular Vitagraph player received a letter from a girl admirer, who, desiring a beauty dent on each cheek, endured great pain, but all to no avail.”
The press agents in the motion-picture field are so prolific that seldom a week goes by without one appearing which may be adapted to your business.
If you adopt the photoplayer slide, it is imperative for you to change the slide frequently, not only because spectators dislike to see the same thing over again, but because each fan has his or her favorite, and by constantly changing the players you eventually cover them all, and thus please each and every patron.
If your local newspaper runs a motion-picture department, study it thoroughly for possible material. If it does not, one of the many motion-picture publications will admirably serve the purpose. As the items are news, there is no copyright.
XLI.
ATTRACTING TRADE WITH PHOTOPLAY STARS
Both the legitimate and vaudeville professions have their followings, but neither can even slightly approach the huge and widespread popularity enjoyed by the motion picture. A conservative estimate places the number of fans in this country at twenty millions, which number support the twenty thousand photoplay theaters.
The personal element counts big in this industry, and the leading photoplayers come foremost in the affections of the fans. There are more than two hundred well-known motion-picture players appearing before the camera to-day, and each movie patron has his or her favorite. And this is just where the enterprising storekeeper can pounce upon this opportunity for all it is worth, which is a good deal.
If in view of what has gone before, you are still skeptical that an amusement can not be mixed with publicity, I have only to cite the method adopted by a trader in Los Angeles. He gave over his window display to photographs of famous film players and arranged them in an artistic manner. His window happened to face the sidewalk, and the pictures created so much attention that the sidewalk was congested. Two policemen, to cope with the situation, had to have the crowd line up and only allow each spectator three minutes in which to view the photographs. All day long the line extended over a block, the windows arousing the same amount of interest during the subsequent days of the exhibition.
It might hardly be a sound business policy to display only photographs in your store window to the total exclusion of your ordinary wares, for the underlying idea to get passers-by to view the goods set out in the window and act as a sort of temptation to buy. I would therefore propose that the photographs be mounted on boards at the back of your window, so as to allow the window to be dressed in the ordinary way. This should achieve the desired object satisfactorily.
You will find, on approaching the motion-picture producing companies, that they will only be too willing to give or loan you photographs of their stock players. The local exhibitor will supply their addresses.