This is the part two of an article from the March 1917 issue of Moving Picture World about the early years of movie advertising. This section focuses on the development of more sophisticated advertising techniques such as the campaign, or press book, and the emergence of the serial in American film. Click here for Part 1 What did you think of the article? Has movie advertising really changed in the past 100 years?Let me know in the comments. ____________________________
TEN YEARS OF FlLM ADVERTISING by Epes Winthrop Sargent - PART 2
Perhaps no greater contrast may be found than to compare the work ten years ago with that of today. Then the advertising man — where there was any — was generally the editor as well. He looked after the scripts and advertising, and still had a little spare time. One company, for example, demanded each week copy for a quarter page advertisement in one paper and a half page in another. Twice a month a sixteen page bulletin release was got out and each week three or four squibs were sent out to the trade papers.
One or possibly two cuts had to be made for each one reel subject, and later the editor also sent out the still pictures to the lithographer. That was all that was done or could be done. Today the large organizations have extensive staffs of writers. Not all of them are good, perhaps, but they help to keep up the high cost of white paper.
In addition to preparing advertising copy the press room supplies weekly several thousand words of press stuff, ranging from three lines to several typewritten pages. Cuts of one and sometimes two screens are prepared, often more than one cut of a subject and in one, two and three column measures. Ready set advertisements are prepared and often may be had in matrix form for inexpensive mailing.
Pressbooks first appeared in
1913 for the Italian epic Quo Vadis?
There are elaborate special stories of each release and the usual synopsis, and there is paper of all sizes as well as a stock of portrait cuts and postcards. It is in the serial, however, that the greatest advancement is shown. For these most companies now prepare elaborate campaign books.
These may list a hundred or more sheets of paper, ranging from the half sheet to twenty eights. There will be a careful teaser and followup campaign planned out, a series of stunt suggestions, perhaps a number of novelty advertisements, such as buttons, pins, pennants, puzzles and the like, from fifteen to fifty cuts ranging from thumbnail to half page layouts, copy for advertising for each installment and special press stories for the preliminary campaign and each chapter.
Advertising novelties and paper and cuts are supplied about at cost. The rest is all free, and yet three or four years ago the first suit of press stuff for a feature brought five dollars for about twenty typewritten pages - and was worth it. Today the campaign book is free and is frequently backed up by elaborate newspaper campaigns, the most ambitious and unique being the recent Pathe campaign, though the most persistent advertising is that done in the Hearst newspapers for the International pictures.
The Universal has got out a number of remarkable books and Bluebird issues a four page sheet for each release that gives the exhibitor all he needs in the way of publicity material. All he has to have is the sheet, a pair of shears and an advertising account with the local papers. The smallest releasing organization today does more for the exhibitor than did all of the companies combined ten years ago, and does it more intelligently.
On the exhibiting end the change has been even more marked. The exhibitor not only makes use of the material given him, but he improves upon it. Ten years ago he had nothing but stock paper with which to work. There was no true to film paper. He bought of the show print concerns paper of defunct theatrical productions.
*Poster for a multi-part serial
by film pioneer William Selig,
this one for 1913's The Adventures of Kathlyn, also recognized as the first cliffhanger serial
Some of this was positively vicious and contributed in no small degree to the demand for a censorship. Reformers did not go into the theater to see how bad the films were. A glance at the lobby display was sufficient.
A Selig* release, for example, showed a girl jumping off a bridge. It was a sixty foot bridge, and that in itself was a real thriller for those days. She just jumped off the bridge and towed the hero to land. One house dug up a one sheet for this showing two men in a boat bearing down on a girl and a man struggling in the water. One of the boatmen was shooting at the man in the water and the other was preparing to beat the girl over the head with an oar.
It was a gross libel on a well written picture, but people looked at the paper and not at the film and decided that the pictures must need reforming. Take fifteen or twenty sheets like this, plastered over the front of a converted store, dark, filthy and odorous in the extreme, and the passerby was scarcely to be blamed for being unwilling to risk his health and pocketbook in so unsavory a place.
This is the first part of an article from the March 1917 issue of Moving Picture World that provides an insightful and sometimes humorous look into the early years of movie advertising. In today's age of multi-million dollar movie ad budgets and sophisticated social media campaigns, it's a fascinating first-hand account of the relatively simple origins of what has become a very complex discipline. Due to the article's length, I'll be dividing it into three parts for this week. My own comments and context of the article are in bold. What did you think of the article? Let me know in the comments. ____________________________
TEN YEARS OF FlLM ADVERTISING by Epes Winthrop Sargent
APPROXIMATELY ninety five per cent, of the history of film advertising has been written in the past ten years (1907-1917) and more than fifty per cent, of the whole in the past five. Although it is twenty years since the motion picture was brought forward as a public entertainment, it is only within the past five years that the pictures have been handled as an amusement proposition should be.
The first movie poster ever made is believed to be an 1890 French lithograph printed by renowned illustrator Jules Cheret to promote the short film program"Projections Artistiques." Early film posters were merely stated the film's name and showtimes, with the imagery focusing on the live theatrical acts which made up most of an evening's bills.
The first known poster to promote a stand-alone movie was for 1895's L'arroseur Arrosé, also considered cinema's first comedy. Shot by early cinema pioneer Louis Lumiere, it is also the first poster to depict an actual scene from a film. Looking at the final film below, it's clear that despite its crudeness by today's standards, at least the poster is accurate as to what viewers would actually see, unlike some of today's misleading film posters and ad campaigns.
L'arroseur Arrosé (1895)
Film Advertising falls naturally into two parts, advertising to the exhibitor on the part of the manufacturer of film and the exhibitor's efforts to reach an enlarged public. The manufacturer was the first to perceive the value of printer's ink in its various forms.
Back in 1896 little or no advertising was done on behalf of the film. Later the Clipper, then the chief organ of the exhibitor of amusements, was used as a medium, and this was followed by direct appeal to the exhibitor through circulars or bulletins. It was all limited in scope and, for the greater part, rather amateurish. At the start there was not much to be advertised, to tell the truth. Production was comparatively small and decidedly irregular.
The adoption of the release by dates helped somewhat to regulate advertising on the part of manufacturers, but there seemed to be small need for great endeavors. There was a demand greater than the supply, sales were good and intensive methods were not yet needed. The condition was much the same as that which confronts the pioneer farmer working the virgin soil. The rudest sort of cultivation brought rich returns.
But these returns were too great to escape the observation of the speculator. Companies multiplied and in proportionately larger ratio than the demand increased. More advertising had to be done to sell the same amount of film, but this advertising was largely written by someone untrained to the work and much of it was crude, though better than nothing.
Even so late as 1909 things were dormant. The manufacturer used the trade mediums, he got out a more or less ornate bulletin, but there he stopped. He did not even realize that there was another and more productive form of advertising which has come to be known as "service."
With the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company, which controlled nearly the entire output of film, there was adopted a rule that no manufacturer should give to the exchange or exhibitor any advertising matter of any description.
Most of the units of the company went further than this and even where exhibitors were willing to pay for cuts of scenes or for still pictures from which cuts might be made, the request was looked upon as a nuisance and this service denied. It was not until 1910 or 1911 that the Edison company began to seek to accommodate the live wires with cuts, generally electros of the cuts in their publication.
But one concession was made in that in 1909 arrangements were effected whereby the A. B. C. Company, of Cleveland, got out a one sheet for each release. This paper cost fifteen cents a sheet, but even at that it represented a considerable loss to the companies since a certain edition had to be purchased outright, the stuff being sold to the exchanges or exhibitors on behalf of the manufacturer.
It was not until the advent of the multiple reel that this advertising through service really began. Here was something that could be advertised to advantage. It paid the maker to have his release boomed by the exhibitor, and there began the change that reached its climax in the present national advertising on the part of the manufacturer.
Just how valuable this national advertising is to manufacturer and exhibitor is more or less a matter of personal opinion, though it would seem that the return is more general than specific. It has helped, however, to break down the barrier of the business office and to give the films their proper place in the reading pages.
Ten years ago few papers mentioned the pictures, though there were a few which made a practice of writing up the pictures and then holding up some company for payment. Seven or eight years ago, for example, a New York paper sent around a page story and asked a certain company a four figure sum for its insertion.
This arguably reflects the perception of the media and upper classes in the early 20th century of films as a lowly undesirable diversion. Many theatre actors who performed in early films did it solely for the money and felt that the work was far beneath their abilities.These methods do not obtain today to any marked degree. Public interest in the pictures is too great to permit them to be ignored, and the house advertising satisfies the hungriest business office, but the manufacturer contributes indirectly to this work a greater sum weekly than he was occasionally asked to pay some paper. Also he gets more for it.
This article from the February 1916 U.S. film fan magazine Film Players Herald is a veritable treat for the early cinema lover.
It provides an insightful snapshot of the excitement felt by the American film industry, at a time when the European film industry, which had become a dominant force in world cinema pre-WW1, was near collapse.
The article also takes a look at the moviegoing habits of the time, the financial workings of the industry (quickly becoming standardized), but more importantly, it emphasizes the vital emotional connection to the cinema and the obsessions with celebrity that had begun to fascinate the world.
It's a long read, but well worth it.
What part of the article did you find the most interesting (or not)? Post a comment and let me know.
____________________________
THE BILLION
DOLLAR PASTIME
The
Riches of Midas and Croesus Mere Pin-Money Compared with the World's Most
Lavish Amusement and Most Astounding Industry!
Let us see how big the movie story is,
set to figures-thousands, millions, tens of millions. There are, in the United
States, about 21,000 photoplay theatres. Some of these have 300 seats, some
600, some 800, some 1,000, and others in excess of 1,000. Most of them exhibit
three or four times nightly, and seven days a week. A few years ago, the
picture theatres were closed during the summer. Now, nearly all of them operate
every day of the year. Some of them, especially in large cities, are in
operation afternoon and evening.
Let us see if we can find an average
as to the seating capacity and the number of shows a week. Suppose we put the
seating capacity at 500 for each theatre. That would mean a total seating
capacity of 10,500,000 for the 21,000 theatres. Suppose we put the average number
of afternoon performances at three, making twenty-one a week. Suppose we take
only two matinee days, with three extra performances each day, or six
additional exhibitions, which would give us twenty-seven each week.
Let us say that the theatres are not
filled to capacity twenty-seven times weekly, but fifteen times each week. That
would give us 157,500,000 paid admissions every week in the picture theatres of
the United States. This means that the lowest estimate that we can place on
regular patronage would be 25,000,000 persons, with another 25,000,000 as
incidental patrons, going perhaps once or twice a week. Millions of enthusiasts
will go to two or three different theatres in an evening, (if the theatres are
convenient and there are that many in the town or neighborhood).
The smallest price charged is 5c. In
the large cities, most of the better class of playhouses charge 15c and 25c,
but the great majority charge a dime. Suppose we were to place the average at
8c. That would mean $12,600,000 paid every week, and for fifty-two weeks the total
would be $655,200,000.
This is a modest estimate. Indeed, it is a very low
estimate, because the seating capacity will undoubtedly be far greater than we
have indicated. Therefore, we may take as the absolute minimum, the sum of
$655,200,000 as the amount of money paid by the American public to see the
pictures.
Now-just to prove how modest this
estimate really is - let us take "The Birth of a Nation" as an
example of what a big feature can do financially. This play, on January 5, 1916,
completed a solid run of one year in the city of Chicago alone. For 365 days it
gave two shows a day. That meant 730 shows in one year. First, it was at the
Illinois Theatre, and later it was at the Colonial Theatre-the seating capacity
of each being over 1500. Certainly 1500 persons on the average viewed "The
Birth of a Nation" during each of these 730 performances. That meant
1,095,000 paid admissions. Half of this seating capacity was sold at $1.00 a
seat.
This would amount to $547,500. The balance of the house was sold at 75c
and 50c and 25c, or at an average of 50c; making another $273,750, or a total of
$821,250. These figures we have not secured from the exhibitors, but they are
based on facts that even the most casual observation would have learned.
Watch D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915)
At the same time, this same play was
running to capacity in New York, Boston, and other large cities, and at this
time is being exhibited in smaller cities. "The Birth of a Nation"
will undoubtedly have gathered in $6,000,000 or more, at the time it has run
the gamut of its popularity.
"The Million Dollar Mystery"
was exhibited in 2,500 picture theatres at one time; or, in other words, during
the days of the early releases. There were 23 weekly episodes, and we
understand that the price charged was about 0.25 an episode, or about $575 for the
series.
At this rate, the 2,500 theatres alone, would have paid a rental fee
for the films of $1,437,500. Hundreds of other
theatres ran these pictures long after the first release dates, and then the
series went to England and had as heavy a run there. The figures presented have
nothing to do with what the public paid at the box offices at these hundreds of
theatres. But there is one fact that will convey a very clear idea of what this
one serial did financially. The Syndicate Film Corporation, that distributed
"The Million Dollar Mystery" -a $100,000 corporation-paid in excess
of 700% to its stockholders on the basis of par.
This was merely one of a great many
serial productions. Within a space of two years there were the big serials that
started with "Kathlyn," and that included "Lucille Love,"
"The Perils of Pauline," "The Master Key," "The Broken
Coin," The Black Box," "The Diamond from the Sky,"
"The Adventures of Elaine," and a great many others of that type.
The World's Most
Remarkable Business
The moving picture business is
unquestionably the world's most remarkable and fastest growing branch of
commercial endeavor. It has grown so rapidly that there are not even any
dependable statistics; because, at the time they are compiled, greater growth
has occurred. The great film organizations that are so familiar to us today,
date back but a few years. Few of them existed before 1900.
Although the cinematograph was
invented in the 'nineties, the moving picture business is a twentieth century
institution. It has been estimated variously as the fifth, and fourth, and even
the third industry in importance in the United States. A better idea of how it
ranks may be gained by reference to statistical facts.
All classes of manufacturing in the
United States produce about $21,000,000,000 yearly. The agricultural production
of the United States is about $6,000,000,000 yearly, exclusive of livestock.
The operating revenue of the railways of the United States is about $3,000,000,000
annually. There are, in the United States, over 25,000 banks-but the banking
business should not necessarily be taken as a separate industry, but rather as
an adjunct to all other industries. This, then, would place the motion picture
business fourth in line; or, counting banks as a separate industry, fifth in
order.
The motion picture business today
amounts to more than the automobile industry. It is about ten times as
important as ship-building. It is worth anywhere from five to eight times as
much as all of the agricultural implements manufactured. It is about equal with
the products of flour and grist mills. It is about four times as important as
the carriage and wagon industry. It is practically equal to the entire
production of steel works and rolling mills. These comparisons may convey a
working idea of the importance of moving pictures.
At the same time, let us remember that
the animated photographs, as a systematized branch of industry, date back but
about eight years. In fact, it is doubtful if eight years ago there was such a
thing as a picture theatres were remodeled stores. Today, there are hundreds of
theatres far more costly than any that were devoted to the speaking drama.
It is believed that the picture
industry employs at least 300,000 persons in its various branches, and that about
35,000 of these persons are actors and actresses, ranging from the leading
parts down to the extras
All of the other industries, (With the single
exception of automobiles), with which we have made comparisons, date back
decades. The motor car and the motion picture have been the two great
industrial marvels of recent times. But the picture business has outstripped
the motor car industry, that started at about the same time. Whenever you see a
modern limousine or touring car or roadster or truck, remember that it was
conceived and worked out at practically the same time that the motion pictures
were being perfected.
Bear in mind that if we are to take
that class of industries dependent on manufacturing, we can place moving
pictures as at least fourth, and very likely as third. It is exceeded; if,
indeed, it is exceeded at all, by one, two or three industrial branches, and
those that outstrip it were in existence for generations before the
cinematograph became a reality.
Ideas of Profit
To convey a fair working idea of the
amount of money invested and the profits realized, we may make reference to a
few of the large film manufacturing and distributing organizations.
The net profits of the leading picture
companies are estimated at $50,000,000 yearly, not including theatres. Many of
the organizations that are today capitalized according to industrial custom,
started on veritable shoestrings. Other companies, dating back but a few years,
were organized and capitalized in a big way and they paid the customary rate of
earnings on the stock. It is stated that both the Kalem and Vitagraph companies
started originally with $10,000 capital. When Carl Laemmle came to Chicago from
a small Wisconsin town, he invested a few hundred dollars in a picture theatre.
Out of that modest' beginning he expanded his business until it became the great
Universal Film' Company of today.
We think it is conservative to
estimate that at least a quarter of a billion dollars is invested in picture theatres
alone in the United States, and that the investments in studios and exchanges
will easily equal that sum. The amount of capital actually invested in the
moving picture business is not far from $500,000,000.
While every producing company, and every
exchange, and every picture theatre has not necessarily succeeded - a great
many of them have won in a tremendous way. We know exhibitors who have realized
100% and better on their investment ever since they started, which was some
years ago. There is one picture playhouse on State Street, Chicago, that is said
to be clearing over $100,000 annually.
Like any other business, the moving
picture industry has been obliged to go through its experiences and correct its
errors, The majority of persons starting picture theatres were without
experience in theatrical management. Apart from general fundamental business
experience, none of those entering the picture industry had the advantage of
any precedent to guide them. And yet they have literally wallowed in millions
and billions. The amount of money that has been paid in the United States alone
for the purpose of being entertained by the silent drama, has probably been
well in excess of $3,000,000,000 within the past six or seven years,
The World's Most
Lavish Business
Not only is the motion picture
industry the most remarkable and the fastest growing of all industries, but it
is the most lavish of them all.
The Census Bureau stated that in the
year 1914, the amount of film produced in this country, including the original
negatives and positives, or prints, amounted to 385,000,000 feet, or 77,000
miles. This would be a stretch of film sufficient to extend around the earth at
the equator, three and one-twelth times.
During the early days of picture
manufacturing, there was a great deal of substitution and trickery but this was
supplanted rapidly by realism of the most costly and thrilling nature.
To convey a fair idea of what is
really spent to entertain the public, let us refer to a coming David Wark
Griffith production that will likely be released in the autumn of 1916. This is
being produced at the Fine Arts studios near Los Angeles, California. This play,
which is to be known as "The Woman and the Law," will have in it a
fade-in-and fade-out view of the Gates of Jerusalem. In order to make this
vision realistic, Mr. Griffith has had constructed, walls about 90 feet high
and monster gates. The cost is placed at $75,000. This scene will occupy 20
feet of film, meaning that it will be shown for 20 seconds on the screen; or,
at a cost of almost $4,000 a second, meaning $4,000 a foot. This would be like
building a railway at a cost of $20,000,000 a mile.
Watch D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916)
In producing his "The Birth of a
Nation," Mr. Griffith really constructed three towns, one of which he destroyed
completely to give those realistic scenes of the destruction of Atlanta by
fire. Very often railway trestles have been built especially for sensational crises
in films, and although many thousands of dollars went into their building, they
have been destroyed as though they were the least expensive properties.
It would perhaps be impossible to count
the number of automobiles, motorboats, wagons, buggies, and ships that have
been destroyed utterly for the sake of realistic scenes.
Most of the studios set aside so many
thousands of dollars a week for thrillers. On several occasions, entire trains
have been wrecked merely to give the proper impression on the screen. Money has
not counted at all if effects could be secured. Oft times, thousands of dollars
have been paid for the rental of beautiful paintings, or necklaces, or costly
bric-a-brac, to convey just the right impression on the screen. The camera's
relentless eye, assisted by the magnifying power of the projecting machine,
shows ,the texture of every fabric and the poorness and richness of every
material.
Everywhere we look we see thousands,
and tens of thousands, and millions of dollars heaped unstintingly into the
hopper of the mill of entertainment. Compared with the picture industry, all
other forms of entertainment dwindle as insignificant. The circuses, carnivals,
baseball, football, and all other sports are simply the jitney pastimes in
comparison with this monster that entertains and thrills the pleasure-seeking world.
The twenty-five million regular
picture patrons of the United States, and the twenty-five million incidental patrons-meaning
one-half of our total population, must have something new and something better,
regardless of cost. The theatres that ventured into the 10-cent class four
years ago, found that their patronage increased instead of diminishing. The new
theatres, that charge 15c and 25c, have the same long lines reaching through
their foyers out upon the sidewalks that were to be noted in the days of the
nickel admission.
Six years back, the motion picture
theatre was such a crude institution, it appealed chiefly to loungers and
children. In the larger cities, the school teachers and ministers of the gospel
started a movement to suppress what they termed "the evil of the movies."
But while the agitation was still in process of formation, the movies outgrew
this movement morally and today we find thousands of automobiles parked adjacent
to the picture-play theatres of our great cities. The farmer who has become the
owner of a motor car, takes his family to town of evenings, and he understands
the pictures just as well as the denizen of the "Great White Way."
Within the recent past, the Methodist Episcopal Church not only sanctioned pictures
as a form of honest entertainment, but adopted the use of pictures in church
entertainments. The Christian Science Monitor, that is slow to recognize
anything that is untried, has been devoting space to the pictures.
All classes of all beliefs are picture-mad, because the movies have found the
new interpretation that pleases our eyes and pleases our minds. We live the pictures
and we supply the words that the silent screen merely suggests. In the passing
of an hour we may see three or four dramas, each with a dozen times the number
of scenes that the speaking stage would employ in an entire evening. We have
seen our old dramatic masterpieces, and the novels we have loved to read, done
over in the new dress of the movies. Every time we have read a story, we have
pictured its scenes in our minds. But the films relieve us of this duty-they do
the picturing for us. And because this is the royal entertainment of the
multitude of all classes, of the masses and the elect, we are glad to pay our
nickels, our dimes, our quarters, and even our dollars-and we are pleased to
know that we have builded a new industrial giant.
A newspaper published in Utica, N. Y.,
recently estimated that Utica's population attends the movies three times
weekly. Utica is a city of about 80,000. This estimate means that the
admissions to picture theatres each week in that city amount to about a quarter-of-a-million.
Chicago has about seven hundred
picture-play houses. Their seating capacity ranges from 300 to 2,000; the
average is likely 700. That means a total seating capacity of approximately
500,000. Most of them charge 10c or 15c-some more. An average of 8e is fair.
These theatres are filled about twice nightly-about twice three matinee days of
the week, or a total of twenty times. Each time they are filled, they bring in
something like $40,000; and for twenty times, $800,000-that much weekly-or
$41,600,000 yearly. This is what one city does in the picture business. Consider
the estimates for the entire country. What else has ever even remotely compared
with the movies?
The American
Picture-Play the Standard
All over the world, the American
picture-play is the standard. In the beginning we were running neck-and-neck
with France and Italy. But the mighty war came on and converted the European
studios into Red Cross hospitals and sent the actors and actresses and camera
operators to the front as warriors or nurses. And, in the meantime, the picture
industry in the U. S. A. has gone forward beyond the measure of all prophecies.
It is entertaining the world. It speaks the language of action, which is the
fundamental language of all mankind.
The actors and actresses we have
learned to love on the screen are loved as dearly and sincerely in every portion
of the world. Thus, our own millions and billions are supplemented by other
millions and billions-and the world is crying for more and more, and for better
and better.
The refinement of this new art has
been so remarkably rapid, even our most ardent critics have been silenced. The
slushy melodrama has gradually receded before the forward march of the finished
dramatic screen plays. The art of photoplay construction has been developed to
the point of genius, until every crisis, every period of relief of suspense,
every climax, every dramatic element has been carefully measured both in the
conception and the working out of these silent plays.
New industries have sprung up on every
hand to furnish the supplementary needs of the moving pictures. Architects have
found a new demand for their talents in designing studios and theatres.
Manufacturers of seats have been working to capacity. Several firms are making
screens, that have taken the place of the old plain white drop-curtain.
Electrical concerns have made exit lights.
Ventilator manufacturers have solved
the problem of supplying ample fresh, pure air. Ticket printers have turned out
the pasteboard coupons by the billion. Lithographers have been rushed with the
new demand for gaudy posters and the big bill-board stands. Newspapers have
opened new departments and have found new sources of advertising. Costumers,
modistes and milliners have not only found a new source of profit, but a
widespread means of exploiting their art. And beyond this are the many other
industries that have turned part, or all, of their attention to the demands of
the world of the films.
A new crop of photographers has sprung
into existence, and electricians, carpenters, scenic artists, and other
craftsmen have discovered new angles to their trades. House furnishing
companies have supplied trainloads of props for the studios. Trappers and trainers
of wild animals have been furnishing the tremendous zoos that have become part
of the production of the silent drama. The city of Los Angeles has increased in
population and wealth, just as Detroit prospered through its motor industry. It
is stated that already a million dollars a month is being spent by the picture
people in Los Angeles alone. Throughout the length and breadth of the land,
there are approximately one hundred studios, many of which employ from two to
twenty companies.
And the millions and the billions are
still poured into the hopper of the mill of amusement, until one becomes dizzy
in the mere act of attempting to estimate and compute. Today, the inquisitive
individual who was wont to ask if the pictures would endure, has become
conspicuously absent. But all agree that the movies are still in the infant
class-that no matter what they have done, they have scarcely found themselves.
Publishers, who were delighted in past years with their "six best
sellers," never published any book that in any measure brought in the
number of dollars that a single movie feature will produce.
The Highest Paid
Profession
The new branch of art brought into
being by the pictures has been productive of the highest salaries paid to any
artists, considering the period of employment and the matter of necessary
personal expense.
A syndicate of newspapers, running
articles under the name of Mary Pickford, carried full-page advertisements stating
that Miss Pickford is the highest paid artist in the world, not even excepting
Caruso.
The salaries are lavish and the
expenses are small. Many of the well known actors and actresses of the speaking
stage have gone in "to do a picture" and have received from $15,000
to $30,000 in compensation. The number of actors and actresses receiving
hundreds of dollars: weekly in the picture studios is increasing. Even the
modest extra receives $5.00 a day, and the person who plays "bits"
usually receives twice that amount. The salaries ranging from $150 to $300 a week
are almost too numerous to count.
Unlike the old troupers, who were ever on the
go - the movie folk have built beautiful homes, and many of them own expensive
estates comparable with the baronial and ducal estates of the old world. They have
purchased the highest priced motor cars, and many possess beautiful yachts.
They have plunged and dived in thousands and millions. Their measure of fame
has been greater than was ever possible when they were obliged to appear
personally on the "boards." How many persons throughout the world
know Miss Pickford, or Charley Chaplin, or the others in the top places? Each
one of these artists is known personally through the intimacy of the screen to
tens of millions of individuals. In the passing of one year they appear before
more individuals than Joseph Jefferson greeted 'in his long career of a
lifetime.
And yet these artists have been but
part of this tremendous organization. They have supplied their share. But more
than a quarter-of-a-million persons, regularly employed, have been obliged to
take care of the various angles demanded by business practice. And yet, even
the children of the present day look back to the beginning of the picture-play as
a dramatic entity. All likes have been met-all temperaments have been appealed
to. Everybody loves the movies. And when everybody is in love with any
industry, what must be the answer financially?
Not the Classes – the Masses
Nothing else on earth has ever
appealed to such a vast variety of persons as the films. Rich man, poor man,
beggar man, thief-and the balance of the human family-are "fans”. They pay
their nickels, dimes and quarters willingly-anxiously.
Down in De Lesseps Park, Panama, some
enterprising advertising men erected, an out-door screen. It would be viewed
from either side, even if the wording of the titles,' on one side was
backwards! Thousands of Panamanians-and scores of visitors-would stand for hours
watching the films al fresco.
At the same time, the city of Panama
had about four picture theatres, seating about four to six hundred each, filled
to overflowing afternoon and evening. They charged 50c silver-or 25c American
money.
Go into the country, along Broadway,
in the South - out in the mining camps of the West-in the north woods-in the East;
go anywhere-and there you will find the multitude enjoying the films. Try the
movies on any nationality, and there also is the same popularity. On no basis,
have mortals ever come together so. much and so persistently as they have patronizing
the films.
And this means money-mountains of
money-money almost beyond counting-cash-in-advance, money paid at the moment. It
means profit-such profit as infant industries' never dreamed of making. And
this is but the beginning.
Do not ask if the films will endure.
They will last for always. They will be improved, changed, added to in various
ways, but they have found the universal language-the form of, expression that
everybody understands; they have reached nearer to the heart than all the printed
words or paintings the world has ever known. The films have worked wonders, but
greater wonders lie beyond them-for the
next generation-and the next-and the next-ad infinitum.
The world's most popular amusement
presents a future that fairly staggers us with the countless billions it will
involve. It will soon pass the billion-a-year mark, and the time will come when
even the billion will fade in insignificance.
The real giant of the financial and
the industrial world has sprung up in our midst, as though invisible seeds of
enjoyment and endorsement had been sown all over the world. Compared with the
magic tales of old, the movies have surpassed all romance and have ridden
beyond all imagination.
The following interview with Charlie Chaplin ran in the February 1915 edition
of Photoplay magazine. The article is
fairly short and is a somewhat superficial piece, but is historically
noteworthy for a few reasons. It illustrates the somewhat informal and improvisational filmmaking methods common at the time, and captures Chaplin's thoughts on fame on the eve of superstardom. The article was also written just
before the cinematic introduction of the Little Tramp character with which he
would be most identified for the remainder of his long career.
Juts one month before the article was published, Chaplin signed a contract with Essanay
Studios for a then-record salary of $1250 a week and a $10,000 signing bonus. Although
his star had begun to rise over the past year through his appearance in several
of Mack Sennet’s comedies, the 14 Essanay films he would make during his one
year at the studio, would make him a cultural phenomenon.
What did you think of the article? Post a comment and let me know.
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THE COMEDIAN WHO, ALMOST UNKNOWN A FEW MONTHS AGO, IS NOW SAID
TO BE THE HIGHEST SALARIED FUNNY MAN IN THE FILM WORLD
By E. V.
Whitcomb
"SAY, Jennie, do I have to sit through this whole show
- just to see Charlie?"
With the name of the lady changed to fit the one addressed
in each case, this question or ones to the same effect have been asked
thousands of times during the past few months.
Going to see Charlie Chaplin has become a habit all over the
country: With his doleful countenance, his heavy feet, his characteristic
French kick, his diminutive moustache, and his ridiculous actions, he has
earned a place all of his own in the realm of motion pictures.
And it is only a few months ago that he walked unannounced
into the office of Mack Sennet, director of the Keystone company, and asked for
a tryout as a comedian.
But the funniest thing about this extremely funny man is his
violet-like reluctance to talk about Charlie Chaplin. "There's nothing worth while talking about” he says.
"I am no one-just a plain fellow," he told me. "There is
absolutely nothing interesting about me. I have no fads, no automobiles-I am
just myself. But, if you insist, I will be very glad to talk to you."
A lad about twenty-five years of age, a very lovable lad,
with a delicate sensitive face and
with his hair painstakingly wetted and smoothed down, came into the reception room of the club where he lives, all
apology for having kept me waiting. And he 'was as appealing as a little boy
who runs up to you and says" "I am sorry; please forgive me."
We talked for nearly two hours and I have tried to put down
here exactly what he said in the way he said it.
"I have always worked hard ever since my father died,
when I was seven years old, My mother was a wonderful woman, highly cultivated,
yet life was very hard on her, and we were so poor, she used to sew little
blouses by hand, trying to earn enough to keep us. That was in England - she
died there. Poverty is a cruel thing, and I sometimes think that if I had not
worked so very hard as a child, I would be much stronger now than I am,
because, you see, I am not at all strong physically.
"I have never had a day's schooling in my life; my
mother taught us what she could, but after she died, I was an apprentice to a
company of traveling acrobats, juggIers, and showpeople. That was in England
too. And oh, what hard work it was. I have never had a home worth the name. No
associations that might have helped me when I was young. Looking back upon it is no joke, and that is why it
seems so out of place to me when I am made much of now.
"I came to New York with mv brother Sidney, while I was
still a boy, he is four years older than I am, and is the only relative I have
in the world, You have no idea how terriblv lonely we were when we arrived in
this country. Sid was out hunting for work and I sat looking out of the window
of the shabby little boarding house bedroom. The Times Tower loomed into the
sky and I sat there with my head on the window sill and cried, I felt so lonely
and forlorn. That was the loneliest I have ever been. The world has never
seemed so big nor so lonely since then. "My brother Sid and I went on the road
together doing one-night stands with a traveling company called, ‘The National
Amusement Company.' I remember one night, Harry Lauder came directly after us
on the program. He refused to wait for us to pull off our stunt but insisted on
going on first. I hated him for that-it was so cold to stand in the wings,
lightly clad as we were, and wait. I watched him do his stunt and even while I
hated him fiercely, I couldn't help applauding him as a great artist and laugh
maker. It was after this that I went with the Keystone Company.
“Last month I went to San Francisco to appear in person at a
theatre. The people applauded me very much. And the more they applauded the
more serious I became, and the funnier they thought me-so I gave it up.. You
see, I wasn't meaning to be funny then. I am not a bit funny, really. Of
course,' I have a sense of humor, but not as much as mv brother has and he is
much more of a business man. Sid is much more gifted than I am in every way, I
think-and he is married. He hasn't had any professional pictures taken since he
came to Keystone, but I know that my brother Sid is going to make a sensation.
"When I am
not working, I just sit around and dream mostly. I get a lot of ideas that way.
And sometimes, when I haven't any special idea in mind, the camera man and a
few of us with our makeup on, go out to a location. For instance, we go out to
the races, take a few scenes (whatever happens to suggest itself), then other
things suggest themselves, until the story is built, All the time this is going
forward things pop into my head which help to make people laugh."
Mr. Chaplin’s account of producing a comedy sounds very
simple and easy but is a little misleading. It is a well-known fact that the
members of his company doing slapstick have to be able to stand more "punishment"
than the members' of any other company, when he himself is directing.
Already the Essanay players are shaking in their shoes, for
Mr. Chaplin has just been signed up with Essanay as the highest priced comedian
in the world. He is to direct a comedy company at their Chicago studios.
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Watch Chaplin`s first Essanay film, His New Job (1915)
