The other half of the battle of slide advertising is selecting the most suitable theater. If you are situated in a residential section, and you decide upon a downtown theater for your announcement, you are paying for scattered circulation.

The exhibitor also rates the advertising value of his house at a much higher figure, and, as you draw the bulk of your trade from the surrounding blocks, it is advisable to pick out a local photoplay theater.

Motion-picture theaters may be grouped into two divisions. One is the nickeldrome which has been converted from an empty store, and seldom accompanies more than five hundred. It usually shows the oldest films and caters for a cheap patronage. This class of show is on the decline.

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.