HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1953-7-29, Page 3WHAT MAKES ,YOU GO
TO THE MOVIES?
There is ;an old saying among
film-makers that "The public al-
ways knows what it wants just
after it has seen it,"
This is just another way of
saying that movie -making is a
gamble. More than one studio
has lost a fortune in trying to
catch the public's fancy •with an
untried idea, Now Hollywood is
trying to take guesswork out of
filming,
Audience Research, Inc., claim
that they can discover, before
, a foot of film has been shot,
whether a picture will be a suc-
cess or a flop. As soon as an idea
is produced a brief summary
is handed 'to ARI'S interviewers,
Hundreds of people are asked'
"Would you like this -film?"
"How much?" "Why?"
A cross-section of the film
public has ,already passed judg-
ment on more than a thousand
ideas. MU of them have been
rejected,. as unsatisfactory. Pre-
dictions on how much a film will
earn are nearly always right
within a narrow margin.
Audience .Research has found
that film fans love' lavish spec-
tacles, and , predicted great suc-
cess for "Quo V a di s" and
"The Greatest Show on Earth,"
with indexes of well over 120.
These two films topped box-office
takings last year.
An example of how they work
is given in one of the earliest
films they tested, "Mr. Lucky,"
The main character was to be a
Greek gambler who helped to
promote,.a charity ball and then
made off with the proceeds. The
poll results showed two serious
drawbacks. People did not like
the gambler being a Greek,
neither did they approve of the
robbery:
The story was altered to make
the gambler a Greek -American,
and he was'made innocent of the
robbery. With these changes, the
tests showed that "Mr. Lucky"
would make three times as much
as the average picture, a fore-
cast that was more thtln justified.
Likes and dislikes do not vary
much between one place and an-
other. The only differences are
between age groups. Young girls
want romance and comedy; old-
er women like dramas of lov€
and marriage; and al] ,nen want
adventure.
Strangely enough, most film
stars have greater appeal to
their own sex than the opposite
sex, One test showed that 78 per-
cent of female stars were 'more
popular with women than with
men. At the same time, the lead-
ing twelve stars, as ranked by
men in one poll, were all male.
This is explained by what they
call "self -identification." A per-
son's interest in a situation de-
pends on whether he can ima-
gine himself i{1 the same position.
Films about women in every-
day life always have a ready au-
dience among other women.
MERRY MENAGERIE
"Don't iAzif f6411r-itrs only ONE.
;1 cat gtl"
Men on the other hand, (refer
stories about the lives they would
like to lead, They are not so in-
terested as women in emotion
in films, They want to know what
happened, not how people telt,
One machine that has been
developed records people's re.
actions to a film while it is being
shown. Each person in a test au-
dience of thirty or forty people
is given a small machine to hold,
with a pointer which he turns
to left or right acearding to
whether he likes the scene be.
ing shown,
Each turn of the dial is re-
corded on a moving roll, and the
results are transferred to a
graph. This gives a complete
impression of the interest shown
in every scene.
These tests are made before a
film is publicly shown, so that
any scenes which go over badly
can be remade.
Had to Pay Tax
On Their Beards
Peter the .Great of Russia dis-
liked bearded men so much that
he imposed a tax on them. Mer-
chants were charged from sixty
to a hundred roubles for the
privilege of wearing a beard;
serfs and church attendants thir-
ty roubles. Anyone unable to pay
the levy had to work off his debt
in the galleys.
Even before that time beards
had, a turbulent history When
David, King of Judea, sent some
ambassadors on a goodwill mis-
sion to the King of Ammon, they
were seized and subjected to the
indignity of having their beards
cut off. David, hearing of this
shame, declared dear on the
kingdom.
Alexander the Great errdered
his soldiers to shave off' their
beards because they offered a
good hand hold to enemies in
close -quarter fighting.
In ancient Egypt the rank of-a
man was judged by the length
and shape of his beard Land-
owners' and merchants' beards
were about two inches long, but
those of the Pharohs were up to
six inches. Curiously, most of
these beards seem to have been
false. They were made from tufts
over the ears.
The ruling classes have always
set the fashions in beards. When
Roman Emperors Went clean-
shaven, it was considered bad
taste for anyone else to wear a
beard, but when the Emperor
Hadrian grew a beard to hide
some scars on his face, the two
succeeding emperors did the
same.
Henry VIII of England wore a
beard or not as the fancy took
hitt. But every time he shaved
he ordered the whole of his
court to follow his example.
Beards were generally un-
popular with women, but there
is one notable exception. When
Louis VII of France shaved off
his. beard, the queen, Eleanor of
Aquitaine, said he looked more
like a monk than a prince.
In the sixteenth century the
• French Bishop of Clermont pos-
sessedone of the finest, beards
in the country. But the canons
of his cathedral did not like it,
and secretly passed a resolution
to shave him.
The next time the bishop en-
tered his; cathedral they came to
meet him, armed with scissors
a d'razors. The bishop fled to his
ohihtdeu, Where he died after a
sfinrtriTness brought ors by the
attbmpt on his beard..
Off Duty—Leo Nomellini, wrestler and football star, isn't Oinking
about the ring as these Waikiki hula dancers give him a color-
ful drape in Honolulu. But the powerful athlete might be storing
up some hula footwork for his fans.
Commands a Model Army—Bertil Jernberg, of Gothenburg, Sweden, can play armchair gen-
eral on a large scale, The 22 -year-old model maker has 3,000 miniature soldiers and some 400
vehicles, part of which he made himself. He even has towels, clothing and meat choppers made
to scale to equip his army. Swedish military authorities are planning to make use of his hobby
for strategic study.
Happy Competitor—Kay Duggar,
"Miss Universe of Miami Beach,"
competed with 70 lovelies from
all parts of the globe in the an-
nual "Miss Universe" beauty
pageant at Long Beach.
He Bowled Out
The Future King
"Be a cricketer and see the
world" is a slogan applied now -
days to many British lads who
show promise as batsmen or
bowlers. A century and more ago
there were no such inducements,
but George IV's shoemaker owed
his appointment to the fact
he was a good bowler.
The King was a keen cricketer,
and as Prince of Wales played
in many ,patcheswith the bucks
of the Regency period. He re-
garded himself as one of the best
batsmen in the kingdom, and
when he heard of a little shoe-
maker of Slough, near Windsor,
whose keen eye and strong arm
had enabled him to perform
prodigious feats as a bowler, the
Prince decided to try his skill.
So the cobbler was invited to
take part in a match between
Bedfordshire and Buckingham-
shire in which the Prince played
"disguised as a civilian," accord-
ing to a contemporary report.
"It soon fell to his Royal High-
ness to take the bat. 'What bit
of a thing is that at the wicket?'
said the cobbler. 'Oh, he is a
tailor," said someone who stood
by. 'Then,' said the bowler, 'I'll
break his bat for him,' Ile took
his run and sent the ball with
amazing force and velocity. The
Prince blocked it dead as a
stone."
Several times the cobbler
bowled, but each time the ball
was either blocked or directed
away for a score. At last the bow-
ler "went back to a considerable
distance, took an exact aim,
ran with all his force to the pop-
ping crease and, gently as a this-
tledown flies along the air, the
ball ran along the grass like a
snake and stopped just in the
middle of the wicket, knocking
off the crosspiece." .
PLAYED FOIL PLEASURE , .
The Prince threw down his
beS, seemingly mortified. Next
m3hlent, however, he walked
to the bowler and put a heavy
purse into his hand. A horse
was waiting at a short distance
and the Prince immediately left
the field. Next -morning the shoe-
maker Deceived a notice to at-
tend Windsor Castle, "If he
makes shoes as well as he plays
cricket he shall be my shoe-
maker," detelared the Prince.
Bill
ARRIE ,A CORPSE,
WON A FORTUNE
Would you "marry" a dead
woman just to inherit her mo-
ney? In 1937 a young Turk
named Osman Murid tried it. For
some years he has lived in *the
town of Biga •(Turkey) with a
wealthy and lovely widow whose
health was delicate, and who
refused his frequent proposals
of marriage.
Then she become ill, and died
suddenly late one afternoon.
Seeing his life of idle luxury
about to vanish, Osman hit upon
an ingenious solution. He would
"marry" the dead woman—and
he knew just the right priest to
perform the ceremony'
But first he went to the local
officials and told them his fialfbee
wished to be married to him at
once as she was dying, and more-
over had expressed a wish for
the ceremony to be performed
by an old friend of the family,
an aged, short-sighted priest who
lived near by.
Believing him, the local officials
gave him the special marriage
licence allowed by Turkish law
for this kind of emergency. Then
they sent for the aged priest,
who agreed to carry out the
dying woman's request imme-
diately. Together they made
their way down the almost de-
serted street, and entered a
small but etxquisitely furnished
house in a cul-de-sac.
Guided by Osman, the priest
stumbled his way upstairs to a
luxurious but dimly -lighted bed-
room.
"Is your bride here?" he mum-
bled.
'Sh ... 'sh ... Yes. But the's
very ill. We must be quick," re-
plied the bridegroom as he
pointed to the recumbent figure
on the bed.
As rapidly as his age would
permit, the priest mumbled the
short marriage rites. He came to
the part which corresponds to the
English, "Wilt thou take this
man to be thy lawfully wedded
husband?" From the lips of the
woman on the bed came the
Turkish word signifying "yes."
A few moments later the priest
pronounced them man and wife,
and was shown out of the hhoust'.
But he didn't know he had mar-
ried the bridegroom to a dead
woman!
Chuckling to himself at the
ease with which he had car-
ried out his clever subterfuge,
and won the riches of his dead
mistress, Osman announced the
next day that his newly wedded
wife had died in the night. As
her husband he was, of course,
entitled to her considerable fort-
une.
All might have gone well for
Osman if he had carried on as
quietly as he had while his mist-
ress was alive. But he began to
live wildly, going to gambling
dens and entertaining young wo-
men in his newly won home.
The police, suspecting something,
visited Osman and questioned
him. Finding out nothing, but
convinced that something was
wrong, they took him to H.Q.
where they used Turkish third
degree methods on him. Soon
they had his full confession.
Than the police sent for the
aged priest, who swore on oath
that he had distinctly heard the
bride say "yes" to the all-import-
ant question.
But it was Osman, and not the
dead woman, who said "yes"—
for Osman was a clever vent-
riloquist.
Despite his ingenuity, he was
sent to prison for attemped
fraud.
LONG LOST RINGS
When gardening at their home
at Pocklington. Yorks, in 1940,
Mrs. Dora Tate, wife of Police
Sergeant Harold Tate, now of
Withernsea, lost her wedding -
ring.
The tenant who took over the
house was digging up plants
the other day and found it. It
has been returned to Mrs. Tate.
A wedding ring which had
been lost for thirty-one years
was found by at farm worker
sticking to a harrow with which
he was working in Scotland. The
owner had lost the ring while
harvesting six months after her
marriage.
FEMININE LOW-DOWN
Despite the fact that many girls
put up a bold front maintaining
they don't care whether they get
married, statistics show this the
goal for 97 girls out of 100. The
goal, though, fades with the girl
and while the girl of 27 has a 4 to
1 chance of getting married,
when she's 36 and still single
the odds are 30 to 1 against her.
It gets tough!
She Sweeps Them Off Their Feet—Pretty Molly Mercer is seen
above tossing her teacher far a loop in a Tokyo, Japan, judo
classroom, Looking on, from left to right, are Shibayama and
Salo, who both wear the black belt showing their high standing
in the field of ludo. Mollie's instructor is Kobayashi, one of
Nippon's top judo experts.
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IRRIGATION SYSTE10 with Ford V-8
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The Detroit Tigers came into
the Yankee Stadium for a series
some years later with a young
pitcher just up from the Three -
Eye League. He had a good fast
ball and an incredible appetite.
He was warming up languidly in
the bull pen for the first game
with the Yanks, munching con-
tentedly on a ham sandwich,
when the Detroit manager sud-
denly signalled for him to come
in and pitch. The rookie put bis
sandwich carefully on the bench
and asked, "Who have I got to
pitch to-" A teammate answered,
"Babe Ruth. And Gehrig comes
after him." "Don't nobody touch
that sandwich," ordered the
rookie. "I'll be right back."
Horse -Sense Nonsense — "Prince
Mono lulu," the Ethiopian tipster
well-known among England's
Epsom Downs race track circles,
greets tip -seekers in style dur-
ing the Grand Prix de Paris race
track at the famed Longchamp
track.
1SSTJE 31 — 1953
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