TITLES for plays

TITLES

TITLES for plays

CLEVER titles do not make plots any better, but they most assuredly help to advertise them. If you were an Editor and in

opening the mail came across a story entitled "The True Story of How Lizzie Smith Married Henry Brown, " the probabilities are that you would send it back unread. No one who knows how to write a story would employ such a title. You would know that to read the story would merely be to waste your employer's time. On the otheE hand a snappy title such as "Father Said They Shouldn't" will engage your interest. What was it that father said they should not do, and why did he say it?You will show the same curiosity that presently others will feel if the story is put out.

2. A good title gets the Editor into a receptive frame of mind. A poor title has the reverse effect. More than this, he knows that a good title will help the exhibitor to sell the play to some people who migkt not visit the performance were the titles unattractive. You have only to stand before the lobby of some downtown picture theatre to watch the people look at the posters and either enter or pass on. Either the titles have attracted or have failed to rouse interest.

It follows that the best title you can think of is none too good, so do not rest content with the first one that comes to mind. Think of a dozen or more and select the best one. You may offer a choice of two titles, but good titles are valuable and it will pay to keep them for yourself. Keep a pack of cards and write down all the good titles that come to you. Carry cards in your pocket and jot down ideas whenever they come to you or wherever you may see a suggestion. In no time at all you will have some good titles and a lot of poor ones. Spend your rainy Sundays trying to improve the poor ones. When you have used a title, throw out the card.

The essential is that the title should be brief. There are two reasons for this. A long title will not look well on the billboards. It cannot be displayed to the same advantage here or in the newspaper advertising. A second reason is that a short title is more easily remembered. It. can be taken in at a glance and almost subconsciously, yet in the evening you will remember that Tricky Tess is at the Bijou and you will want to go down and see it. The Editor knows, and knows that the exhibitor knows, that the short, snappy title will make for business. He knows that it is part of his duty to give the exhibitor something that he can sell to advantage that he may be able to pay his exchange bills. The exchange pays the manufacturer, who pays the Editor, who pays you. Your interest is doubly personal.

5. The title should be applicable to the story. If you lead a patron to expect one thing and give him something else, then you have disappointed him. What you have given him may be better than what you

promised, but that does not help any. If he goes in to see "Her Mother's Sin, " he goes in to see a drama. If he finds it is a farce comedy he is apt not to like it, no matter how funny it is. He expected drama. He is disappointed. He is sore. For this and other reasons you should not write your title on your script until you know precisely what the story is. You may start to write a story about a man and a girl and wind up with a story about the man's mother. Wait until you see what you have before you affix a label and then apply the correct label.

The title must not be self-explanatory. It must be applicable to the story as stated in the last paragraph, but it must not explain what the story is. "It Ended in a Kiss" might be used for a little story of a lover's quarrel, but it will not interest greatly, because the climax is anticipated. "Their First Quarrel" would offer the same defect. "Both Were Right" would be less revealing and perhaps more interesting, particularly if the denouement showed that both were wrong. Just the moment the spectator knows what the ending will be, he loses interest in the story. There is no more suspense, and so nothing to look forward to but the next story. If you see a story entitled "Baby's Boots" you have only to see the start of the story to know whether it is the one where the child brings its parents or grandparents together or whether it is another workover of "Drifted Apart. "

A title should rouse curiosity. It should not only suggest a good play, but it should make the reader wonder what it is about to the point where he goes inside to find out. This does not mean a succession of plays from "Why Smith Left Home" to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" There the invitation to become curious is too open and brazen to have a proper effect. It must be a more subtle appeal. "He Married His Daughter" would arouse curiosity, for how can a man marry his daughter? It is simple enough if he happens to be a minister and the daughter is still unmarried. Perhaps he swore that he never would and she and her sweetheart changed clothes and so tricked him.

Sentiment may be made the appeal rather than curiosity, if desired, but sentiment should not be the flamboyant three-cheers-for-thered-white-and-blue type, but something less obvious. One company put out a story with the title of "The Irish Boy" to be released upon St. Patrick's day. One exchange alone bought six extra prints because it had to have first run prints if they were to be timely. It was merely the story of a young Irish emigrant who got ahead. There were no shamrocks or evictions or anything of that sort, but the story pleased and the title made good. The Boucicault plays also served to make money for more than one Seventeenth of March because the titles appealed.

A title must be fluent—easily spoken. This does not mean that it must be alliterative. A title twisted to gain alliteration will not appeal—and may be viewed with suspicion. If the title is naturally alliterative, well and good. If it is fluent without being alliterative, it is

sufficient. Roses for Rosie is more a play on words than an effort to be alliterative. Henry's Horrid Honeymoon very clearly is an effort to get three words commencing with the same letter, for horrid is here used in an improper sense.

Not all fluent titles are alliterative and some are more pleasing to the ear than the alliterative style. A fluent title is one that comes easily from the tongue. "As Twilight Falls" is more fluent than "As Dark Draws Down, " because "dark" is a harsh word and also because the accent is a succession of descents where the former gives an alternation of the rising and falling accent. Generally an even distribution of rising and falling accent is the best. "He Fought for His Country" is hardly fluent. "On War's Grim Fields, " to the contrary, falls smoothly ; more smoothly than "On Battle's Grim Fields, " for here the accent does not lie as evenly. If you have studied rhetoric you are familiar with these facts. If you have not made this study, any book or chapter dealing with the writing of poetry will suffice or you can look it up in the encyclopedia. If you do not care to go to this trouble, then pronounce your leaders aloud and see how they sound or get some friend to read them to you. You will soon learn to select the ones that sound the best.

Trite titles should be avoided. Into this class fall such as "The Greater Love, " "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them, " " 'Til Death Doth Part, " "At the Eleventh Hour, " and similar often used titles. You would do well to avoid any of the old titles whether they have been used much or not. Avoid, too, timeworn parts of titles such as

•	"The Return of, " "The Reformation of -, " or "The •	•	Downfall of  , " as well as their inversions, "John Smith's Re- •	•	turn, " "James Jones' Reformation, " or "Henry Brown's Downfall. " •	In the same classification are "A Mother's Sacrifice, " "For Her Sake, " or his or for the sake of the girl or the child or his mother or father or sister or brother or any other relation by blood or marriage tie or mere acquaintance. They have all been done and generally more than once.

"The Story of " and "The History of -" suggest

•	biography and not interest. Also they suggest a woeful lack of common sense and imagination. •	Titles beginning with the articles, "A, " "An" and "The" are taboo by many companies, partly because they aid laziness and partly because they are not suggestive. They can be eliminated. They should be. A title beginning with "The" is seldom as attractive as one that does not. The reason for this is that a smart title is unusual. An article leads to the usual. "The Dancer" or "The Turkish Dancer" does not have the punch of Walter Mair's "Little Egypt Malone. " To the articles add also "in, " "when, " "by, " and "for. " Fully eighty percent of the uninteresting titles will be found to lie in one of the above clasneq.

Such a sweeping disqualification may seem greatly to limit the list of available titles, but it does not. It merely requires the stu-

dent to get good ones. If you are denied what is apt to lead to triteness you will have to hustle to get live titles, and if you get good ones you are more apt to sell.

Avoid the suggestion of preachment or controversy in your titles. Even if you are writing a propaganda story, because you have been asked to, it really is not necessary to advertise the fact. Do not call a story on tuberculosis "The Great White Plague. " "When Faith Grew Faint" will suggest an interesting story, but when faith grew faint then the heroine was led to proper treatment and a return of health.

Where possible suggest the style of the story in the title, as advised in paragraph five. There is no mistaking "Dough and Dynamite" for a drama, but "Love in Armor" suggests a romantic drama and not a comedian in a suit of tin clothes. Comedy titles should be in themselves humorous, if possible. Get them started on the laugh before the picture shows on the screen and you have that much start. This cannot always be done, but if it can be done without giving the effect of straining for a laugh, it is certain to be of good effect.

The use of titles of copyrighted plays should be avoided, not because the copyright protects the title, but because there is common law to be dealt with as well. Lubin produced a farce done from an earlier story called "Will Willie Win?" The staff adapter called it "A Fool There Was. " Its use was prohibited and damages collected because this latter title was already in use to designate a drama based upon the Kipling poem. In the same way "The House of a Thousand Scandals" was held to be an attempt to trade upon "The House of a Thousand Candles, " and it was ordered to be abandoned. On the other hand "The Victoria Cross" was used as the title of a melodrama presented some years ago with no very great success. When Bannister Merwin used the same title for a war drama it was sought to enjoin the use of the film title, but no injunction issued because it was held that the London Film Company was making no effort to trade on the reputation of the almost forgotten stage play and that the latter property could suffer no injury. It is better not to use any old title, but if you do by chance use a title already employed, you need not concern yourself. Most companies maintain some form of record for released titles. If they do not, it is because they do not care and if they do not care you can spare yourself any mental anguish on their account.

As has been shown, a bright and suggestive title may be the start of a play as a whole, which is another reason why you should try to gain proficiency in title writing. Use the sard system as suggested, and make title work a daily exercise. Look for titles in street car advertisements, in magazines, in the newspapers, in shop windows and wherever your glance may fall. You never can tell where your tido will come from, and you are as apt to find it in the bottom of your cocktail glass as on top of a twenty-story building. Wherever you see it note it down and see what it suggests to you. Read the titles in the

trade papers, not to paraphrase or copy, but to keep in touch with ideas. You may even use the idea machine already spoken of. Now and then a good title can be gained from this where a story may not immediately suggest itself.