One or two of the studios use letters
in which the handwriting is so poor that before all the spectators
have read the contents of the letter it has disappeared and the scene
has been resumed.

Let us suppose that Edith--not knowing that her friend Eleanor has
fallen in love with Jack Temple, whom they met at a resort the
previous summer--writes Eleanor a letter in which she says:

On screen, letter.

and I'll send it in my next letter.

By the way, I heard a report that Jack Temple--the fellow
that you thought was so bashful--was seriously injured in
the wreck of the Buffalo Express last week. I

Back to scene.

The expression on Eleanor's face, as she reads this, would be the same
as if she had picked up a newspaper and read:

at the time of the collision.

Among those reported injured are James T. Appley, Syracuse,
N.Y.; Lloyd W. Stern, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Geo. P. Rowley,
Bangor, Me.; and John Temple, New York City.

Conductor Thomas Hammond told a _World_ reporter that as
soon as the report

Of course, at some point in the action previous to the scene in which
Eleanor reads this report in the newspaper, you will have made the
spectators familiar with the hero's name by means of a leader or some
other insert.

"Where the information is brief," says Mr. Sargent,[23] again, "it may
be better displayed as a newspaper headline. A two-column display head
is better shaped for use on the screen than the deeper single-column
head. A deal of information may be conveyed in a headline and the
spectator seems to read the item over the character's shoulder rather
than to have been interrupted by a leader."

[Footnote 23: Epes Winthrop Sargent, _Technique of the Photoplay_.]

Mr. William Lord Wright, author of "The Motion Picture Story," has
this to say on the subject:

"Nearly all photoplays now contain a flash of newspaper headline. It's
a good way of putting over the information essential to the plot, but
it is suggested that the headlines be properly written. Perhaps the
author of the playlet was a novice in writing headlines, or maybe the
director was a know-it-all. If not a newspaper man and a headliner, we
would advise the author who wishes to use headlines in his action to
get some newspaper man to write them for him. Some of the would-be
newspaper heads we have read on the screen lately are not impressive
or well written. Headlining is a difficult art."