A Prize For Your "Conquering Power" Essay

The Cincinnati Walnut Tree Is Dropping Dollars

Showmen had a confidence back then that's pretty much gone now. For instance: Cincinnati's Walnut Theatre, in this ad dated November 1921, inviting patrons to explain why The Conquering Power is a "great picture." There seems no room for dissenting opinion here, as in what if The Conquering Power is not a great picture? --- but for $10 as first prize, who'd argue? Online "Dollar Sense" says that would be equivalent to $124.45 today. With the contest gone viral in daily newspapers, we can imagine how many essays hit the manager's desk during "One Week Only" that The Conquering Power ran. Did his brother-in-law or first cousin cop the prize, or was competition on the level? A then-City Directory estimated 410,000 as population of Cincinnati. Tiny participation within that would have deluged the Walnut with essays, and it must have looked like easy pickings for folk who could read and write. I certainly would have taken a plunge given pulse of life and Cincinnati residence in 1921, gladly lauding any picture's greatness where a ten spot was reward. Among ancillary pleasures that week, as ad-shown, Rudolph Valentino as star not only of The Conquering Power, but next attraction The Sheik as well. Pleasing note 97 years later: Both are available on home disc.