Getting People Into Movie Theatres

[Fading Fast]

The "Information Please" shorts are fascinating -- four panelists sitting at a table competing to answer complicated questions put to them by an MC, just like the radio show. No cinematic value at all, but the popularity of the radio program was such that they're quite effective on the screen.

Even into the '70s, some of those, in particular, Sunday news / information shows just sat a few people down in chairs and talked about world events or whatever the topic of the moment was. Other than facial expressions and body language, could have been on the radio and lost nothing.

Edit add: Thinking more about it, it probably was the competition of Cable TV that forced every show - even plain old news / info shows - to be more visual so as to grab and keep more "eyeballs" (viewers).