Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

Batty Getups Quicken 'The Vampire' on 13th You Need a War Hero for Longest Day ; Small City Showman Finds One Nearby St. Joseph, Mo., is large enough (about 75.000) to make good energetic promotion pay well but it’s not exactly big name ! For these, you have to go out of town most of the time. And that’s what Everett T. Hughes, manager of the Missouri Theatre, did to get his key man for his campaign for “The Longest Day.” The man was Lt. Col. Lewis L. Millet, who won a Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military award, for leading a bayonet charge on a fortified Chinese hill in the Korean war. At the time of the film booking, Millet was on the Command and Staff School staff at Ft. Leavenworth, about 45 miles from St. Joseph in Kansas. A trip there was successful. With Millet agreeing to appear in town on opening day, Hughes laid out a civic-type program to capitalize on Millet’s appearance. This included lining up cooperation from the mayor, patriotic groups, local army units, radio stations and newspapers. Approximately a week in advance. Manager Everett and local recruiting service officers got Mayor Arthur Meers to proclaim opening day (the date was June 26) as a D-Day observance in honor of the men who lost their lives on the Normandy beaches in June 1944. The mayor also issued a permit for a parade planned by Everett to start at the city hall and proceed through town to the Missouri Theatre, with Millet in the front car, civic and patriotic officials in others and military equipment augmenting the lineup. Mayor Meers gave Colonel Millet a key to the city and the parade got under way. Hughes had a loudspeaker system playing “The Longest Day” march throughout, and a mobile television camera covered the event. After the parade the military vehicles parked in front of the theatre. Millet proceeded to the radio and television station with his wife, two recruiter officers and Hughes, where they were interviewed. After that Colonel Millet spoke at a luncheon of the Sertoma Club on the value of Lt. Col. Lewis Millet, Congressional Medal of Honor winner, and Everett Hughes, manager of the Missouri Theatre in St. Joseph, shake hands before a lobby army recruiting display on opening day of "The Longest Day." Hughes arranged a city salute to the D-Day dead with the appearance of Colonel Millet from Ft. Leavenworth, Kas. U.S. maintaining armed forces in Vietnam. He was back at the theatre at 1:15 for the formal opening of “The Longest Day.” At dusk, with a giant searchlight fanning the sky, people lined up for the regular opening. The crowd of ticketbuyers formed down the street and around the corner. That night the only empty seat in the house was Manager Hughes’ office chair. An effective dogtag gimmick was used. Imprinted slips, 3 1/2x6, were distributed around town — a total of 10,000 — with opening copy plus an invitation to fill in the name and address form on the slip and send it to the Missouri Theatre for a G.I. Identification Tag for a charge of 75 cents. Hughes concluded his campaign, kicked off “The Longest Day” to full houses, and it did not exceed his budget. Patrons coming into the Lyric Theatre at Minneapolis recently had to look twice as they entered into what appeared to be -ia bat cave. The entire staff was attired tre in the theme of the current attraction, “Kiss of the Vampire,” complete wTith fangs — but no kisses. Manager Bob Carr took advantage of the title of the feature and the date on which the picture opened, Friday the 13th, and pulled out the stops. Outside the theatre, people plodding to work at 9:30 a.m. were brought to attention by a street display showing a “vampire bat” drinking hot “blood” — something to think about when that coffee break came to mind. Every female patron received a free “jinx” gift, a devilish looking lapel skeleton. Each 13th patron was given a pair of passes to a future attraction. The theatre front reeked bad luck with skeletons hanging from the entire length of the marquee and black cats underfoot everywhere. As a topper to the run, Bob and his canopy man Larry Gauthier were inspecting a portion of loose plexiglas paneling while the latter was completing his sign change at the end of the run, and as Larry lifted a letter of the panel, lo and behold what should appear hanging onto one of the runners? You guessed it — a bat. Promotion for Operettas By A1 Kruger Wins $100 in Old Film Gimmicks Good for Radio < Continued from page one) for the most useless thing you own (no mothers-in-law accepted). Works great; listeners send in everything from false teeth to radio batteries with dead cells. MONEY TREE CONTEST — Lots of ways to work this, but the best is to get an eight-foot aluminum Christmas tree and decorate it with 500 brand new dollar bills and put on display . . . and have customers register in sponsor stores. Just one winner who gets the tree. On one page is an account of a Teenage Underground Movement Against Rock and Roll Music, organized by WTCN of Minneapolis with the first meeting being held in the Orpheum Theatre there, followed by a special screening of “Bye Bye Birdie.” Mel Jass of the station was host at the showing, which included greetings from the Winter Carnival queen, a fashion show for young men and women and a longdistance telephone conversation with AnnMargret. Over $2,000 in prizes were awarded to the Teenage Underground Movement, which was established by WTCN to give teenagers full credit for the scope of their musical appreciation. Over 2,000 young people were enrolled with membership cards going to such units and the Beethoven Brigade, the Bach Battalion, the Dvorak Division and the Puccini Patrol ! Alvin Kruger Alvin Kruger, who manages the Laurel Theatre in San Antonio for Cinema Arts Theatres, won a $100 award for making the best boxoffice showing with a series of one-day-a-week presentations of six reissued MGM operettas. Kruger’s winning idea was inexpensive. He employed the person-to-person touch by phoning the secretaries and presidents of every civic, social and cultural organization in Bexar County about his operetta program. He even went down the membership list of the some of the groups, literally making several hundred calls. This personal contact paid off right from the first showing; in fact, attendance at “Naughty Marietta” was far above expectations. Kruger then went down his phone list again, thanking the civic, social, etc., group’s presidents for the excellent response to the musical program. This had the psychological effect he had in mind — wanted to achieve — it got the group presidents personally interested and they talked up the musicals. In addition, by basing his campaign solidly on personal and cultural contacts, Kruger was able to get extraordinary cooperation from the newspapers and radio and television media. Starting with Naughty Marietta, the Laurel followed with Student Prince, Maytime, Brigadoon, Firefly and Bittersweet. A second fall series is planned at the Laurel. 2 — 162 — BOXOFFICE Showmondiser :: Oct. 14, 1963