Exhibitor's Trade Review (Nov 1925 - Feb 1926)

Page 24 National Tie-Up and Exploitation Section Exhibitors Trade Review IF you want to get the kids started on a parade, just hand out about fifty of these hats to them. The hats can be bought at a very reasonable price from the First National exchanges. They are made up of a flat piece of paper with a slit for the head. Perhaps you can interest a nearby toy store to make a display of dolls in the window, and have each of the dolls wear one of these hats. And by the way, you hardly need any better suggestion for your marquee than a big cut-out of a pirate hat. oos Make The IF there was ever a picture made for Ballyhoos, this is it. It has spectacular elements, romance, the land of make-believe for the youngsters, hopes of hidden treasure, adventure, life on the bounding-main, etc. Play up every ballyhoo you ever used before and then some. The picture has thrills and that's what you want to give the fans in your ballyhoos. SIX FOOT STILTS! A Pirate Parade! The first and most spectacular ballyhoo which you must pull in your town is a parade of pirates ! Can you imagine the way at which every boy and youngster in town will want to dress up as a pirate and join such a parade through the town? Enlist the co-operation of every costumer in town. Masquerade shops too will have a plentiful supply of costumes and outfits for everybody at cut-rates. Get up a sufficient number of huge banners and placards to be carried in the parade. Enlist the services of a band, if possible. Give the outside men in the procession quantities of throwaways to be thrown to spectators on the sidewalks. At the head of the parade, either the bandleader or a special tumbler, dressed exactly like Leon Errol will furnish the comedy element. If this stunt doesn't make everybody in town want to see your picture, we'll turn pirate ourselves and play it for a treasure chest of box office gold. • A knockout of a scheme to attract every eye in town to your picture is this. Have an employee parade up and down the sidewalks of your theatre and locality. He will be mounted on sixfoot high stilts, covered with a specially made pair of long-trousers to cover the stilts. This will place him about six feet or more above the heads of pedestrians, who will be constantly gazing up at your man on stilts and reading the signs attached to his back or front. This stunt can't possibly fail, as the novelty of such a tall man and the six-league steps he takes will absolutely stop the town . A TREASURE CHEST FULL OF COIN ANOTHER eye-bulging scheme would be this. Dig up an oldfashioned treasure chest, from some antique store or furniture store. Obtain the aid of a local furniture store, to feature the chest in one of its windows. Then place placards around the chest, stating that this is the mysterious chest which the chief pirate in "Clothes Make the Pirate," found in the sunken ship. Make a mystery of its contents, with a prize offered to the one guessing what it contains. Have some other antique object of value in the chest, such as a valuable candelabra, or choice of ancient weapons, or a number of bone skulls. A WAGON FLOAT! Here's a good idea for a street float. Build a pirate ship of light materials, preferably, compo board, on a truck. Put in a jazz band, or hire a calliope, the men to be in pirate costumes, while other pirates man dummy cannons at the side. You can arrange sails of white cloth, with skeleton heads, crossbones and cutlasses, painted on them. Cover the sides of the truck with green and white bunting to represent water. USE SANDWICH MEN! Here is a great idea for sandwichmen ballyhoos. Get one or two sandwich men, dressed up like the famous pirate, Long John Silver, and using a wooden leg, strapped to his own. Plaster his back with signs and have him parade through the principal streets. This scheme should be good for lots of newspaper mention. It has always proved effective exploitation.