Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1959)

MERCHANDISING A EXPLOITATION DEPARTMENT f ft •l ac w we r RALLY FOR 'RALLY." Top, left to right, Sol Schwartz, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Charles Einfeld gather at New York's RKO Palace for premiere of 20th-Fox's "Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!" Middle, Leo McCarey, two of Santa's lovely helpers. Bottom, Margaret Leighton, Charles Einfeld. Golding Named Ad-Pub Assistant to Preminger David Golding resigned as vice president of Seven Arts Prods., New York, to take over as executive assistant to Otto Preminger, in charge of advertising-publicity. Golding, who will make his headquarters in New York, will return to Hollywood about the middle of January for the preparations by Preminger for the start of "Anatomy of a Murder," for Columbia. Before joining Seven Arts, Oolding was in charge of publicity at Hecht-Hill Lancaster. UA's Lewis Returns from European Promotion Tour Roger H. Lewis, United Artists' national director of advertising, publicity and exploitation, returned last week from an extensive tour of Europe, where he plugged the company's expanded global promotion. Lewis, who spent a month discussing his company's ambitious promotion plans with overseas personnel and independent producers in Paris, Milan, Berlin, Frankfurt, Naples, Madrid, London and Ireland, joined Susan Hayward at press previews and key-cities overseas openings of Figaro, Inc.'s "I Want To Live." His major task, however, was to map out comprehensive campaigns for UA's upcoming blockbusters and review the cooperation between the New York home office and European promotion and production centers in selling the UA product. Along that line, Lewis placed much emphasis on promotion for UA Records and Music Company Co. In Madrid, he discussed production and pre-production publicity for "Solomon and Sheba," while in Ireland he held conferences on the pre-release promotion of "Shake Hands With the Devil." Churchmen See, Plug 'Inn'; Song Rides High Among Hits Twentieth Century-Fox boxofficers is running the gamut in drawing attention to Buddy Adler's "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness." "The Children's Marching Song" from the picture was continuing in favor with the country's radio listeners, according to Billboard and Casbbox, both of which tabbed the tune a top hit. Mitch Miller of Columbia recorded the song with a novelty arrangement, and 20thFox Records cut the original soundtrack, featuring, for the first time, the voice of Ingrid Bergman on records. At the same time, 20th launched an ambitious screening program in conjunction with the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Each major city in the U. S. will be the site for screenings of "Inn," with executive secretaries of the National Council acting as hosts for the events. The showings will be opened by a talk by a 20th-Fox representative on the making of a multi-million-dollar attraction. The Church and lay public who attend will be urged by the National Council to use all lines of communication available to them in order to inform the public about "Inn". British B-B Campaign Stresses Man-Wife Theme American exhibitors would do well to keep a showmanship eye on the businessbuilding campaign now being waged in Great Britain by Associated British Cinemas circuit. Shown above is one of the ads employed in the campaign in an attempt to make movie-going an institution. It's called the "Back to the Cinema" drive and is being pushed through full-page ads in 1 1 leading British newspapers boasting a combined circulation of 16,000,000 and an estimated readership of 40,000,000. Considering that the population of the British Isles is 50,000,000, the word is bound to get around. Six separate ads, featuring copy with the "husband-wife get out of the house and go to a movie" theme, as illustrated above, will appear between January and mid-March. Directed mainly at the middle-aged audience, the ads urge the "good wife" to get hubby "on his feet and out of the house" to a movie, particularly at the "local Associated British Cinema." In addition, large posters, stressing the ad theme are being displayed outside Associated British theatres. Blumenstock Joins Embassy: To Complete 'Oscar' Duty While plans to send a steady flow of advance material on the 1959 Academy Awards telecast to all media were drawn up at the first meeting of the MPA co-ordinating group for publicity, it was made known that Sid Blumenstock, director of promotional activities for the telecast, had accepted a position with Embassy Pictures, as vice president in charge of advertising, publicity and exploitation. He said, however, that he would be available to the MPA ad-pub directors committee on the telecast through February and into March. Paq* H Film BULLETIN January 5, l?6?