Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

TV^at t&e Skatvmm /tie 'Daitta! MERCHANDISING & EXPLOITATION DEPARTMENT f re: Columbia Given Credit for Clever 'Diners' Club' Kick-off Moneys going out of style in Winsted, Connecticut, at least for a day. And with the approval of the town council. Winsted will be the scene of the world premiere of "The Man From the Diners' Club" March 13, and everybody in town gets a Diners' Club credit card for the day, even the bubble gum set. And they'll have to use them. It's illegal to use money in Winsted that day. The national promotion campaign for the latest Danny Kaye film will be the topic of three exhibitor conferences to be conducted by Columbia Pictures in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Representing the film company will be vice presidents Rube Jackter and Jonas Rosenfield, Jr., promotion chief Robert S. Ferguson and Milt Goodman, assistant sales manager. Included in the promotional activity planned for the film will be color advertisements in national magazines, backed by display material in restaurants, hotels, transportation companies and other Diners' Club affiliates throughout the country, preview showings in key cities for prominent Diners' Club members, extensive newspaper advertising and music and record promotion. Irma' Gets Big 6-Page I Splash and Cover in LOOK A splashy publicity break for the Mirisch Bros. — Billy Wilder — United Artists production of "Irma La Douce" is on the news stands in the form of a colorful six-page cover story in the current issue of Look. Featuring Shirley MacLaine as Irma and as herself, the magazine's story deals at length with the picture and the star's role as a guileless French prostitute and with the real Miss MacLaine. "Love's for sale in 'Irma La Douce' as Hollywood casts its prettiest clown into the streets of Paris," reads the sub-head opposite a full-page color picture of Irma, black dress, green stockings, decollete and lap dog, strolling a studio-constructed Parisian street. The cover of Look features her with Jack Lemmon, as the cop who falls for Shirley's wiles. SHOWMANSHIP PAY-OFF 67% on 15% What can be the difference in grossing potential between a "plain" and a "fancy" promotion campaign on an exploitation picture? Newton P. Jacobs, president of Crown International Pictures, says the boxoffice gross can run "as high as 67 percent on a 15% additional investment". Jacobs figures were derived, he states, from a survey taken on engagements of "First Spaceship on Venus". The increase percentage was arrived at by taking the average business and campaign expenses of a theatre as a base and comparing results between houses that maintained minimal promotion policies and those which joined the campaign. "Profit obviously is related to effort", Jacobs declared. "Effort includes putting money as well as mind to work. The payoff is proportionate. That applies to the distributor as well as the exhibitor. The distributor who merely ships his product to the theatre can only hope. The distributor who merely ships his product to the theatre can only hope. The distributor who puts muscle behind the picture can join his customer in a liberal profit-sharing plan." "First Spaceship on Venus" played saturation bookings in metropolitan areas backed by a co-operative promotion campaign. Jacobs said the next two Crown releases, "Terrified" and "As Nature Intended", will get the same kind of intensive campaigns. Strong Campaign Set for 'Courtship', 2nd Preview Film The promotion campaign for TOA's second Hollywood Preview attraction, "The Courtship of Eddies Father" is complete and ready to trumpet in the March 14 national release of the M-G-M production, it was announced by Nat D. Fellman, chairman of TOA's product committee. Backed by the experience gained with the first Hollywood Preview release, Warners' "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane", a triumvirate of theater showmanship executives — Ernest Emerling of Loew's, Harry Goldberg of Stanley Warner, and Fred Herkowitz of RKO Theatres — have prepared a powerful "Courtship" campaign in collaboration with MGM's Dan Terrell and Emery Austin. National Screen Service is cooperating to make all advance material available to theatres well in advance of the kick-off dates in the U.S. and Canada. U Sends 'Trouble' To Press via Wired TV "40 Pounds of Trouble", Universal release, which premiered in Florida January 18, was launched in the nation's press two days earlier by a coast-to-coast closed circuit television press conference. The hourlong inTView brought stars Tony Curtis and Suzanne Pleshette, director Norman Jewison and producer Stan Margulies before 400 newsmen in nine major cities and marked the first use of the closed circuit TV press conference on a national scale. Nine cities hooked up: New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Boston, Washington, Pittsburh, Los Angeles and Dallas. SELLING 'SINS' The seven cuties pictured here are out selling the virtues of Joseph E. Levine's "7 Capital Sins", currently at the Sutton Theatre, N.Y. Each of the chicks carried a sandwich sign naming one of the sins: Lust, Pride, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, Laziness and distributed circulars to passersby. Film BULLETIN January 21. 1963 Page 13