Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

"War and Peace" In Push Across Canada Small City Campaign At Small Cost Famous Players Canadian Corporation had an exceptionally successful campaign on “War and Peace,” reported in a letter which Jerry Pickman, Paramount advertising-publicity-exploitation vice-president, has received from James R. Nairn, FPC director of public relations and advertising, in Toronto, who lined up a special crew to handle exploitation and brought them to New York to attend the world premiere of the Ponti-DeLaurentiis production and to sit in on a special meeting Pickman held with field men. It Started in New York “We have covered all our key dates and, at the Eastern and Western Division meetings recently held in Niagara Falls and Edmonton, managers from the smaller cities came forward to urge us to send the field men to them. We contacted Advance Patterns in New York and received a list of Canadian outlets for their patterns inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s costumes in ‘War and Peace.’ We also contacted the Bantam book distributors and the distributors of the Bernard Geis book. Our art department made the silk screened cards for the pattern tieup and the truck banners. The Natasha haircut has become quite the rage here and we actually have hairdressers competing to advertise it. We produced our own art on this tieup. Our field men first contact the manager of the theatre playing ‘War and Peace’ and arrange a screening for opinion makers. Accompanied by the managers, they visit the publishers of the newspapers and owners of radio stations. They try to keep their visits on this level. They also visit editors, disc jockeys, etc., presenting them with copies of ‘War and Peace.’ Visits to department and book stores have resulted in many windows, store interior displays, stories, pictorial layouts in the press and radio and TV cooperation. We now have a supply of the Columbia LP record, copies of which are given to all important disc jockeys as well as the ‘45’ record, which they are constantly playing. We are also having successful showings of the costumes you sent us. Continued Across Canada “We find that our managers are most happy to have one of our own people come in to assist them, and everywhere our men have been most cordially received. Arrangements were made in advance for Bert Brown and Jimmy Cameron to speak at service club luncheons. Both are fluent speakers and in their talk they manage to get in generous plugs for ‘War and Peace’ without being too obvious about it. In our theatres we have a special stu dent price for all performances. In most situations we are able to go through the local boards of education and get the cooperation of teachers of English and history. “Attached is a copy of a recent issue of the Toronto Telegram, which gave us the front page of the second section. This is one of Canada’s largest newspapers. The paper has written a letter to all high school principals in Ontario offering them free study guides for ‘War and Peace’ in any quantity. The paper pays for the entire promotion! We felt that those wonderful clips from ‘War and Peace’ recently sent us should be on TV. Our men visited the stations and screened the clips which were very well received. “Our full page ad in color on ‘War and Peace,’ was well worthwhile. Not only did we get a paid circulation of 1,500,000 as an insert in 28 Canadian newspapers but we had a follow-up in a later edition which not only boosted ‘War and Peace’ but ‘The Ten Commandments.’” T James C. Cartledge, city manager for Georgia Theatres in Augusta, sends a full copy of the teen-age supplement in the Augusta Chronicle and Herald, with an excellent front page titled, “Go Modern, Go Movies” — which we’ll try to reproduce as a small cut, to show you the good design. Wonderful how Georgia papers so often lead in the publication of special movie sections. J. C. Baumgardt, manager of Jamestown Amusement Co. Lyric theatre in Lancaster, Ohio, reports a fine campaign on “The Opposite Sex” in his town of 25,000 population, for a total cost of only $15 cash. That’s pretty unusual, but he used extra ingenuity and initiative to obtain the result. In the first place, he asked for and got three dresses and one suit, original costumes from the picture, which were flown to him by the MGM studio in Hollywood, by courtesy of MGM’s field exploitation staff, under the direction of Emery Austin, in New York. “Fashions for the Opposite Sex” was the theme of the merchandising promotion with the local hospital cooperating in their drive for funds. Radio spots and newspaper publicity supported the fact that June Allyson’s gowns and Ann Sheridan’s suit would be worn by local models. Then, the gowns and the suit were taken to the high school sewing group, for their study and admiration, all with suitable plugs for the picture. He estimates they had about 90% coverage in the town, that day, with Hollywood fashions as a topic. We especially like the stage setting provided for the fashion show, and will use a picture o* it to show you how it was done. Men’s Fashions were shown and sponsored by the American Legion Post, just to keep the promotion from going entirely to “The Opposite Sex” — and that rated a news picture in the local paper. A total of 150 fashions and costumes were worn and displayed. United Artists' contest pays off — Lige Brien, special events director for the company, hands steamship tickets to Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Neininger, of Ellwood City, Pa., who won a trip to Paris in a letterwriting contest as promoion for "Gentlemen Marry Brunettes." The lucky couple sailed on the S.S. United States, for an all-expense vacation, as the guests of the producers. 48 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, DECEMBER I, 1956