Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1924)

1894 Motion Picture News CINCE the lobby is the "show window" ^ of the theatre, the importance of its appearance cannot be much over-estimated. Careful attention to this feature will go a long way toward building up a reputation for a theatre. An interesting example of this is found at Haverhill, Mass., where Manager Ed Foley of the Academy theatre has made his house one of the show places of the city. So ingeniously has he made capital of its possibilities that the citizens of Haverhill have come to look for the unusual there, and have formed the habit of dropping around to see what the lobby has to offer. Needless to say, many of them, once there, step up to the box office. The final test, of course, is the box office, and the best answer is in the fact that Foley has turned a once losing venture into an established success. Having a decided knack for mechanical and electric devices, his lobbies always manage to be out of the ordinary. Foley now and then teams up with Phil Kahn, publicity director of the American F'eature Film at Boston, to whom he gives much credit Every joy-!>eeker and lauijiv hunter will be tickled to death by the fates ol Oouqidi Mat Lean in " Tie Yankee ConAul" at fornid Theatre Nrt Saturday TOUR IDEA "Taking a tip from someone who ran a Bargain Day at their theatre, I immediately got busy and arranged for a Bargain Month at the Orlando theatres, and the enclosed dodgers and reproductions of page newspaper ads are the result. "This idea is a knockout if you have the pictures and we had them for this month anyway. By pro-rating the cost of the throw-aways and the newspaper advertising over the four weeks of the month the cost is practically cut to nothing whereas the benefit is decidedly big and we had a splendid business as a result of our scheme. "I had enough dodgers printed to make a house to house canvass of the city and then to make sure everyone was going to see one, I mailed out a thousand to a special mailing list. We also gave them away in the theatres for a week and just to cap the climax we shot a page in each newspaper to make sure of the stragglers who might miss the other mediums or vice versa. A few slides on the screens kept people talking about our Bargain Month and the advertising did the rest. "As I said before, business has been away above par during this YESSIR/l,-,.,.!,™,! RiymonJ I JjikWU ovflctl cmvjj nude into ano HxUaris gleeful romfocCr^a Hurry h h* caiilomu Theilnt on SatunJty— for starting him along the right road. Together, they have put over some remarkable exploitation campaigns. A recent campaign was that on " The Hunchback of Notre Dame," the outstanding feature of which was a large reproduction of Notre Dame cathedral in the lobby. Built of wallboard, it was painted faithfully to represent the original. Both the famous Rose windows and the arched openings were covered with vari-colored gelatine, with lights inside giving a remarkable imitation of a church at night In the base was placed a photograph with a cathedral chimes record working continuously with a repeater. Naturally, the display was an object of unusual interest during the entire run. * * * THERE is no good reason, apparently, why the policy of making the news weekly the theatre s own should be confined to the largest houses. The cost of making up an individual leader is not great. Any title concern or industrial film studio will make up for a few dollars enough of this leader to last indefinitely. Manager Charles E. Raymond of the Fenway theatre, Boston, has an excellent stunt of this sort. The house, in common with other Paramount theatres, publishes a weekly program called "Fenway Close-up." For the news weekly leader, a copy of this was toned down to a medium grey, still leaving the type matter legible, and over it was lettered in white, "Fenway Animated Close-Up. World Events Cinemized." Any theatre printing a program or house publication of its own can adapt this stunt to its use. Or, if this is impractical, tie up with a local newspaper, reproduce the front page of this on your leader, and call it, for instance, "Strand-Herald Screen Review," or something of the sort, combining the theatre and newspaper names. Such a leader, tacked onto the front of your news weekly, adds to the prestige of the house, gives it individuality, and since the maker's name appears on all subtitles, does not detract from anybody. * * * SOME weeks ago this department described an advertisement in which a theatre used the Bargain Sale style of copy with excellent results. Now comes a communication from Frank H. Burns, the live exploitation director of the Beacham theatre, Orlando, Fla., which shows that he is quick to take advantage of a new idea. He writes : bad month and I think it will hold up fairly well too for I am still hammering at 'em on the good pictures angle. * * * THE old slogan, "know your patrons," has been more than casually observed by W. Paul Bowlin, manager of the Missouri theatre, Mountain Grove, Mo. Few small motion picture houses in towns of 2,000 inhabitants can boast of a fifteen-piece orchestra, yet, that is exactly what theatregoers of Mountain Grove are enjoying. Little more than a year ago Bowlin became manager of the theatre and it did not take him long to discover the sentiment of his patrons ran to music. Hence, an orchestra of eight pieces was increased to fifteen, including a piano, two cornets, three saxaphones, bass horn, two alto horns, a marimbaphone, three violins, a cello, drums, bells and some of the musicians "doubling" on instruments. But, wisely enough, Mr. Bowlin did not take money from his pictures and transfer it to the orchestra, much as his patrons desired good music, which boils down to the question: "How does he do it?" The musicians, although capable enough, are not an expensive lot. Unnecessary overhead expenses have been eliminated and enough additional patronage is attracted by the orchestra to make the theatre a paying proposition. That's the answer. CORNERING good will through a capable theatre orchestra is a new angle on the music situation, but that is more or less what Manager Ed Turner of the Imperial theatre at Asheville is doing. It so happens that competent music teachers are almost unknown in the community, and no provision is made in the public school curriculum for music.