Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

128 Motion Picture News October 4 . 1930 MANActrcr kcijnd table club CRASHING HARD-BOILED SCHOOLS Our attention was recently attracted to an aggressive showman who couldn't be downed no matter what obstacle he encountered. He was very anxious to create some good-will and co-operation between his theatre and the local high school, but all his overtures were in vain. It was a comparatively new school and handled several thousand students, only three city blocks from his house, yet they would not play ball with him on any of his suggestions. With the starting of the new school year, he contacted the athletic instructor and sold him on the idea of taking movies of the various activities. The football squad and coach, physical classes, etc. The A. I. became very enthusiastic and went to the principal himself. Result, they shot about eight hundred feet of picture, including a close-up of the hard-boiled principal, himself, the faculty in a group, etc. After the pictures have been shown at the theatre for three days, during which time the entire school will be encouraged to view them (and by the principal, himself), the reel will be presented to the school. There are more ways than one to kill a cat. You've got the ammunition. Go to it. Complete Campaign Was Turned Out By Felker For This One To add still another gag on the "Golden Safe" exploitation material we would like to call attention to F. R. Felker's work in connection with this picture. Mr. Felker, by the way, manages the State Theatre in Omaha, and has been responsible for many original and novel exploitation ideas ever since he was in the theatre. In this particular campaign on the "Golden Calf" he arranged two unusually fine window-displays and we are picturing them below. In addition he ran a good side liarht to this campaign by having made up 30.000 paper tape measures, 16 inches long by 2 inches wide, which plugged the picture and told of the Kresge tie-up. Eight thousand of these were put into every outgoing package from the Kresge store and the other 22,000 were distributed from house to house throughout the city. The thing was printed up on good stock material and called attention to the Calf contest and carried, in addition to the exact tape measurement of 16 inches a form to be filled out by those wishing to enter the contest wherein they specified the dimensions of their calf. There are so many other good gags and side lights to Felker's work on this picture that we wish we had the time and place to allot to them. However, rest assured that here's an important piece of work and "F. R." deserves all the credit in the world for the way he handled it. Let's hear some more from you, Felker, and convey our regards to our many other friends out your way. Brown's House Unable To Hold Kids That Showed U p And up in Canada they take their kiddie business building seriously, too. This is shown in the work that Charles Brown turns out at the Royal Theatre in Moose Jaw, Sas-^^——^ katchewan. Recently he tied up with a local ice cream dealer and a wholesale jobber to good advantage. The ice cream dealer supplied him with cones to be given away to the kids at the Saturday matinee. The wholesale jobber furnished him with scribblers for use by the children at school. The scribblers carried an ad for a certain product. In order to give the gag a good plug Brown made up a special sign which was placed in the lobby. We are reproducing this so that you can see the methods used by him. The strength of Brown's showmanship was seen in the mob of kids that stormed the doors of the theatre an hour before opening time. Seven hundred of them were on hand, and as the house seeks only five hundred, the overflow had to be turned away. This was one of the most successful stunts that Brown has pulled at the house, and he is pretty sure, in view of results such as he obtained, to pull it again. We are glad to see that he is taking m-^BIM MMM||M^jy| such an ;nterest jn ms kiddie business, as this angle is one that has been puzzling showmen. We want to thank him for letting us see how he handles his own particular problem and we hope to hear from him again real soon. Barry Banged Over Couple On Selling "Animal Crackers" A. P. Barry, manager of the Rex Theatre in Hendersonville, N. C, has enough pull to enable him to secure the cooperation of his local merchants on any gag he wants to use to sell the attraction playing at his house for its current run. When he ran "Animal Crackers," he tied up a department store on a guessing contest. The store paid for the printing of 2,000 heralds which the theatre had made up. These heralds played up the title of picture, theatre and playdates as well as giving detailed information about the guessing contest. In the window of the store was a jar of buttons. Apparently these buttons were laughed off by folks who had seen the Marx Brothers in "Cocoanuts." The copy further continued by saying: "To the 15 persons who estimate nearest the number of buttons in the jar, the store would present a guest ticket to see ANIMAL CRACKERS." A great many showmen from Barry's part of the country are to be found on our roles, and we'd like you to know that Mr. Barry has also joined the Club. We hope that he will follow up this account with another one giving us the dope on what else he does to keep them lining up at the box-office. We would also like your picture, "A. P.," if you can dig one up for us. DAVID C. McSWEENEY Says "/ could write pages on how much your section of the NEWS means to me and my assistant manager, but I think it is emphatic enough to say that we honestly just look forward to each week's issue." Manager, Needham Paramount Theatre, Needham, Mass.