Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

October II. 1930 .1/ o t i o u Picture N c w 81 MANAGER!* HOUND TADLf CLUB W. Ponton Presented The Teachers With A Special Invitation It is the little things like this that keep showmen doing the big things that they do when they bust records at their houses. An excellent stunt was pulled by W. H. Ponton, manager of the Carolina Theatre in Fayetteville, N. C, recently that meant something toward boosting the good-will at his house and plugging its institutional value. Ponton learned that there were 123 new school teachers coming from other town who would teach in and around Fayetteville this coming year. Ponton then obtained the teachers' addresses and sent them a letter of greeting and welcome. The letter he sent out was as follows: "Dear Teacher: The manager and staff of the Carolina Theatre extend to you a hearty welcome to our city. "We join in the friendly welcome that has been extended to you. We are proud of our city and feel sure that the reasons for our pride will appeal to you also. "We should like to extend our welcome in person, and for this reason invite you to visit the Carolina Theatre as our guest. "This letter, when presented at the box-office, will admit you as our guest." The teachers were more than pleased with the letters and many of them did not hesitate to shoot him a note telling him about it. And when the letters began to arrive. Ponton felt that he could safely say the theatre had acquired 123 new patrons. With this as his first contribution, we must say that he is showing that he will be an active member, and we hope he will continue. CLUB emblem PIN!!! This is the actual size of the pin. It is made of rolled gold with the outer circle containing a blue enamel background and the inner circle an orange background. The wording is in gold letters. Use This Blank: Managers' Round Table Club 729 Seventh Avenue, New York Kindly send me, postpaid, Club pins, for which I enclose payment at $1.00 per pin. Name of Member Theatre Address City State. Former Song Hit Was Dusted Off And Utilized By Seward A showman who displayed his knowledge of showmanship recently was Alfred L. Seward of the Strand Theatre in Ocean City, N. J., and he certainly put it across. When he played "Holiday," he recalled that there used to be a popular tune with the same name as the picture. He dug it out, and one of the musicians in the theatre composed a new set of words for the number. The song was then played as an organ solo with the audience joining in heartily with the music. A set of slides, containing popular numbers, were also used and the choruses would close with the special "Holiday" verse ending. The angle proved a corker for Seward as it more than pepped people up and they evidenced great interest in the coming feature attraction. We are certainly glad to note that this showman is right on the go, and we hope that he is going to keep us posted on some future work because when a showman is such a live-wire we feel that his work should be passed along to the rest of the show selling managers throughout the country. What do you think about it, Alfred? We have an idea you agree. Big Book Featured Marchand Display At Saenger House Patrons entering or leaving the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Ala., were bound to see and be sold on the unusual coming attraction plug, in the form of an enlarged duplicate of the book that Harry Marchand used to plug "All Quiet On the Western Front." The enlarged book was about five feet in height and four feet in width and was an exact duplicate of the book cover. It was made with a cutawl machine — showing the facial expressions and eyes of the German soldier. This was backed with crepe paper and lights — to give it a very effective look. Directly at the foot of the book was placed a great number of toy soldiers carrying guns, miniature trees, cannons and supply trucks with dirt scattered around to represent the "front." It was necessary to keep an usher on duty to guard this display for fear the patrons would molest the decorations in some way. The book was placed on the inside of the foyer close to the balcony stairway three weeks in advance. And four days in advance, the book was removed to the front window of a drug store where it remained throughout the picture's run. The 75 cents edition of the book reached Mobile just in time to get some good window tie-ups. And Marchand took full advantage of all windows of book stores and libraries to exploit the picture, theatre and playdates. All over the town, wherever books were sold, the book could be found tied-in with the theatre. This one slant alone did wonders for the run of the picture, and when you add it on to the many other stunts, all known to showmen, that Marchand pulled, you'll know that he did a record business. Right, Harry?