The Moving picture world (March 1924-April 1924)

total Selling the Picture to the Public EDITED BY EPES WINTHROP SARGENT Ringing the Changes on Exploitation Will Give Old Ideas New Palling Power MANAGERS who complain that there is nothing new in exploitation confess their lack of imagination. There are few new basic stunts being originated, but every week develops new kinks in old ideas, and the new twist is often more useful than would be a brand new idea. To offer a couple of concrete examples, the free admission to mothers may be recalled. This was worked on a number of Mother plays, and was worked on other titles in the form of matinees to gold star mothers. It looked as though the stunt had been worked out. Then Dr. Frank Crane, in one of his syndicate stories, advanced the argument that the state should pension all mothers, the sum increasing in proportion to the number of children until the mother of ten should be entitled to a decoration of honor and to various concessions including free admission to all theatres. Saw the Point It was just another rave to most readers, but Harry Yost, a Universal exploiteer, who was trying to get extra interest in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Hamilton Theatre, Lancaster, Pa., grabbed at it. He took up the idea and announced that all mothers of ten children were to be the guests of the Hamilton management, with all the children, during the run of the Hunchback. The newspapers took up the news angle and gave more space than the best written blurb could have brought. Not a single ten-child mother came forward to claim the hospitality, so the stunt and the free space it brought cost absolutely nothing, and it not only won a lot of interest-making space for the Hamilton but other paper throughout the state took up this practical application of the Crane doctrine, and the picture was helped all through a wide radius of territory. Specified Pennies Another Universalist, W. P. Allen, working with A. J. Sonosky, of an unnamed house, was putting over Around the World in 80 Days, an old serial. He picked on the penny matinee to put the first chapter over, but it was not merely a penny matinee. It was stipulated that the coin should bear the date of 1919, and every boy in town was hustling for a 1919 penny. And he explained to all whom he asked why he wanted it, and the old Verne classic was given a tremendous verbal advertisement. And the odd part is that the stunt worked better than the out and out free matinee. The house seats 360 and 615 pennies were collected. The odd kink put a new kick in a threadbare idea. Lots of Others This list might be extended indefinitely and applied to other companies, as well, for some of the best stunts are not novelties, but new versions of established and time-proven attention getters. Lent is here. Business may have slumped a little, but you can more than bring it back by getting out the old stunts, putting them into new dress and driving on them. You can work over most of the old stunts every six months, and like old jokes, they seem to take hold the best. Give them a tryout. You cannot sell what you do not yourself believe in. Don't try to put over a weak sister with half hearted argument. It only makes things worse. Save uf for the good ones. A Metro Release A STUNT PULLED DOWN IN DES MOINES FOR SCARAMOUCHE. WONDER WHAT IT WAS There is a bunch of pretty girls. And a bunch of cops. And a crowd of men, also a ladder and a 24 sheet. AH in front of the Rial to Theatre. The Metro exploitation man forgot to tell what it was all about. Maybe it was a ladder climbing contest, or perhaps an Alice Terry impersonation or perhaps if you could lick the cops and climb the ladder you got a girl. We've written Dan Burgum for the dope.