The Moving picture world (November 1926-December 1926)

December 4, 1926 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 361 Larmour Used Bats All Over His Lobby MR LARMOUR'S GENERAL MAILING CARD ON THE BAT One of these cards was sent every woman in Graham, Texas, and four adjacent towns. The rebate line at the bottom brought 8 per cent, of the cards in. Note the excellent display. The selection of a fancy body type helps much. Larmour Was Batty When He Played It M. W. Larmour writes that he put over The Bat so well that on the second day his receipts were only $19 below the average although he had a circus for opposition. Even with that drop he did three days business in two. For a change he dropped his hektograpli mailing cards and had enough printed to get a real distribution. He can do only a hundred cards on the single hektograpli transfer. The cards were turned over to a professional mailing list man who sent a card to every woman not only in Graham, Texas, but in four nearby towns. It was a trifle expensive, but he raised his price ten cents and then gave a ten cent rebate on the card, and about 8% of these were used, which yielded a lot of new live names for the theatre mailing list. He cut out and panted a bat with a sixteen foot wing spread for his lobby banner, doing the animal in black with a yellow title, and then made up about fifty smaller bats ranging from 6 to 18 inches, which were all hung from the ceiling by black thread, which permitted them to sway in the slightest draft. Because of its excellent display, we are reproducing the postal. If you can get as good as this from your printer, you are fortunate. Held A Celebration M,inus the Star Act If Charles Lounsbury, of Universal, does not spring a parade stunt on the Denver Post at least once a month, they write and ask him about it. But Lounsbury was right on schedule for September and liad his celebration all sewed up. A Siwash Indian girl had gone to represent her race at Atlantic City and was returning by way of Denver. Lounsbury borrowed a miniature train from the Union Pacific and arranged for some Navajos to come in from the reservation to make the Princess welcome in front of the Post Office with a stage appearance at the America. And then word came that the Princess was delayed by a washout in Kansas and it looked as though the washout had wet down the parade, too. The Post wanted to call it off, but Lounsbury couldn't see it He took off the "Welcome Princess" banners, put on "Midnight Sun Special" and moved the parade over the announced route. No one missed the Princess so long as the band kept on playing, and the band played for three hours, finally parking in front of the theatre for the evening. The Princess L;ot in m time for her appearance at the .\nierica That was backed up by the personal appearances of Raymond Keane, who played in the picture. He hails from Denver, and Universal loaned him for the week. He made three appearances a day at the theatre and in between did everything Lounsbury could sug.gest, which was plenty plus. Took a Ride For The Show Off at the Strand theatre, Birmingham, Aln., Sidney Dannenberg used a man who looked like Ford Sterling fo drive around the streets and tell the people about the picture. He added a line about the car in which he rode, a brand new model of the Diana 8, not previously seen in town. That wrote off the cost of the car and limited the expense of the orator's salary. Telephone Hangers ()pen the season with a fine line of attractions, E. R. Rogers, of the Tivoli theatre, Chattanooga, put out 3,000 telephone liangers giving the greater portion of his first month's pictures. For the opening feature, Fine Manners, he distributed a four page booklet on fine manners at the movies, written in a facetious vein. Both helped. This sounds almost too simple to be good, but it worked for S. S. Oakley, of the Liberty theatre, Fort Worth, Fla. In advertising Miss Nobody he covered all references to Anna Q. Nilsson and then offered ticket prizes for the identification of Miss Nobody. There was a wide variety of replies and no particular drain on the passes. It helped the picture at very small cost. THE U-P TRAIN AND A BUNCH OF NAVAJOS W HO HAD COME TO WELCOME A PRINCESS The America Theatre and Denver Post arranged to meet the Indian representative at the Atlantic City Beauty Carnival, but when the princess was delayed, they made it a Midnight Sun demonstration and had just as much fun. The miniature train was loaned by the Union Paci .ic and the tractor draws twelve box cars.