Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1939)

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.Ipril cV. 1939 s 1 1 u w M 1': N ' s r k a d a n a v i m w Page 21 mm m iv w mm wui cmho his sis mmv <..»«, CORINNf iilCHAIflt , Colorful Posters Make Sensational Selling a Cinch When you place posters like these around town, you're gearing your campaign to take in every man, woman and child. From left to right there's the colorful, sensational L-sheet, and take our word for it, this poster is a humdinger; the 6-sheet, which is easily adaptable to cutout purposes: and the 3-sheet, which'll stop 'em in their tracks. We suggest you get a big supply of these sales accessories and stick 'em on every available billboard within the city limits and along the highways leading into town. It's the logical way to make sure that not one person misses your message. of the stills showing Barry Barnes were omitted for this purpose. The marquee shed a constant light on this sensational display. The title was used on the building with a cut-out figure of Corinne Luchaire, similar to that used on the 24-sheet. The newspapers were given plenty of art and stories for their Saturday and Sunday editions and they all came through handsomely in response to the pleas of Smakwitz and his boys. A teaser ad campaign was used in advance, teasing the title. A special screening was held for New York State Representatives, including the head of the U. S. Department of Justice in New York State; Deputy New York State Commissioner of Correction, Deputy New York State Commissioner of Welfare and various other officials from the Department of Correction and the Department of Welfare. The heads of the local police department attended and so did judges and local civic officials, newspaper editors, reporters and photographers. Pictures were taken at the screening and used in advance of the opening. The newspapers cooperated handsomely in this stunt giving plenty of space to it, partly because of the big names involved. Start with Teaser Campaign The advertising in the newspapers started with a teaser campaign, broke to three columns on the day before the opening with copy reading, "Women Without Men", "Love In Prison", etc. sensationalizing the whole thing with pictures, etc. Spot announcements were used over two radio stations daily for a week in advance of the opening. These announcements taking approximately two minutes contained just the title and a phrase or two together with the playdates. Seven of them were used daily over each station. A Department of Correction official was scheduled to make a IS minute talk on correction and institutions in New York State. Since he had seen the picture, it was easy to tie up this talk with the picture in a clever way. Heralds were used in a big way, and we mean BIG. There were 25,000 printed up and distributed from house to house and inserted in newspapers. Two hundred window cards were placed in advantageous spots in the downtown section selling the title and the line "Women Without Men". Ten leading windows in town were obtained for displays of Corinne Luchaire with various stills of the picture. They were obtained through utilizing the national tieups described in the press book. A leading store was given 5,000 bags which were imprinted and distributed to every customer. A girl was detailed to telephone various people in the city telling them about the opening of the picture. Approximately 300 calls a day were made and over 20,000 people were directly or indirectly contacted. Heads of organizations were contacted and asked to make mention of the opening of the picture at their meetings. This cooperation was obtained by telling them that New York State's institutions were beingused as a model by French institutions and that they could see the comparison by seeing the picture. Merchants Will Jump At These Tieups Many showmen, even though they use the sensational angle, will want to get the local merchants to tie up with them. Well, as you can see from the display above, there are some good tie-up stills available on Corinne Luchaire. Use them not only for window displays, but also utilize them for illustrations in cooperative newspaper ads. And if you show those of Miss Luchaire in cruise clothes, house coat, evening gown and sport suit to the editor of the women's page, it's our bet she'll grab 'em in a hurry. Well, that's what we'd call a campaign. You do all of that, Mr. Siiowman, and you'll do the kind of business Warner Bros. Ritz Theatre did in Albany. It's just ordinary logic that prompts us to say that. But let's see what else there is. Here are some of the ideas available to you which Charlie Smakwitz didn't use (or at least didn't tell us about in detail). Lije gave the picture three pages of stills a few weeks ago. Get a copy of it, cut out those pages and irtount them on a board in your lobby together with plenty of selling copy. If you can get a vacant store window in a prominent location, use another one there. Your .Philco. dealer usually has a prominent store window. Want to get in? It's easy. There are a couple of beautiful stills of Corinne Luchaire posing with a Philco Radio. What more could a store ask for? A break like that ought to get you cooperative newspaper ads, too. Telescope In Lobby Set up a telescope in the lobby (of course It doesn't have to be real). Copy around it reads, "Just discovered — see the brilliant new star" and they see a picture of Corinne Luchaire. Postal Telegraph windows are available to you. The manager of each Postal Telegraph office has been notified to be on the lookout for tihe tieup. It's one of Postal's photo news bulletins containing a large picture of the star plus a telegram sending greetmgs and a strongly worded sales message to the fans. There's another interesting angle on the picture. The story involves a social worker (Edna Best) who is trying to comhine a career with her love for the prison physician. Now, here's a subject for the social workers in your town. There are plenty of them these days, working on relief and other social problems. They should be greatly interested in this picture. Write them each a personal letter, emphasizing this even sensationalize your campaign still further by having bars built on the outside of the theatre (not interfering with exits, of course) and shadow boxes with some of the scenes of the prison which can be seen through peepholes or between bars cut in the outside of the shadow box. You have the makings of a big box office attraction in this picture if you sell it right. We emphatically recommend the sensational angle as the best one to put over the theme. Remember those lines, "The Dead End Girls" and "Women Without Men". There are some pictures that definitely call for this type of selling. "Prison Without Bars" is definitely one of them. So get started on your campaign as soon as you can. Charlie Smakwitz in Albany, John Husse in New Haven and the Shea men in Buffalo got good results from their sensational campaign. And so can you. angle. You might