Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1939)

Page 8 SHOWMEN'STRADEREVIEW October 21, 1939 TOGETHER AGAIN!.. IN THE BIGGEST LAUGH SHOW THEY EVER IVIADEr HARDY S ■ r^'jEAN PARKER • REGINALD GARDINER )ust one look at the ad layouts on "The Flying Deuces" will give newspaper readers the giggles. And that's why you should spot them often in your campaign. The one reproduced is a typical example. FIND us those people who hate to laugh, and we'll lock' them all up in our wardrobe with room to spare. In these troubled times, the public wants entertainment that will help it forget about the situation in Europe or things that might not be going along smoothly at home. In RKO-Radio's "The Flying Deuces," we are quite sure you have just what the public is asking for. It will be your job to let the citizens of the town and countryside know it is playing your theatre by means of a strong exploitation campaign. For that matter, almost everyone is a Laurel and Hardy fan. And inasmuch as this pair of buffoons are seen all too seldom these days, it is reasonable to assume that when such an opportunity docs present itself, the Laurel and Hardy fans are Produced by Boris Morros. Directed by A. Edward Sutherland. Original story and screenplay by Ralph Spence, Alfred Schiller, Charles Rogers and Harry Langdon. going to be on hand. Of course, "The Flying Deuces" has a war background, but it's mostly with the Foreign Legion in Morocco, which won't remind your patrons too much of the current situation unless they are unusually imaginative. Anyway, no matter where the locale, the public will be too busy laughing at the comedians to think of other things. What do they call Laurel and Hardy abroad? In the publicity section of the press book you'll find the answer. Instead of using this merely as a publicity blurb, you can make a newspaper or program contest out of it. And you can do it in either of two ways: First, you can list their names in the foreign languages, and then require readers to place the name of the country after each designation. The contestant who correctly links the country with the designation wins a cash prize or theatre tickets. Second, you can list both the names of the countries and their affectionate terms for the comedy team, in a scrambled fashion, of course, with contestants required to place them in their proper order. Home towns of the players have the same contest possibilities. By scrambling the players' names and their home towns, you can have the fans guessing. And it will, in all probability, be a matter of guesswork for few people know the home towns of motion picture folk unless such information has been highly publicized. You might make a lobby stunt out of this by placing a large map of the United States on the lobby wall. At the side is the list of players and their home towns. An attendant invites patrons THE FLYING DEUCES to place pins where thej' believe the towns are located. Since some of the players come from foreign countries, you can also use a map of Europe, or eliminate the names of these players from your listings. For a gag, pass out heralds imprinted on cards simulating deuce playingcards. To help you on this, RKO-Radio has made up a mat which can be used, with your copy on the reverse side. Further elaboration on this angle might consist of placing a deck of cards in the lobby, face down, with patrons invited to draw a card. Those drawing deuces would receive free tickets to see "The Flying Deuces." Tie up with a nut shop by passing out small bags containing a few nuts and coifv reading, "These nuts are good, hut the greatest nuts on the screen are Laurel and Hardy, coming to the Blank Theatre in their funniest gagfest, etc." Here's a stunt, old as it may be, that goes well with the picture. And, for that matter, you may never have used it before. Announce in your ads and through newspaper pul.ilicit)' stories, as well as in your lobby, that on a certain day or days at a certain time an airplane will fly over the city dropIjing heralds. To many of these heralds will be attached free passes. This stunt depends, of course, on the cooperation you can get from local airport officials. And don't forget, in case you get this cooperation, that you can sell your picture by means of skywriting, by means of the title lettered on a large banner drawn through the air by a plane, and by means of a plane or replica of one placed out in front of the theatre, wath cutouts of Laurel and Hardy in the cockpits. Practicall}' every community of any size at all has at least two persons who, with proper makeup, strongly resemble Laurel and Hardy. If you play "The Flying Deuces" around Hallowe'en, you might stage Cover Plenty of Territory With Campaign Designed to Make Public Wholly Laugh-Conscious a "Laurel and Hardy Hallowe'en Party" in the lounge or on the stage. The only requirement for admission would be that those attending, whether men or women, girls or boys, would have to be dressed as nearly like the comedians as possible. The pair most nearly resembling them would receive cash prizes, while the others would receive guest tickets to see the picture later or immediately after the party, should the picture be playing that day. The winning pair might consent to some street ballyhooing. How to attract feminine patronage is a (|uestion in which you will be interested. All the suggestions made heretofore have been designed for the family as a whole, but it's certain you'll want to include an angle or IW'O with a definite feminine appeal. One we believe to be most important is the nationwide drive on Fitch products. Women will be interested in the campaign because it offers them an elaborate set of colored "Hollywood Try-on Hair Styles" free, which they can use in deciding which styles for doing their hair are most becoming. Theatres can obtain colored posters of the ad wdiich appears in the November issue of Screen Guide. These posters will also be supplied to dealers and beauty parlors. With such a tieup, you can arrange window displays in several stores and beauty parlors. Complete details will be found in the exploitation section of the press book. There Are Tieups Galore As for other tieups, -several stills are available for use in that connection in the windows of men's stores, furniture stores, drug stores, bakery shops, etc. The still showing Laurel and Hardy inspecting a Stewart-Warner Dionne Quints Radio, as well as one with Jean Parker and one of the sets, will be your "in" for tieups with dealers selling Stewart-Warner radios. When was the last time you used heralds to sell your attraction? They're reasonable in cost you know, and placed on counters, slipped in newspapers or distributed to people on the streets they do a commendable job of show-selling. Illustrated above is the cover and inside spread of the herald on the Laurel and Hardy comedy. Bear in mind that you can reduce the cost by selling advertising space on the back.