Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

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20 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 1, 1949 U-I Rouses Explorer's Spirit To Beat Drums for 'Columbus' (Continued from Page 16) get the school children to name the men who discovered other important places in the world. A third contest suggested is an essay on Columbus with students writing on some aspect of his life, with local dignitaries to sit as judges. Presumably for ploughing through the scripts of America's future Hemingways, the judges will be allowed to s<?e the show for free. Classroom Guide In addition. Universal is furnishing material to serve as a classroom guide on Columbus. Another angle is to see if schools will not dismiss the children earlier so that they may attend the show with possible reduced rates offered as additional bait. And if Universal is remembering the schools, it is not forgetting the libraries. Displays and bookmarks plugging the film but also intended to stimulate reading on the life of a fabulous character, who literally dined with kings and almost literally died in chains, are ready for use. In fact they have been tried even now at Loew's Poll, in Hartford, Conn., by A'lanager Lou Cohen, who worked a novel angle in getting cooperative tieups with merchants around the theme "Columbus Discovered New V alues." Tlie tub-thumping 11, however, who are going into the field for this job, probably will be a footsore crew when they are through. For the campaign, which is hitting hard for the student angle, is not neglecting the community tie-in. This includes a "Christopher Columbus" ball, preferably a fancy costume ball, which can be tiedin with local fraternal organizations — the Knights of Columbus, if they be willing. In fact, one of the pitches will be made to bring the local Knights into the premieres wherever possible. Then, if there is an Italian community in the city (and what city has not?), the exploiteers will try to get it to cooperate on a street fair in which display material from the picture will be featured. Boat-Building Contest Also, those who like to work with their hands and make things, will probably find that a boat-building contest is being conducted right in their midst, the boats — pardon us ships — of course, to be models following the Hnes of the trio Columbus sailed into the uncharted mystery of the new world. In the advertising field, radio has not been overlooked. There are nine radio transcriptions available to plug the film. There will be 1,200 agate lines of newspaper ads in 250 cities "and," according to the Monroe Greentbal agency which handles the U-I account, "probably some magazine spreads in color." There is also a ])lan to tie-in with merchants of products using the name Columbus or Columbia (Columbia Pictures will not be barred, U.I says). Cigar Store Indian There is, too, a tieup with the American Cigar Institute, with the cigar stores of the nation scheduled to step forward and give a helping hand. The basis of this tieup is that Columbus brought tobacco back to Europe. On this ground the cigar industry is tieing-in with a stunt built about the old wooden Indian which used to be as indigenous to the cigar stores of the past four decades as the barber shop pole is to the shave and hair-cut establishments unto this day. The New York premiere at the Victoria will have the usual fanfare with Actor Fredric March attending and with a pre-premiere showing on Oct. 11 as a benefit for the Seamen's Institute in New York. In addition, the E. A. Laboratories of Brooklyn, which yearly print an institutional message as "a public service," will devote their page space this year to Columbus Day with stills of the picture brightening the copy. All in all, the old navigator-weaver-intriguerexplorer is doing quite a job of showmanship. But why shouldn't he? After all, the man who discovered America was something of a showman, too. He made an egg stand on its end to delight a Castilian court and to confound a heckler. Remember ! Ethel Waters Tours Theatres for 'Pinky' Ethel Waters, one of the featured players of 20th-Fox's "Pinky," made a three-day series of personal appearances this week at Skouras, RKO, Randforce and Warner theatres throughout the metropolitan area. The tour covered the five boroughs and metropolitan New Jersey. HOLLYWOOD STOOIOS ARE GOING FULL SPEED AHEAD... to increase your motion picture enjoyment ! COOPERATIVE AD above, prepared by Columbia, is designed to boost the readership of local newspapers, permit the exhibitor to participate in the industry drive for institutional advertising and at the same time create interest in local engagements of "Jolson Sings Again." Space is left at bottom for theatre signature and playdate, while space in panel permits newspaper to plug its Hollywood correspondents and local writers. Plan is to have the theatre arrange with a local newspaper to run the ad as a promotional piece. Hobby Lobby Col. L. B. Fuqua, owner and operator of the Kentucky in Eddyville, Ky., was the subject of an illustrated feature article in the Louisville Courier-Journal, the angle being his hobby of collecting autographed first-day cacheted covers. The colonel has some very famous names on these philatelic items. Navy Aid Set for ^Task^ in Boston; Bows in Memphis Full cooperation of the United States Navy will mark the opening of Warner Bros.' "Task Force" at the Metropolitan Theatre in Boston on Oct. 13, it was announced this week. The picture will be screened aboard the U.S.S. Kearzage, a sister ship to the U.S.S. Langley (portrayed in the film) for top Navy personnel, newspaper and radio executives, and local civic officials. Heroes of the U.S.S. Langley and other Navy carriers will be guests of honor at a dinner aboard ship to precede the showing of the picture. A squadron of airplanes will fly overhead on opening day and spell out the letters "T F." Communications will be set up from one of the planes to the ground, with Chick Morris of radio station WBZ doing the receiving and broadcasting same over the air. The Navy will also supply a huge display of airplanes and miniature Navy equipment to be exhibited in the theatre foyer. In addition, a mobile unit will be stationed outside the theatre with appropriate signs crediting the picture and playdate. A Navy blimp will carry the message, "See Task Force Now Playing at the Metropolitan Theatre." A contest, tied-in with a local newspaper, will select "Miss Task Force for a Day," with the winner to have hero-escorts to the premiere. Newspaper reporters and photographers will cover their tour of Boston following the showing of the picture. Southern Premiere ]\Ieanwhile, the Southern premiere of "Task Force" got off to a strong start in Memphis late last week when the picture opened at the Warner Theatre, with a monster Navy parade honoring Admiral H. Martin and Capt. J. V. Peterson, Commander of the fleet and Captain of the carrier featured in the picture. Capt. Peterson led the parade behind a 6S-piece Naval Air Station band with a mounted police escort of 14 units, including a contingent of Waves, battalions of Marines, Navy marchers and sea scouts. Also in the parade were Navy heroes who were carrier pilots in the sections covered in "Task Force," plus a Navy Queen and maids of honor selected by the carrier pilots and Navy League of Memphis. Preceding the parade, a dinner was beld for Admiral Martin, attended by high Navy officers and representatives of the press and radio. Afterward, a premiere broadcast was made in front of the Warner featuring the Navy band. Admiral Martin, Capt. Peterson and Commander Condit, the carrier pilot shot down at Midway and a Japanese prisoner for two years. The proceedings, broadcast over radio station WMPS and also over the loudspeaker system, were rebroadcast the next evening in front of the theatre, which was brilliant with huge Navy lights, with hundreds of signal flags flying" from roof to marquee.