Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, November 19, 1949 17 Selling the Picture News and Ideas Concerning Profitable Advertising. Publicity and Exploitation Kaye Comedy Bow Aids Variety Club World premiere of Warners' "The Inspector General," Danny Kaye's first picture for that company, was held Thursday evening at the Imperial Theatre, Toronto, Canada, with the star appearing in person on the same program in a special ''Variety Club Theatre Night" for the benefit of the Variety Club's Occupational Training School for Children. The program included a special stage show starring Kaye, who also made appearances on Thursday at several civic meetings in Toronto. Tickets for the premiere, all proceeds of which were to go to the Variety Club charity, were scaled up to $25. The premiere climaxed a three-day round of civic ceremonies in honor of Kaye in the Canadian metropolis. Traveling aboard a special Trans-Canada Airlines plane christened "The Danny Kaye-'Inspector General' Special," the comedian arrived at Malton Airport on Tuesday , where a civic and press reception was accorded him. That night there was a formal reception in the city itself. On Wednesday, Kaye was guest of honor at the Toronto City Hall for a noontime ceremony preceding a luncheon tendered him by the Toronto Variety Club. He also attended the official opening of the Occupational Training School for Crippled Children in Variety Village, endowed by motion picture people, and was also expected to be present at the Royal Winter Fair, one of the world's leading agricultural exhibits. The Personal Touch Manager Lou Fuhrman of the Arcade, Cambridge, Md., gave the personal touch a test, and found it very effective, when he showed "Lost Boundaries." He wrote letters (no carbons, no mimeographing) to 28 clergymen and important individuals in the community stressing the picture's theme. He received a joint endorsement from the clergymen. SOME SCROLL. Roy Rogers, Republic's "King of the Cowboys," proudly exhibits a 12-foot scroll containing 1,832 signatures of members of his Riders Club at the Alhambra Theatre, Decatur, 111. The scroll was airmailed to Roy by genial "Chuck" Duncan, theatre manager. The cowboy received over 50,000 birthday cards from his youthful admirers. 'Hopalong' Tie-in Goods Prizes at Kid Matinee Tieing up of merchants in Perth Amboy, N. J., by City Manager Herbert Gordon for a kid matinee proved so successful that the Walter Reade circuit has decided to start organizing "Hopalong Cassidy Troopers Clubs" in the ether cities where it has theatres. Gordon put on a "Hopalong" film for a kiddie morning matinee at the Majestic on Armistice Day and experienced no trouble in getting half a dozen local merchants who handle the Hopalong Cassidy licensed merchandise to contribute such articles as Cassidy wallets, records, western costumes and other novelties as door prizes for the kids, to take a cooperative ad and make window displays of their Hopalong goods with plugs for the kiddie show. EXPLOITORIALS If you could walk along Broadway, those large display signs proclaiming the Dec. 21 double opening of Cecil B. DeMille's "Samson and Delilah" at the Paramount and Rivoli theatres would hit you right between the eyes. Paramount has grabbed some of the stem's best locations, and those signs, bear in mind, will have been on view more than two months by the time the picture has its double premiere on Broadway. Now that's something for you to think about. You may not have the facilities to duplicate this Broadway splurge, but you can emphasize the spectacle of "Samson and Delilah" by posting liberally and in the best locations as far ahead of playdate as possible — much farther ahead than ordinarily. As soon as the picture is contracted for, get busy and reserve the best poster sites in town and along the highways leading into town. Cover 'em with 24s, sixes, threes and ones, according to size. You can't do too much in the way of circus-style showmanship to let your patrons know something really big is in store for them. But do it early to insure capacity audiences. * * Theatres playing "Savage Splendor" seem to be harvesting the benefits of RKO Radio's tieup with Dodge automobiles. Down in Memphis, Tenn., bannered Dodge trucks transported youngsters to Loew's State to see the Armand Denis-Louis Cotlow film. The assemblage of "small fry" in front of the theatre overflowed the sidewalks. * * =!-. Ever stage a political campaign? You can come pretty close to the real thing if you jump aboard the politico-exploitation bandwagon Columbia has started rolling on "All the King's Men" out Los Angeles way. In case you didn't know% Broderick Crawford plays Willie Stark, who becomes governor and then dictator of his State, in the screen version of the Robert Penn Warren novel. What could be inore fitting than to inaugurate a "Willie Stark for Governor" campaign? That's what they've been doing out in L.A., with all the electioneering trimmings. Bannered sound trucks tour the city to bring Willie's "message" to the people. Tack cards booming Willie for governor have been put up in all available spots, and thousands of campaign buttons have been passed out to school children. Maybe you can get political campaign workers to aid you in your own "Stark for Governor" campaign on the picture. * * * In the current New York advance newspaper advertising campaign on MGM's "Intruder in the Dust," which opens Nov. 22 at Brandt's Mayfair, there is prominent mention of the fact that "Clarence Brown went to Oxford, Miss., and did an authentic job on William Faulkner's great American novel." No matter where your theatre is located, moviegoers seem to take more than just a passing interest in the fact that a picture has been made on some actual location site. Oxford may be thousands of miles awav from them, but the very idea that a movie company sent a production unit there (or to some other location site, for that matter), gives them the feeling of becoming a part of the glamor of Hollywood moviemakirLg-. Thus the suggestion that you play up that angle when you show "Intruder in the Dust." CAREFULLY PLANNED CAMPAIGN FOR 'JOLSON STORY.' Opening of Columbia's "Jolson Sings Again" at the Miami, Lincoln, Miracle and Cameo theatres in Miami, Fla., last week was backed by an extensive and carefully planned exploitation campaign which utilized the talents of every manager and assistant manager of the Wometco chain. Every phase of exploitation was considered and carefully explored by the Wometco publicity staff at a meeting over which Sonny Shepherd, Wometco advertising and publicity chief, and Harry K. McWillimas, Columbia exploitation manager, presided. In the scene above, McWilliams addresses the gathering which included, among others, Ted Beil, Mark Chartrand, Harvey Fleischman, Jack Fink, Mel Haber, Walter Klements, Harry Kronewitz, Clyde Lucas, Phil Masters, Frank Maury, Ed May. Van Meyers, Arthur Price, Ken Rockwell, Frank Rubel, Herb Rubinstein, Tim Tyler and Everett Walshon.