Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1937)

EXPLOITATION ANALYZING COMING PKODCCTIONS FROM THE BOXOFFICB ANGLE Each Exploitation Preview Is Arranged Conveniently for Clipping and Filing for Future Reference. HOTEL HAYWIRE PARAMOUNT The Cast; Lynne Overman, Mary Carlisle, ypring Byington, Benny Baker, Leo Carrillo, George Barbier, John Patterson, Purnell Pratt, Collette Lyons, Porter Hall, Fay Holden. Producer: William LeBaron. Director; George Archainbaucl. Original St<>ry; Preston Sturges. Photography: Henry Sharp. What it's about: Finding some lingerie in her husband’s pocket, Mrs. Minnie Parkhouse (Spring Byington) goes to Dr. Zodiac Zippe (Leo Carrillo), an astrologist, who advises her to have her husband (Lynne Overman) trailed by Bertie and Genevieve Stevens (Benny Baker and Collette Lyons). Zippe also persuades Parkhouse to hire the pair to follow his wife. A divorce is decided upon, and Parkhouse arranges to be found with another woman in Hotel Haywire. The Parkhouse’s daughter Phyllis (Mary Carlisle) is planning to marry Frank Ketts (John Patterson) against John’s father’s wishes. They go to the hotel for the ceremony, and complications pile up when Phyllis and John get rooms adjoining those in which her father and Genevieve — the other woman — are ensconced. The marriage is performed, and Parkhouse and his wife, learning that Dr. Zippe was responsible, are reunited. WHAT to do and HOW to do it: Advertise this as a hilarious farce with an all-comedy cast headed by Lynne Overman, Leo Carrillo, Benny Baker and Mary Carlisle. Get over the idea of the wild happenings in the hotel by constructing a compo-board silhouette of a hotel building, with portrait heads of members of the cast in various windows, which flash on and off via some simple electrical hookup. Dress the ushers and usherettes as bellhops. Construct a scaffolding along the sides of the lobby and above the marquee, with signs reading: “Now under construction on this site — ‘Hotel Haywire’ — ready for occupancy next week.” "HOTEL HAYWIRE" REGISTER As a gag tieup, plant a “Hotel Haywire” guest register in the lobby before the picture opens, inviting patrons to sign their names as “guests” of the theatre. Then work out some stunt whereby a number of the persons whose names and addresses have been affixed to the register receive notice that they are entitled to free admission on the opening night of the picture. Many tieups can be arranged with the managers of local and neighboring hotels, such as spotting plugs for the picture on the hotels’ cafe menus, and having the hotel managers recommend the film to the guests. In the film, Mary Carlisle and John Patterson plan to elope and be married at Hotel Haywire. Use this as the basis of a suggestion to neighboring hotels that they offer to pay the marriage license fees of all couples planning to wed during an allotted space of time, provided the couples reserve rooms there for their honeymoons. CLOTHING TIEUPS Stills showing Benny Baker bedecked in Cossack garb, replete with fur cap, cape and sword, can be used in clothing store tieups. Other stills in which Spring Byington discovers some lingerie in the pocket of her husband, Lynne Overman, can be planted with some apparel shop on the line that “the proper place to find lingerie is in a gift box from Mandelbaum’s.” Adlines: She Sought Advice Prom a Trouble Specialist . . . and Got Plenty of It . . . But It Was All Bad! Don’t Miss “Hotel Haj’^vire” . . . Where Every Kooni Is Filled . . . With the Maddest, Merriest Lunatics You Ever Saw! According to Professor Zodiac Zippe . . . "Hotel Haywire” Is the Wildest, Maddest, Craziest Comedy You'll Ever See! BOXOFFICE :: May 15, 1937