Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1961)

Baseball Show Big; Success in Timing Following the end of the basketball season, Jim Wiley, manager of the Malverne Theatre in the Long Island, N. Y„ community of that name, figured the recreation and youth directors would be laying out plans for the summer’s Little League season. His idea resulted in a very successful baseball matinee, whose cost was confined to 40x60, a few stamps and the rental of the oldie, "The Stratton Story.” Plus a lot of leg work! During the latter. Wiley comments that he was constantly amazed by the large number of children’s groups he ran into, which brought to his attention the fact that "those kids are out there — it’s up to us to dig ’em out and bring them to the theatre.” A biproduct of his prematinee activity, one which contributed much to the final results, was that the local Boys Club decided to call a meeting at the theatre for 11:30 on the Saturday morning just before the matinee show at 1:30. Post cards mailed to all club members and coaches sketched the new season agenda, and suggested each bring 50 cents each and stay for “The Stratton Story.” Team captains and club officials were admitted free. Wiley promoted ten baseballs and bats from a local sports store to give to the kids via a lucky number contest. He mailed mimeographed letters to all Little Leaguers calling attention to his special baseball show and baseball and bat giveaways. The local papers cooperated with stories and scene mats prior to the matinee, and followed up with pictures showing Wiley and the club officers making the baseball and bat presentations — a nice goodwill and publicity atemoon. Kay Ohgitani, a native of Japan, who came to Hollywood 30 years ago and became chauffeur for Marlene Deitrich and Wallace Beery, now retired and a resident of San Francisco, pulled a rikisha around the busy downtown area of San Francisco in advance of the opening of "The Rikisha Man" at the Stage Door Theatre. Under the guidance of Howard Schultz, general manager of the AckermanRosener Theatre chain (left), an effective campaign covered all advertising media for the special exploitation, which included the distribution of handbills, window displays with the Japan Air Lines and P&O Steamship Lines and displays of Japanese plants and flowers in floral shops. Mrs. Kuki Garcia, an employe of the theatre chain, was the occupant in the rikisha borrowed from the Japan Air Lines. As It Looks To Me By KROGER BABB A Show ma n's Views on Merchandising Motion Pictures NO MATTER WHAT the boys on Madison avenue say, an ad is a sales pitch! When your ad lists nothing more than the picture’s title and two star-names, it’s exactly like a shrunk -up tongue-tied salesman calling at your home and softly spieling: “Cadillacs — power brakes, power steering.” Want to argue? You can call such ads whatever you please — calendar ads, teasers, reminders or lousy salesmen. An ad that doesn’t talk cannot sell anymore than a salesman who doesn’t — and this is exactly what is wrong, more than any other one thing, at boxoffices today. — o — LONG-WINDED SALESMEN still make a good living, even if they get boring. Ads with an overdose of copy are the same. JFK said in 1,300 words and 10 minutes all that many a politician could have required 13,000 words and one hour and 40 minutes to utter. The President’s message hit home hard around the world, because it was full of catchy punch lines that said volumes in a few words. A good ad is exactly the same. JFK didn’t need to resort to lies to make freedom sound good. Neither do you to make any movie you play appealing to thousands or more people. It’s the simple combination of (1) what you say, (2) how you say it, and (3) when you say it! Don’t forget that! — o — WASTING TIME, SPACE and money to repeat what has been said about other films in hopes of stealing the other guy’s thunder, is ridiculous ad writing. The public isn’t dumb simply because a sucker is born every minute. You may be the sucker, don’t forget! Over a decade ago we did a campaign on a picture. Perhaps it was a combination of brains, enthusiasm and pure luck, but it clicked. This film broke many a house record and grossed over $5,000,000 at lower admission prices than prevail today. An exhibitor who just recently played it mostly to empty seats, sent us his campaign, asking “Why?” Any kid, mother or father, in his hometown could have told him “why.” He was a glaring example of thousands of theatremen who don’t know how to write ads. He had stolen lines from other ads on other pictures and added the same to the original mats. The result was he had a conglomerization of nothings, meaningless headlines, unrelated copy that his ads totaled up to talking so much they said nothing, while insulting the public’s intelligence for good measure. FOR EXAMPLE, THIS theatreman had added a top line reading: “The Biggest Motion Picture in Screen History!” Nothing could be much farther from the truth. The film isn’t the biggest, and any moron would know this. It is neither the most costly, nor the longest, nor with the largest cast, nor with the most stars, nor with the greatest attendance record. It’s in the old standard frame, not even widescreen! How dumb does this man think the public is? His second catchline read: “Colossus of Motion Pictures!” Few of the ormasses can pronounce “colossus,” nor do they know its meaning. Most would associate it with something in Greece or the Coliseum at Rome. The picture is about a humble, simple, reverant little pageant down in Oklahoma! Won’t you agree that this is stupid copy-stealing? To add death to insult and injury, our friend then punched ’em with “Spectacle of Spectacles!” Please, pal, it’s no such thing ! OF COURSE, HE HAD lost ’em by the time the reader got down to the original mat’s copy. The public can take just so much. Just above the mat he had inserted “Unparalleled Entertainment.” This is not so, therefore another lie. After slapping his readers in the face with these added four glaring misstatements of facts he then allowed the old mat copy to lead off with “Beyond Description!” we can just see Papa, Mama and Junior chuckling and saying, “Beyond description? Then what do those lines up there mean?” Of course, the answer is that they mean nothing; they insult the public’s intelligence. They are misstatements of fact; they had no connection with the balance (the original) of the ad, and to the reader it sounded like two different people talking to them — and there were ! — o — THERE MUST BE dozens of ways to a, write effective ad copy. If you were born in the country, raised by a country newspaperman and educated by a country showman from the Barnum school, you might try this. Either look at a film or find out all about it, its story and stars, that you can. Then mentally vision a mother, father and their children who won’t and don’t attend your theatre. These are “the masses” whom you are trying to sell. If you can sell them, figure that you’ve got the others, automatically. Put a full-size sheet of paper in your typewriter. Write “them” a full page of all the good reasons you can truthfully state on why they should come see your picture. Then put another sheet of paper in your typewriter, but first — tear it in half. Boil down everything in your first letter to fit this half -sheet. Next you’ve got to edit — to eliminate the least important arguments. Then you need to condense, combine two and three reasons. Finally pick out the shortest, snappiest line and make it your catchline. Then see how much else you can say in the few words that will fit your space. At least, your ads will “talk” and state truths. Sponsored Easter Party The Montgomery Ward Co. store and radio station KERC sponsored a Free Easter Party on the Saturday morning before the /, holy day at the Majestic Theatre in East \ land, Tex., an Interstate situation managed by Bill Samuel. The tickets could be obtained only at the Montgomery Ward store and from KERC. 4 — 96 — BOXOFTICE Showmandiser :: June 12, 1961