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Big Carnival No Excuse For Promotion Sitdown
Annual fairs, community carnivals, sports tournaments and other such events which monopolize public interest periodically are the despair of many showmen, some of whom just give up and wait until the big attraction is over.
Not for A. G. Crisp, capable manager of the Odeon Theatre in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, not far from London. Southend Carnival Week, an annual affair extending through eight days or so, was coming up just prior to his booking of “No, My Darling Daughter,” a teenage romance featuring Juliet Mills, older sister of Hayley Mills, who recently leaped to popularity in the U. S. in “Pollyanna” and “The Parent Trap.”
CROWDS OVER HALF-MILLION
The carnival crowds range up to half a million or more; however. Crisp was not awed by this competitive popularity — his reaction was positive and aggressive.
“To ignore Carnival Week, especially the biggest carnival in Britain and the third largest in the world, is a crime against exploitation!”— this was Crisp’s reaction.
Crisp went out and gave his booking 100 per cent effort, which was split in three parts — first, promotion through the regular media ; second, tieups with the carnival, and third, public relations. His overall promotion won a Showmanship Star rating, one of the highest granted in the Circuits Management Ass’n Star Showmanship Year drive.
THREE MAJOR PARADES
Three major parades are held during Carnival Week, each with more than 250 entries. Entering a float in these in competition with national and “fanatical” local business people is both difficult and expensive, as Crisp aptly reports. However, Crisp and “No, My Darling Daughter” came through with excellent representation in the parades, which were seen by more than 500,000. To do this, he followed a time-proven course — he went to one of the dealers whose product appears in the film, in this case Peter Watkin, Ltd., dealer for the Vespa scooters (by appointment to HRJ, the Duke of Edinburgh), and proposed that the two go in together on a float, splitting the cost 50-50. The resulting creation carried the joint message in behalf of the film and the Vespa scooter in high style; in fact, the float won a secondbest rating from the judges in one parade, and a fourth prize for all three. The tieup copy:
“Are you a good judge? A question posed by the Odeon Theatre and Peter Watkins.
“ ‘No, My Darling Daughter’ at the Odeon next week . . The Vespa scooter on Display at showrooms on Hobley Thick Lane.
“Judge for yourself. Outstanding comedy performance by Juliet Mills. The economy of travel by a Vespa scooter. They’re both in ‘No, My Darling Daughter’
“ ‘No, My Darling Daughter’ it must be
Porade float designed by Odeon (England) Manager A. G. Crisp and put together by Peter Watkin, local Vespa scooter dealer, and Crisp, who split the cost 50-50. The float was seen by more than 500,000 persons at Southend-on-Sea in three Carnival Week parades. The float was part of Crisp's successful effort to give his Odeon Theatre a share of the carnival publicity.
a Vespa Scooter.
“Juliet Mills, Rad Fulton. Both ride a Vespa scooter in ‘No, My Darling Daughter’ at the Odeon next week.”
The float, as may be seen in the accompanying photo, was an impressive affair, with plenty of copy plugging both the scooter and the film. A white-wigged judge in a high-backed chair looked on a girl in boater (hat) and gym suit astride a scooter. At times, four girls in similar attire and driving Vespa scooters rode behind the main float.
One of the three parades took place at
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Indicated here is the Odeon Theatre entry in the professional photography section of the Town Show of the Southend-on-Sea Carnival week. Featured are photos of motion picture and other celebrities. The sign reads: "Many of the photographs in the Celebrity Panel were taken at the Odeon Theatre by Film Souvenirs, Unlimited, London Road . . . There are fine pictures at the theatre, too, this week . . . Juliet Mills in 'No, My Darling Daughter' . . . Next week, Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins, 'Goodbye Again.'"
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night, necessitating lights. This was provided by a mobile electric generator, which was obtained from a dealer in return for credit signs on the side.
The four girl outriders behind the float were members of the Mudlarks Scooter Club, which had printed at its expense 1,000 leaflets plugging the film and “scootering.” These were distributed by the scooter riders along the parade routes.
The float was designed by Manager Crisp himself, and he, Peter Watkin and the latter’s brother-in-law did the work.
The float, however, was only one achievement Crisp carried out in getting his theatre and current attraction in the bright blaze of carnival attention. One of the most popular events of the celebration was a Bikini Girl contest, which climaxed at a big dance in the huge Kursaal ballroom at Southend. Manager Crisp made himself useful to the carnival committee, and ended up by being appointed a judge of the Bikini Girl contest along with a representative of the famous Sadler’s Wells ballet organization. This brought mention of Crisp and the theatre many times in newspapers, posters, letters, booklets, etc.
EMCEE HELPS OUT
Crisp even persuaded the emcee at the dance and final judging to plug the film.
“When I agreed to act as judge,” Crisp relates, “I did not know they intended to bill me, but this they did, and also gave me an excellent buildup to the public at the dance. I was indeed chairman of the judging committee, and managed to get the emcee to give us a good plug for ‘No, My Darling Daughter,’ in a semihum orous vein by saying that I would have to say yes to someone’s daughter in the bikini lineup although it was ‘No, My Darling Daughter’ at the Odeon Theatre.”
The carnival wound up with a Town Show (rabbits, horses, photography, cage birds and pigeons). Crisp was a judge, along with the mayor, of the Summer Scenes section of the photography show, and also entered an Odeon Theatre display called Celebrity Corner. This con
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BOXOFFICE Showmandiser :: Jan. 22, 1962