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Boxoffice Melody in Musicals
MGM s New World Famous Musical Hits Package Fills Midweek Seats
By HUGH E. FRAZE
When Louis B. Mayer spent fortunes to establish MGM as “The Musical Company,” literally pouring millions into spectacular song-and-romance productions with multi-starred casts of wide popular appeal and talent, little did he dream that these same pictures would become big moneymakers at today’s boxoffice a decade and more after their first runs.
The Five Points Theatre in Columbia, S.C., did double the business on its first musical of the MGM World Famous Musical Hits series that it did on its first Golden Operetta film. In the long line are all types and ages. The musical is truly family entertainment. They all loved it.
The big grossers of the late 1940s and early ’50s are now back again with a BANG! Test bookings of the first of MGM’s new “World Famous Musical Hits” series show the colorful pictures possess high boxoffice potency to cash in on the current nationwide screen musical trend.
MGM’s Special Sales Unit composed of a hard-hitting team headed by Fred Schwartz, with Jack Schlaifer, overseeing sales, and Si Seadler, steaming up promotion, will handle the new series of sparkling musicals.
Reports gathered by Boxoffice magazine from three initial engagements show the series doubled the business of similar runs of MGM’s previously issued Golden Operetta series. The test engagements were at the Eastown Theatre in Grand Rapids, Mich.; the Della, in Flint, Mich., and the Five Points Theatre in Columbia, S. C.
The industry just doesn’t make lavish musicals like the World Famous Musical Hits anymore — they’re too expensive in these days of inflated costs. The sparkling package presents :
Jerome Kern’s “Till the Clouds Roll By.”
Rodgers and Hart’s “Words and Music.”
Kalmar and Ruby’s “Three Little Words.”
Dietz and Schwartz’ “The Band Wagon.”
Arthur Freed and Nacio Brown’s “Singin’ in the Rain.”
Mario Lanza in “Because You’re Mine.”
The MGM Special Sales Unit labored to develop fresh ideas and new tools to advertise and promote the Golden Operetta series, which still is marking boxoffice successes in the U. S. and Canada. Similarly the
Schwartz, Schlaifer and Seadler team has worked up ticket-selling stunts and promotion aids for the World Famous Musical Hits series, as evidenced by a nine-minute “Announcement Trailer,” which is loaded with entertainment and footage selling trimmings that get applause!
An innovation, described as the first new accessory in years, is a Poster-in-Action, a 40x60 for the lobby, which comes with an envelope of snipes which can be moved each week as the six musicals are played, one midweek day a week. Thus the Poster-in-Action serves throughout the whole series.
A detailed 20-page promotion manual describes this innovation along with other fresh showmanship ideas, step by step.
To prove to theatre owners that the World Famous Musical Hits series will fill those empty midweek seats that knock a hole in the
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"TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY" . . .
Robert Walker, Judy Garland, Tony Martin
THREE LITTLE WORDS" . . . Fred Astaire, "WORDS AND MUSIC" . . .
Vera-Ellen, Arlene Dahl, Red Skelton Betty Garrett, Mickey Rooney
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BOXOFFICE Showmandiser :: Oct. 21, 1963