The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (Dec 1, 1941)

Page 6 The Exhibitor Going After Them! By Lloyd M. Mills ELCOME, Jack Reith of the Midtown, Toronto’s superdeluxer of the Bloor-Bathurst district. Here are some of Jack’s stunts on Columbia’s extraordinary picture, ‘“Here Comes Mr. Jordan.” For a week in advance of the playdate he had a line at the bottom of a slide asking if anyone had seen Mr. Jordan. Every hour a ghost walked across the stage and popped up in different parts of the theatre. The effect was terrific. He had a large top-hat walking the street, with the rim about four inches off the ground. The hat bore plenty of good copy. The effect was achieved by having a small boy inside. Whenever the boy sat down a crowd gathered. During the playdate Jack had a headless skeleton walking around with its head under its arm. The copy read: “I laughed my head off watching ‘Mr. Jordan.’ So will you.” Jack, I often pass the Midtown and I must say that I have heard some fine comments on the swell fronts you use. I’d like to congratulate you on the different ideas you use to pull in and attract the passersby. ILLIE PAYNE, of the Gran-¢ ada, St. Thomas, sends along some ideas he pulled on “Penny Serenade” which skyrocketed that pic into a full week in a twice-aweek house. For weeks in advance his stage featured cutouts which looked like neons—we explained how it’s done in a previous issue— and his lobby showed cutouts. He tied up with the “Citizens’ War Auxiliary Committee” to distribute 3,000 coin envelopes door to door. Each envelope carried copy plugging the picture on one side and the cause on the other. The results were good and the interest and goodwill immeasurable. A local music store plugged songs from the picture before and during the run. The store also made jup free records of the tunes and commercials for the film. These were played over the P.A. into the street and over the theatre non-sync. A boy toured the town with a portable phonograph, stopping at corners and playing tunes from the picture. YOUR BUSINESS IS LIGHT Quality of projection light determines the quality of the picture on the screen that patrons pay to see. The High Intensity Carbon Are gives a_ brilliant, snow white light—the best light for projection. “One Kilowatt” high intensity arcs give 50 to 80 per cent more screen light than low intensity lamps at no increase in operating cost. Ask for a Demonstration NATIONAL HIGH INTENSITY PROJECTOR CARBONS provide the snow white projection light needed for natural color reproduction CANADIAN NATIONAL CARBON CO. LIMITED CARBON SALES DIVISION Halifax, Montreal, TORONTO, Winnipeg, Vancouver And that isn’t all. He had a crackerjack theatre front and a “Strange Things Revealed” column in the paper. Good work, Bill, and let’s hear from you again right soon. OOD old Harland Rankin returns once more to haunt this column with a clever little gag on “Shining Victory.” It seems that every doctor and nurse in Chatham got a letter suggesting that they see the picture because it deals with medical research. He followed up by sending the. doctors cards which they could hang on their doors or place in their windows, explaining that the doctor was out seeing the picture. Harland says the results were very good and even on the main street he noticed that several medicos had made use of the cards. Good work, Harland. Its a good thing you’re good at something. You certainly are a bum fisher man. ys hear from Patrick Dunne, the Flying Irishman of the Frozen North, that everything is royal with him. Pat’s at the Royal, North Bay. ‘“Let’s Make Music” was booked for Pat but delayed because Barney Fox eats so much chocolate in his office and smudged the chart. It looked as though Pat’s part had been filled. I mislaid most of Pat’s stunts for the picture but here‘s a good one that he pulled. He had a lady playing a base horn around the town. With copy, of course. Got plenty of attention, too. Dunne played a horror show and got up a ten-foot copy of Karloff. Had a lad lug it around the town, : stand it up against buildings and make the eyes roll. Anyway, his stunts were good because he did turnaway business for three days on it. Next time you send in your stunts, Patrick -me bhoy, how about a duck, a bear steak or a piece of venison? hf Be % HAVE just received word from Charlie Stephenson of the Century, Kitchener, that he is up again after a short illness and roaring to get back to work. We hope to hear from Charlie again soon and wish him every success for the future. erg According to a letter last week, Charlie says he cooked up enough stunts while in. the hospital to keep him going for months. % * Eo V¥/E are glad to hear again from Garnet Heatherly, who we now find in the Centre, London. He writes about his campaign on * % * December lst, 1941 the Double Horror Show, “Ghost Breakers” and “Hong Kong.” Garnet rushed out 3,000 circus heralds and over 100 sensational horror window cards. He had a King Kong gorilla street bally and dressed up his marquee with suitable copy. But, best of all, he had a standee top for his marquee fitted with lights to give it a scarey effect. Results, according to Garnet, were pleasing. In this column lately we have told about many horror program campaigns and, brother, they are clicking. Why not boost your boxoffice and scare the red ink out into the street by playing such a show? On “Mr. Celebrity’ he carried out a “T” campaign with teaser heralds reading “Mr. Celebrity Is Coming!” These were put well in advances in newspapers, magazines and store windows and on fences, boards, etc. The week before he had teasers reading, ‘I’ll Be in London Next Week—Mr. Celebrity. See You Then.” Also the cashier called hundreds of people on the telephone telling them that “Mr. Celebrity’ was coming to town at the Centre. The title of the film was carried around the town by eleven boys, each bearing a separate letter on a card. From “The Bride Came C.O.D.”’ he used a gag borrowed from Sam Freedman of the Centre, St. Catherines— that of a man walking around the town carrying a dummy, like the one shown in the pressbook. With copy attached— catchy copy. Credit the stunt to Sam and Garnet with the initiative to recognize the value of it—and borrow and use it. What’s good in St. Kitts is certainly good in London. Bo me a ERNON BURNS, in the Regent, Sudbury, besides a bangup campaign on the Columbia. hit, “You'll Never Get Rich,’ handed out 3,000 cheques printed in herald form and tagged the front page of every copy of Time magazine in Sudbury with copy. The magazine featured a picture of Rita Hayworth that week. Nice going, Vernon. THE SUCCESS of your THEATRE depends upon GOOD EQUIPMENT consult ee —'