The Exhibitor (Nov 1939-May 1940)

Selling Features "Gone With the Wind” Reading, Pennsylvania — Using a spacious window in a local department store, nearby, Loew’s staged first old furniture exhibition by Reading’s “first families,” to publicize “Gone With the Wind” at Loew’s. This and other exploitation features were arranged by George Peters, manager. Several families contributed furniture, tapestry, photographs, china, costumes and other exhibits of the Civil War era for the department store display, which not only filled a huge window, artistically planned, but also a large section of floor space on an upper floor. It was the first time that blue blood families here, permitting the use of their names in the exhibits, with “Not For Sale” signs, joined in a theatre publicity stunt on a big scale. A committee of society women served as judges’ in Peters’ contest, a big success, for the selection of the six girl winners in a Civil War costume contest. The six girls were Peters’ guests at the first show and at an elaborate dinner. A huge boys “and girls” band, in the theatres uniforms and labels; a posterplastered street car covering the whole city; and army search light stationed in front of the theatre; a complete new exploitation design for the front of the house and patrols of police to keep the crowds moving marked the first day. Peters, showing twice a day, said orders for seats came by telephone and telegraph from Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere and adopted a rule to take no local reservations by telephone. An extra box office was set up in a vacant storeroom next the theatre, and for the entire first week all seats were sold out. "Hunchback of Notre Dame” Providence, Rhode Island — Well in advance of Christmas day opening of this Radio picture at the RKO-Albee, manager George French and publicist Bill Morton hung an immense white banner on the side of the theatre with a silhouette of the Hunchback. Big footprints were stencilled on the sidewalk in front of the house and then worked around the corner and up the wall of the theatre to the silhouetted figure. Fashion art with Maureen O’Hara and Katherine Adams was planted in the rotogravure of the Sunday Journal. Also arranged was a window featuring jewelry in a store on the main street. Throughout the State, 29 billboards were used and the WJAR “Where Are You Going?” program at the Providence bus terminal was used for an interview discussing theatrical ballyhoo, the talk working around to the fact that RKO has consistently refused to show any pictures of Charles Laughton’s face in the Hunchback makeup. Reading, Pennsylvania — All box office records at the big Park here, Cormack G. Keeney, general manager, were broken December 24, for the world premiere of “Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Keeney was on the air from Reading broadcasting stations at frequent intervals; used a decorated street car carrying “Hunchback” posters; used unlimited advertising space in Reading and nearby newspapers and placed many large space news stories. Special emphasis was placed in all publicity on the fact that Reading’s Park got the picture before New York, Philadelphia and Scranton, all larger cities. "Meet Dr. Christian” Providence, Rhode Island — George French, manager, and Bill Morton, press agent, took full advantage of the fact that this one is the first film in which Providence-born and raised Dorothy Lovett has featured billing. Picture was sold on the local girl angle. Well in advance of playdate, Sunday Journal carried a feature with art on Miss Lovett’s Hollywood experiences. The theatre men worked co-operatively with a store where Miss Lovet once was employed as fashion commentator on the radio. The whole department store was available for exploitation, with windows and counter displays, and a theatre party of those “who knew her when” was arranged for opening night. "Housekeeper’s Daughter” Rochester, New York — Manager Lester Pollock, Loew’s Rochester, put on one of his well-rounded campaigns for “Housekeeper’s Daughter.” City dailies and 12 suburban papers used special art and stories, and Rochester Sun with 80,000 circulation conducted contest to name Joan Bennett’s previous pictures. WHEC aired teaser copy and a 15-minute broadcast based on the film, while WSAY used dance frolic broadcast and riddle contest. Gas and Electric Corporation paid for large co-op ads in dailies and gave swell window display featuring stills from the film. Teaser ads were spotted on newsstands and in hotel lobbies. "Day-Time Wife” Syracuse, New York — Manager Sid Holland, RKO-Schine-Eckel, played up the comedy angle, stressing the husbandin-the-dog-house by building an attractive dog house and dog of compo board and placing it in the window of bus terminal. Copy coming from dog’s mouth read, “Yup, My Wandering Master Is Headed For Here, When My Wondering Mistress Finds Out.” "Return of Dr. X” Syracuse, New York — Working on the gruesome angle of “Dr. X,” a contraption made up of old radio tubes, strands of wire and other handy material was placed in front of the box office at RKOSchine-Eckel by manager Sid Holland. Resulting gadget was labeled Revive-AScope. "South of the Border” Fall River, Massachusetts — Manager Charles Feinberg, Nate Yamins’ Capitol, arranged for a sound unit hookup in the main lobby to play the song hits of the picture. He also tied in with WSAR, Fall River, on the song hits. "Cat and the Canary” North Adams, Massachusetts — Manager Francis Faille, Paramount, paid $5 to a local woman, selected out of 50 applicants, to sit alone in the theatre at a midnight special showing of the picture. January 3, 1940 “GULLIVER’S TRAVELS.” Here is a portion of the life-size lobby display, conceived by manager A1 Reh, Stanley, Philadelphia, for the advance heralding of the Max Fleischer-made, Paramount-released full-length Technicolor cartoon. This display was but one of the items in the Reh campaign on his holiday program. THE EXHIBITOR