The Exhibitor (Nov 1941-May 1942)

BETTER MANAGEMENT BM-19 SELLING SHORTS "Main Street On the March" Hagerstown, Md. (Population, 32,441) — George N. Payette, Jr., manager, Warners’ Maryland, and his assistants, Albert Baltzley and John Hersch, recently staged one of the biggest and farthest reaching ad¬ vertising, publicity, and promotional stunts ever to be arranged on a short subject in any “country” situation of the Washington exchange territory. According to Tom Baldridge, Metro exploitation representa¬ tive, who assisted to put over the world premiere of “Main Street On the March,” 2S is a matjie number HP HAT’S the number of National Theatre A Supply Company Branches prepared to serve you today. So, no matter where your theatre is, you’re always near a National Branch and National service. National's great stocks of quality equipment and supplies in these 28 Branches are there primarily to help you keep your theatre running. Naturally, this means that you are far more certain to find what you need in National’s nation-wide stocks. It means that National is 28 times as strong ... to serve you better. That’s why “28” is such a magic number for you, every hour, every day during 1942. Your nearest National Theatre Supply Company Branch is listed below. Have you visited there lately? ★ ALBANY ATLANTA BALTIMORE BOSTON BUFFALO CHARLOTTE CHICAGO CINCINNATI CLEVELAND DALLAS DENVER DES MOINES DETROIT INDIANAPOLIS KANSAS CITY LOS ANGELES MEMPHIS MILWAUKEE MINNEAPOLIS NEW HAVEN NEW YORK NEW ORLEANS OKLAHOMA CITY PHILADELPHIA PITTSBURGH SAN FRANCISCO SEATTLE ST. LOUIS 962 Broadway 187 Walton Street, N.W. 417 St. Paul Place 40 Piedmont Street 500 Pearl Street 304 S. Church Street 1325 S. Wabash Avenue 1637 Central Parkway 2128 Payne Avenue 300 South Harwood Street 2111 Champa Street 1115 High Street 2312 Cass Avenue 436 N. Illinois Street 223 W. 18th Street 1961 S. Vermont Avenue 400 S. Second Street 1027 N. Eighth Street 56 Glenwood Avenue 122 Meadow Street 356 West 44th Street 220 South Liberty Street 700 West Grand Avenue 1225 Vine Street 1721 Blvd. of the Allies 255 Golden Gate Avenue 2319 Second Avenue 3212 Olive Street NATIONAL THEATRE SUPPLY COMPANY the campaign, outlined below, proved the community status of the theatre and its management was so highly regarded that the city-wide tie-up was possible, and that because of capable management such an outstanding goodwill plus tickets selling campaign could be executed by the staff with only a nominal increase in the regu¬ lar advertising budget. The off-shoot of the campaign was that Hagerstown’s de¬ fense savings stamp week quota of $35,000 was more than quadrupled to the extent of over $150,000. Industrial and civic leaders of Hagers¬ town were contacted, and a preview screening held. The Mayor of Hagerstown, Chamber of Commerce secretary, retail merchants, president of the Junior Cham¬ ber of Commerce and Chamber of Com¬ merce heads, two representatives of local aircraft corporations, and others attended. This group agreed that the world pre¬ miere of the film would be an excellent promotion, and decided to hold a meeting later that day to get the ball a-rolling. It was then decided to tie in the opening of Hagerstown defense savings stamp week and the local defense industries with the premiere. The combination program in¬ cluded advance in newspapers, radio and theatre trailer and lobby displays. The program included the arrival in Hagerstown of Colonel James Taylor, who accepted five gift planes in behalf of the Government; the selection of Miss Na¬ tional Defense at the Fairchild Aircraft factory, tied in with the employees’ gift of five planes to the Government, the result of 4300 employees’ free labor on Jan. 4; the arrival at Hagerstown airport of Merill C. Meigs, chief of the aircraft division of OPM, who officially opened the defense savings stamp week in the public square; informal reception to Meigs by the Chamber of Commerce, followed by dinner at the Hotel Alexander, and climaxed by a parade to the theatre with the Sons of the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps as escort for the world premiere of “Main Street On the March.” The Potomac Edison Company furnished gratis two large floods night of the pre¬ miere; the short was billed everywhere on top of the feature picture, and the Retail Merchants Association voted unanimously to decorate windows tieing in the entire weeks’ program. Twenty-five especially printed three-sheets were used in the city and county. Wires were received from studio stars and letters of commendation from Metro officials. "Colorful North Carolina" Ashville, N. C. (Population, 51,227) — One of the biggest advertising tie-ups for short subjects was engineered here recently by Metro exploitation representative A1 Burks, in co-operation with Frank LaBar, Jr., manager, Publix-Banford Imperial, on the Fitzpatrick traveltalk, “Colorful North Carolina.” This was in the nature of a special tabloid size section of the Ashville Citizen-Times which ran 20 pages, and ap¬ peared in connection with the world pre¬ miere of the short at the Imperial. Hotels, dude ranches, transportation company, railroads, bus companies, utility companies, banks, chamber of commerce, county com¬ missioners all took ad space in the news¬ paper’s special supplement. "Unusual Occupations" Denton, Tex. — Thousands of Texas spec¬ tators lined the roads from Dallas to this town recently, as a modern Pony Express caravan demonstrated methods of tire preservation in connection with the world premiere of Paramount’s “Unusual Occu¬ pations No. 3” short at the Texas. Event was staged in celebration of a sequence in the Magnacolor film photographed at the William Pony Farm in Denton. A print of “Unusual Occupations” left Paramount’s Dallas office via Pony Express. First stop took place at the City Hall, where the rider received a letter from the mayor and chief of police to be delivered to city officials here. At the outskirts of Dallas it was met by a two-way radio car, which broadcast reports at frequent intervals over four huge loud speakers placed in the Courthouse Square. GltecJz up. an IDEALS LINE OF THEATRE CHAIRS / COMFORT J DURABILITY ./ attractiveness / PRICE v VARIETY OF COLORS and fabrics Write for details on the chair that s "built to excel — not just to compete IDEAL SEATING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Export Office: J. E. ROBIN 330 West 42nd Sts., New York City March 18, 1942 THE EXHIBITOR