Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1922 - Mar 1923)

72 E X II [BIT O RS HERALD January 6, 1923 'Racing Hearts" National Advertising Hits New Mark Botsford Completes Plans for Campaign of Greatest Magnitude At the outset of its national advertising campaign which has done so much to sell motion pictures to the public, Paramount spent in the first year a sum of money which was regarded skeptically in some quarters as extravagant. Time has proved the falseness of that view. Paramount has kept on expanding the scope of its national campaign, and in 1923 the company will spend just about ten times as much in selling Paramount pictures for the exhibitor to the public as it did that first year. AM. BOTSFORD, advertising man# ager, with the co-operation of Henff-Metzger, Inc., advertising agents, has completed his plans for the national advertising of the "Super Thirty-Nine" — a campaign greater in magnitude than any company has ever before launched. As usual, The Saturday livening Post, with its circulation of more than two million copies every week, will carry the message in greatest volume. The Post campaign for the "Super Thirty-Nine" will start in the issue of January 13. This will be a full page in colors, the Paramount trade mark dominating the illustration and the text being captioned. "The name that earned fame through thousands of hours of wonderful entertainment!" In a box at the right is text calling attention to the complete announcement of the "Super Thirty-Nine" to be found in the Post of January 27. In the issue of the 27th, immediately preceding the initial publication of the six months product, the listing of all the pictures will be carr'ed in a double-page spread in colors. Double-page spreads in black and white will be run on each of the following six special productions set for day and date release, the advertisement in each instance appearing in the Post dated the day before the release of the pictures: "Adam's Rib," "Java Head," •'Bella Donna," "The Glimpses of the Moon," "Hollywood" and "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife." • • • COPY on "You Can't Fool Your Wife" and "The Rustle of Silk," also day and date pictures, will consist of single pages in colors, while the big James Cruzc production, "The Covered Wagon," will be handled in a unique manner. Several weeks before the publication of that picture a series of the quarterpage teaser advertisements will be started, and they will culminate in a double-page spread in colors. Incidentally, color pages on "The Covered Wagon" will be run in many other national magazines. Supplementing this production advertising in the Post there will be a page in color every four weeks. These will consist of good will copy and each will carry the complete Paramount schedule for the following month. The decorative and human interest features of this copy in each instance will center around a great motion picture theatre, the list of houses including, among others, the Rivoli. in New York; the Grenada, in San Francisco; Grauman's Metropolitan, in Los Angeles; the Palace, in Washington; McVicker's, in Chicago, and Newman's in Kansas City. IX addition to the campaign in The Post, all the leading fan magazines will carry at least one full page in each issue, with two-page spreads on some of the bigger pictures. The Ladies' Home Journal will also carry a page each month, while Pictorial Review will have a special advertisement on "The Glimpses of the Moon," the story of which ran serially in that magazine. The January issue of Pictorial Review, now on the news stands, has an interesting article by Nina Wilcox Putman, entitled, "What's Right With the Movies," embodying comments by Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew, Samuel Goldwyn, W. W. Hodkinson, D. W. Griffith and other prominent figures in the picture world. Paramount has taken advantage of the fan interest aroused by this article and on the page opposite the start of the story there is a full-pa^e advertisement, "Shopping for the Best Pictures." Exploitation PARAMOUNT'S division of exploitation, under the direction of Claud Saunders, points to the fact that its slogan. "It Has Been Done," has been lived up to in connection with "The Famous Forty-One." Its record of performance therefore is cited as embodying the strongest assurance to exhibitors that they may expect the same kind of cooperation on "The Super Thirty-Nine.". No story of the success of "The Famous Forty-One" is complete without at least a brief story of the activities of this department which maintains a staff of thirty trained showmen scattered throughout the country. The duty of these men is to see that the exhibior takes in as much as possible on his Paramount productions. For "Her Gilded Cage," the exploiteers developed a cheap and inexpensive lathe work which transformed lobby fronts at little cost. This novel flash worked perfectly everywhere the picture played. For "Nice People." the exploiteers sold the title to merchants of the town on the angle that "Nice People trade at this store," and secured page after page of solid advertising (Continued on page 78) INFORMATION that keeps the public constantly apprised of Paramount's activities comes in a steady flow from Paralnount's publicity department, headed by Charles E. McCarthy. The machinery of the department is geared to its highest development in situations where publicity is most needed. For instance, a tremendous publicity campaign has attended the American debut of Pola Negri. Comparatively little known before her arrival in America, this European actress has in a few months become one of the most talked of screen players in the world and her first American picture, "Bella Donna," is being awaited eagerly. Moreover the half-hundred other screen stars, directors and leading players appearing in Paramount pictures are being kept constantly before the public in newspapers, magazines, theatre programs, and other forms of publicity. Sheet music and books also are being utilized to bring them favorably to the attention of new audiences. From your piano Paramount players smile at you from the covers of such popular music as "Singed Wings," "To Have and to Hold, (Continued on page 78)