Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

40 EXHIBITORS HERALD “Howard Price Kingsinore got down to business. First the town was plastered with paper, special banners, etc., announcing ‘Peter Pan Week’ and one week previous to the showing, a little boy dressed as ‘Peter Pan’ distributed heralds in the toy department of one of the city’s leading department stores. “Special window tie-ups were arranged with the stores handling Peter Pan Kid Clothes, Peter Pan Pens, Peter Pan Dresses and Peter Pan Cravats. Four thousand Peter Pan kisses were distributed among the children attending the poor children’s matinee, as well as the regular children’s matinees. Three thousand Peter Pan buttons were also given away. “Special advertising matter was prepared and a prologue representing a scene from the picture, with a big set tree and fairy houses, was used as foreground. At the opening Peter Pan sat in the tree playing the pipes of Pan, while six girls dressed as fairies danced. They induced Pan to dance, which he did. Preceding the picture, an electrical effect representative of Tinker Bell in the picture flew across the stage, followed by Pan, who told the patrons that they were going to be taken into the Never, Never Land. “During the run of the picture several big balls were due to happen, so arrangements were made with some lady intending going to each ball to dress as Peter Pan. Two out of the three won first prize and the newspapers followed up with special stories and photos. “Over three thousand children attended the special children’s matinee Saturday morning, and in spite of rain again Saturday night the house was packed. Alex Keese, musical director of the Howard Symphony Orchestra, played some very appropriate musical themes for ‘Peter Pan,’ being parts chosen from ‘Babes in Toyland,’ Tschaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker Suite’ and ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ ‘Peter Pan’ carried an original theme and so did Tinker Bell. The overture was ‘Aida.’ “The lobby was specially decorated for ‘Peter Pan’ and plenty of stories and photos were carried in the newspapers. ‘Peter Pan’ was the best attraction that possibly could have been selected for New Year’s week and the patrons caught the spirit.’’ The prologue photograph is especially interesting in view of the scarcity of such recently. Why aren’t there more prologue pictures? With ** Peter Pan** At Lexington ELDRID FISHER, Phoenix Amusement Co., Lexington, Ky., supplying more of those good ads, some of which are reproduced on page 38, writes: “As per your request in recent issues of the Herald, I am sending you an outline of the campaign used in Lexington in exploiting Paramount’s big picture, ‘Peter Pan.’ “We were successful in getting the cooperation of all merchants handling products bearing the name of Peter Pan, including one which, evidently. Paramount overlooked: ‘Peter Pan Sleepers.’ A Peter Pan dress was given away by one department store to the person writing the best essay on the subject, ‘Why Betty Bronson Wears Peter Pan Dresses.’ Another store conducted a crossword puzzle contest, the solution bringiiig out the name of the store, theatre, picture, and ‘Kid Clothes.’ Three children’s tickets were given for each correct answer. This also helped the store in getting a mailing list for their boys’ department. “Five hundred heralds advertising the photoplay edition of the book, tying up with the theatre, were distributed in the business district. Five thousand of the regular heralds were distributed in packages by the stores co-operatinof with us, and from house to house. Two thousand roto heralds were used in The Lexington Leader on the opening day, and the public library inserted 2,000 bookmarks in volumes withdrawn prior to the showing. “One of the soda fountains featured a Peter Pan Sundae. This fact was made known by the theatre running a slide and the fountain having windows and mirrors telling of same. “In addition a number of half-sheet cards were used in barber shops, candy stores, soda fountains and radio shops. Three weeks before the opening the newspaper ads carried a one or two inch announcement, sometimes using a midget cut. “This, backed by Paramount’s national campaign, resulted in a very successful engagement of ‘Peter Pan’ for us.” Our request, referred to in Mr. Fisher’s first paragraph, was made in the column then called “Theatre Bits,” where it was suggested that the many theatres playing “Peter Pan" simultaneously on issue date might perform a big service for subsequent runs by sending in reports of their exploitation immediately. With * Peter Pan** At Terre Haute MAURICE A. FOX, American theatre, Terre Haute, Ind., enclosing a photograph reproduced on page 42, writes : “Enclosed please find photograph of ‘Peter Pan’ tieup with the two local department stores. “Trusting same will be of interest to you.” Mr. Fox’s contribution adds importantly to the record, no other contributor having sent window displays. (Why not write more often?) With ** Peter Pan** At Bridgeport M. ROSENTHAL, Bridgeport, Conn., whose letter is illustrated on page 38, writes : “The enclosed clippings and news stories will convey an idea of the campaigns waged on these pictures. For ‘Classmates’ we hooked up with the United States Recruiting Station for vacancies in the Army and also at West Point. We discovered there were two vacancies at West Point for this district and capitalized that fact with the assistance of the recruiting station. They loaned us a machine gun and three stacks of rifles, with two sergeants on guard at all performances. It netted us a good story in the papers, clipping of which is enclosed. “On ‘Peter Pan’ we tied up with the largest department store, which fortunately handled the Peter Pan dress. They gave us their most prominent window for a display of their dresses, also showing the model of the one we gave away at the theatre. They also gave us a large book display window. In addition, for two days their ads contained nothing but the Peter Pan dresses. “Used large space in advance, also a copy of the telegram sent from the studios by a man who was formerly one of our house managers and well known in this vicinity. Effective lobby display and other store windows with tieups from smaller merchants handling the cravat and Pan pen.” January 31, 1925 Mr. Rosenthal’s ads are combined with others and reproduced in a solid page showing what has been done for “Peter Pan” by £rst run exhibitors. Creamer*s Latest Display Is Best JOHN W. CREAMER, Strand-Empire theatres, Chillicothe, Mo., submitting a photograph reproduced on page 42, writes: “I am enclosing a photo of my latest shadow box, this being for Metro-Goldwyn’s ‘Little Robinson Crusoe.’ “This shadow box was four feet wide, five feet high and one foot deep. I built this display in three planes, with the three sheet cutout of Jackie located half way between the front and the background. “This latter was red rosin paper painted up with alabastine to resemble the sky and the sea, with a dark red sun effect. “On the front were two shields painted yellow, and each holding one 11x14. On the top I added a comedy touch by pasting down a one sheet cutout of ‘Friday.’ The parrot was pasted on to a piece of red rosin paper, then trimmed and tacked lightly to the one sheet figure. I did this so that the bird would assume a natural attitude as the paper slightly curled. The rest of the front was painted brown, with a rock effect at the bottom. “I used this shadow box (with lights concealed in the base) for two weeks in our lobby, right alongside the door leading into the auditorium, and everyone entering just had to see it.” Photos are not always perfect representatives, but Mr. Creamer’s current display looks to us like his best to date. McVickers Prologue Related to Picture “In an Oriental Garden” (perhaps that’s not exactly the title) was staged at McVickers last week as a prologue to “East of Suez” and it differed from the majority of modern presentations in that it was definitely related to the picture, the set being a direct adaptation from the film and recognizable characters being used. Without inviting argument, we interrupt to remark that we like this kind of prologues. GOOD WILL IN magazines devoted to commerce and business we read long articles by learned men discussing the importance of cultivating the good will of the customer. These always give us a pain. Good will is not a thing you can buy, cultivate or otherwise obtain unless you deserve it. If you earn it by deserving it, you simply have it and that’s all there is to the matter. This theatre does not deliberately seek to cultivate j^our good will. We merely give you the best entertainment we can obtain for the fairest possible price. We know that we have your good will, because you could not bear us ill will under those circumstances. Further, we know that the good business men of this community enjoy your good will for the same reasons. And it is because there are so many of these good business men in this community that we have established and will continue to maintain and operate our theatre in this city. NOTHER big idea is in the process of evolution and promises to break for next week. Seems there’s always something new, in spite of the adage. Such is the show business, and probably why as well.