Exhibitor's Trade Review (Sep-Nov 1921)

September 17, 1921 EXHIBITORS TRADE REVIEW 1121 Exploitation CONDUCTED BY HOWARD McLELLAN Mr. Turner Had Them Betting Young Manager of Greenwich, Conn., Has Been Thinking a Couple of Years Ahead of a Lot of Exploiteers This week we give this page entirely to Edward D. Turner of The Greenwich ( Conn.) Theatre. He's entitled to it, for he's gone out and done something new, and this department is after new stunts. You will hear more from this young man later on. He's working now on a new stunt. Next week he shows "The Old Nest" and the week following "Mother o' Mine." With "The Old Nest" he has a performer singing Kipling's "Mother o' Mine" and it serves not only as a good music theme for "The Old Nest," but gives an advance boost to his next week's picture. — Ed. Here is the stunt explained for us : In exploiting the Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle feature, The Traveling Salesman, Turner employed a very unique and highly profitable idea. His first step was to have 14-foot banners running" the full length of his. car, which were 18 inches high, and brought out the facts that Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle, The Traveling Salesman, had just checked in at the Greenwich Theatre with his latest and biggest line of laughs and would display same to all buyers and customers on Friday and Saturday only. A banner on the back of the car gave further information. Step two was to proceed to New York and try to find ■"the needle in the haystack" in the shape of a man who would be similar enough to Arbuckle in appearance, features and general make-up to at least attract attention. In this matter he was very fortunate in finding the one man who is perhaps a counterpart of Arbuckle at leisure, Gene Laymon, who last appeared before the public in the comedy role of Forbidden Valley, Stewart Blackton's last release in this country, in which he worked with May McAvoy and Bruce Gordon. Turner managed to interest Laymon in the project from an advertising standpoint so that it was not a case of dollars and cents, and therefore the cost of this end of the exploitation was nominal. Laymon agreed to spend four days in Greenwich, and this is what he did : Turner assigned Laymon the job of reminding the people that "Fatty" Arbuckle was appearing in the above mentioned picture at the Greenwich Theatre. To do this it was only necessary that Laymon plant himself in the rear seat of the car, his appearance, with the aid of the banners, electric and cowbells telling the complete story. Now" the main difficulty connected with this part of the exploitation was to get Laymon in and out of the car, because of the fact that the doors were blocked off with banners. Finally, after much study, Turner solved the question with a hand derrick and thereby enacted a one reel comedy at' each entrance and exit from the car. These were perforce enacted on the main street of Greenwich and caused much laughter and publicity, as well as adding to Turner's troubles in dodging the local police for blocking the traffic on the main highway, but the looked for result was more than accomplished, for in a few hours the entire city was in an uproar, one of the trusted lieutenants of Mr. Turner reporting that in a certain restaurant betting was five to one that Laymon was Arbuckle. In fact, the result was probably better than if it had been Arbuckle himself, because of the doubt which created discussion, and we doubt if there was a dinner served the first evening in Greenwich that did not discuss the pros and cons of the situation. We really think, as the packed houses during the showing of the picture bore out, that many people came to see the picture to assure themselves that Laymon was not Arbuckle or that he was, as they may have believed. Due to the fact that Arbuckle was supposed to be a salesman in this picture. Turner used this to exploit a picture coming along three weeks later, namely, Clara Kimball Young in Charge It. He contracted for a full page of advertising in each of the two weekly papers in Greenwich. In the center of his pages he displayed a five column, eighteen-inch cut of Charge It, with his play dates, etc., and completely surrounding his cut were block ads numbering thirty. It remained for Laymon, as The Traveling Salesman, to sell these ads to the local merchants, and he managed to create another discussion among the merchants, because he sold the ads about fifty to fifty between credit and cash stores, each merchant expressing his belief and preference for cash or credit business through the medium of the ads. These ads, while sold at a reasonable rate to the merchant, defrayed the expenses of the full exploitation on both the Charge It picture and Traveling Salesman, consequently giving Mr. Turner a unique and highly effective advertising campaign at no cost to the Greenwich Theatre, excepting his time and genius in devising the plans. More of this sort of ideas would give big results for a very small outlay, and we are looking forward with great interest for the next move of Greenwich. We were quietly tipped off that Mr. Turner had acquired a taste for producing comedies through his one reel experience in getting Mr. Laymon in and out of the car, and we'd not be at all surprised to see in the near future a series of comedies starring Hippo Gene Laymon, as Mr. Turner believes he has discovered a new laugh mine and a comedian of note who has somehow fallen by the wayside and been overlooked, and in this instance we would be willing to bet five to one that with the same amount of ingenuity and energy displayed as was used in the exploitation in The Traveling Salesman and Charge It, it will be a sure fire success in a field that to-day is sadly neglected. It cost — nothing!