Exhibitor's Trade Review (Aug-Nov 1925)

October 31, 1925 Page 41 Ties With Steamship Company For Boat Excursion To Theatre THE Star Theatre in Arnold's Park, la., recently reversed the Sunday custom of towns near bathing beaches. Instead of losing its patrons to the beaches on a fine August Sunday it "dragged" them all in and collected those from other resorts on the lake as well. The house record was broken by 100 per cent. The picture was "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Jack Edwards, Universalist, came from Des Moines to put on an exploitation campaign and the first thing he did was to make a tie-up with the Okoboji Steamship Company, which operates on Lake Okoboji, for a joint lake excursion and theatre party. Special tickets were printed giving purchasers a reduced rate of 70 cents for the lake trip both ways and theatre admission. Tickets were placed on sale at the Manhattan Beach Hotel and The Inn with special announcements on bulletin boards and advertising matter placed in all key boxes at both hotels. All of the company's boats carried advertising matter on the excursion. BUT not content with pulling in most of the hotel guests and cottagers on Lake Okoboji, Edwards and Manager Rehfield journeyed four miles south to Milford and five miles north to Spirit Lake to tack cards all over town. They used a ballyhoo truck covered with banners for this trip. The only newspaper published in Arnold's Park is the weekly "Bulletin," a '11 x 7}4 inch affair. The Star Theatre uses half of the back page of this publication for its ad. Mr. Edwards made arrangements with the editor to lift the ad from the back page after the regular run was off the press and to place it on the front page together with a publicity story on the "Hunchback" engagement and the steamship excursion. One thousand of these were then run off and placed in key boxes at resort hotels and distributed in automobiles in Arnold's Park, Milford and Spirit Lake. Through a tie-up with a local bakery heralds on the picture were wrapped in all bundles sent out by the shop. EDWARDS also made a personal call on the minister of the Community church and "sold" him on the picture with the result that he endorsed the production from the pulpit on Sunday morning. The Catholic priest of the parish also recommended the picture to his parishioners. The effective lobby display in The Palace Theatre, Dallas, Texas, on the Metro feature, "A Slave of Fashion," with Norma Shearer. It was a beautiful sight, especially when the lobby lights were on in full flare at night, and caused much favorable comment. Window Cards Help When "A Slave of Fashion," starring Norma Shearer, played recently at the Victory Theatre in Providence, R. I., Floyd Stuart, Metro-Goldwyn exploiteer, exploited the picture by distributing 200 window cards among merchants who displayed them in their windows, and by posting 500 onesheets. Peacock Feathers Ties Whole Town on Show AS well turned out a fashion show as ever hit Pittsburgh was produced last week at the Cameraphone Theatre, East Liberty, by Richard Brown, manager of this popular little suburban house. With the assistance of Lon B. Ramsdell, exploiteer for Universal, this pair sewed up East Liberty tight on exploitation for the "Fall Fashion Show" which was produced in conjunction with the Universal Jewel, "Peacock Feathers." On the stage were two grand pianos, played at the same time, which added novelty and smartness to the regulation parade of models. Six beautiful girls attired in all the latest of milady's garments strutted forth as only expert models can, ending their part of the performance by appearing on a beautiful illuminated runway that ran the entire length of the house. The setting was an old Moorish castle, and with the colors of the drapes and the lighting effect, it was a style show well worthy of a house more pretentious than the Cameraphone. LL the leading dress shops loaned their winds to Manager Brown. A hardware store dressed its windows with hardware and centered this sign among the pots and pans : "What's the use of dressing up if you can't have these to cook with." As a result of these efforts of Manager Brown, "Peacock Feathers" had the honor of breaking all house records and setting a standard that will be hard for Mr. Brown's competitors to follow. The sign on the wagon tells the story of this ballyhoo for Universalis "The Goose Woman." To say that the stunt did the trick would be putting it mildly. It was a riot for success.