Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

40 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD December 6, 1930 w BOX OFFICE PROMOTION Fox Midwesco Trains Patrons to Follow Ads By Using Type Boxes in Daily Displays People can be trained to read advertisements just as they can be trained to read a daily humor column. But there must be something worthwhile in the ads. Before setting out to prove our major premise, we will grant that the task of maintaining a day-to-day interest in theatre advertisements involves more problems than it would in a humor column. But it's not impossible. If it were, the Fox Midwesco organization in Milwaukee could not have accomplished it. The Milwaukee Fox houses have instituted a system of carrying two small type boxes, bold face, in the upper corners of daily ads. All local houses in the circuit run their ads in combined form under the heading "Fox." One box is inserted on each side of the Fox signature cut, where the reader's eye cannot miss it. They Plug Coming Attractions What are these type boxes used for? A number of things. Most important is the plugging for coming attractions. Whenever one of the Fox theatres inaugurates a new feature, gives special service to patrons, or has an especially attractive act in its stage program, the subject is tersely described in a type box. Milwaukee has come to like this system. Everybody who reads the amusement ads has come to look for these boxed messages. There are innumerable uses for these "extra ads." Each box is really an ad within an ad. The use to which they can be put was recently illustrated in a checkup made of matinee business at the Wisconsin theatre in Milwaukee. A decline in afternoon business was stopped by playing up the low prices of matinees. No Repeats in This System On another occasion, the Wisconsin's free dancing school was exploited. Then there were the headphone sets for the hard of hearing, later the films of a University of Wisconsin football game, and so on. Any angle of the service offered by the houses makes good subject matter. But the same message is never repeated two days running, so the reader is kept constantly on the alert to read something new. No better proof of the effectiveness of such strategy can be found than the success of the advance plugging for "The Big Trail." Each day, for approxmately eight weeks before the picture opened, some little bit of information was published concerning the film. The early boxes gave concrete facts on the production. In later weeks this was changed to strong selling copy, and, finally, the date and theatre for the showing was given. "Big Trail" Proves Their Worth By beginning with facts and gradually coming into the selling arguments in this manner, the Fox Midwesco publicity staff is able to run live copy continually. The almost unprecedented attendance at "The Big Trail" when it was finally shown is credited in a large measure to the small advance insertions. It is significant that the type boxes play an important part in the group layout of Fox Midwesco loop houses. In addition, a long single column box is also run above the smaller displays of the Fox neighborhood theatres, with children's matinees and similar features stressed. Through consistent use of the boxes (they are illustrated on this page), this circuit in Milwaukee has attracted consistent reader interest. There is no reason why other exhibitors can't do it, too. All it takes is a bit of ingenuity and stick-to-it-iveness. Pantomime Behind Sound Screen Gives Patrons Novel Act Lionel L. Meyer, operator of the Star theatre, Shreveport, La., describes an interesting stage stunt he employed to give patrons an idea of the perforated effect in a sound screen. Here is his letter: "I recently pulled off a stunt that might prove interesting to other exhibitors, especially those just installing sound. At the end of the feature, I rolled my amplifier towers back and let a drop down in front of them. Then I flashed on the screen the words 'You are now looking through our magic Superdaylite screen — watch closely and see what you can see.' "Immediately afterward, the entire house was darkened, except backstage. You remember the old art poses, etc., that used to be staged behind gauze drops ? I pulled off something like that, only more modern. Besides getting good entertainment the audience gained a new conception of the modern sound screen. I used colored lighting backstage with weird effects. It went over big." Fox Midwesco houses in Milwaukee plug future attractions with small type boxes in the upper corners of their daily ads. Bovim Holds High School Football Rally on Opening Night of "Good News9' Russell Bovim, manager of Loew's theatre, Canton, Ohio, sponsored a high school football rally on the opening night of "Good News." Students sang their pep songs, cheer leaders led in yells and the entire student body of the school staged a parade to the house. Advertising for the picture also appeared on a football scoreboard handed out at the game. An antiquated car, driven by high school boys, carrying appropriate wisecracks on the film, comprised the remainder of the ballyhoo.