Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

Exploitation and Merchandising (Continued from Page 11) ballyhoo the classic. The big campaign, which started last summer in the two major Sunday supplements with two-page spreads. Beginning next month, and stretching out through March, the schedule covers virtually all the top national and fan magazines, plus the leading juvenile publications. The radio, TV and record company campaign is equally extensive. The airwave kickoff started last Friday (14th) when the entire "Peter Pan" score was introduced on the 292 CBS stations carrying Bob Crosby's Club Fifteen show. The next night the popular Sid Caesar Show of Shows and the Paul W'hiteman program heralded the video campaign, marking, incidentally, the first time three featured shows have introduced the score of a movie within two days. With the huge waxing program by record companies, with top artists doing the songs, the disc jockey shows will be flooded with fodder for plugs throughout the day. And this doesn't even take into consideration the ad program, which in itself is scheduled to reach some 50,000,000 readers. * * * There will be one less "turkey" in the nation this Thanksgiving if M-G-M has anything to do about it. To ensure a top audience penetration for its Thanksgiving release of "Plymouth Adventure", Metro has set up a series of special ads during the week of November 23 in 106 newspapers with some 50 million circulation. Every area opening they picture will be covered by the newspaper campaign, with most of the ads used in special sections of the various news groups decked out in four colors. * * * That 20thFox "Something For the Birds" showmanship contest currently underway has set a record high for exhibitor response. The competition, which started last month and will continue through January 31, with $7500 in prizes to be awarded, has already garnered 837 campaign kits requested by exhibitors. The kit is truly a beaut, incorporating newspaper ads, feature stories, scene mats, ad art, 8 x 10 stills, herald, counter card, plastic stick-on, and pretty nearly everything else a theatreman needs to thump up a winning drive. If the exhibitor guarantees to use them, he can get a teaseT trailer and 24-sheets gratis. After that bang-up start, it's up to the showman, and anyone who plays the picture would be a sucker not to take advantage of this material. Even if he doesn't win the $1,000 Defense Bond or any of the other prizes, he's bound to build his grosses with that material. Three national mags are set to plug Paramount pictures and stars, and, the company says, more are being plotted. Parade's November 23 issue cover will spotlight William Holden, star of "The Turning Point", as well as a feature on both star and picture. The January issue of "See" also gives cover and inside treatment to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, with the comics, who are due soon in "The Stooge", pounding and expounding on American night clubs. Rounding out the trio is a full color layout on "Pony Express", the Charlton HestonRhonda Fleming Jan Sterling Forrest Tucker starrer. The much-publicized Rita Gam, who lends a visual kick to "The Thief" without saying a word, is doing a turnabout in the unique campaign currently underway for the film. Instead of being seen and not heard, Miss Gam's voice is the only part of her apparent to film critics of leading newspapers 1 NO I LEFT > HI 1 1 1 mm THIEF PROMOTION No Left But Plenty Right throughout the country. From New York, Miss Gam blanketed the East, Mid-West and South with long distance telephone calls to the scribes directly to their desks and in the first five days of the campaign 32 key cities had been covred. Seems almost like putting Dagmar off camera, but, well, it's a switch, anyway — and enough to warrant notice. Warner's "Springfield Rifle" got a special boost in Cleveland for its Allen Theatre engagement via a tie-up with NewmanStern, leading sporting goods store in the city. A co-op newspaper ad and a huge window display featuring star Gary Cooper as "The Right Man for the Right Gun!", spotlighted the store's gun stock as "The Right Gun for the Right Man!". The theatre also arranged, with cooperation of the Army, a lobby display of Springfield rifles showing evolution of the weapon from its 1903 inception to the present. SL-t •Subjects By BARN (Continued jrom Page 13) FINANCIAL: In contrast to its erstwhile theatre subsidiary, which dropped almost 40 per cent in its nine-month net for 1952, Paramount Pictures Corp. estimated its net profit for the same period at a 10 per cent increase over the 1951 three quarters. The increase in the third quarter jumped to almost 25 per cent over the corresponding period in '51. Estimated earnings after all taxes and capital gains for the nine months this year were: $4,663,000, including $500,000 of non-recurring capital gains, and for the third quarter, $1,878,000; in 1951, ninemonth net was $4,205,000 and quarter net was $1,373,000. The half-million capital gains was all reported in the '52 third quarter. Figures do not include Paramount's share of net undistributed earnings of partially owned non-consolidated subsidiaries. These are estimated at $340,000 for the '52 nine months, $179,000 for the '51 period; $123,000 for '52 third quarter, $183,000 for '51. UNITALIA FILM MAGAZINE reports better than a 100 per cent increase in the of Italian-made films in that country with corresponding decreases in Hollywood-produced pictures. The American pictures have dropped from 76% last September to 53% as of May, 1952. French films have also declinevi, from 9% in September to 3% in May. On the whole, however, American pictures decreased from 65.30% in the 1950-51 season to 64.02% in the 1951-52 schedule. THE GREAT institution that cares for the industry's own who are ailing, the Variety Clubs Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, will be the recipient of a new series of annual benefits that should swell the coffers of this Samaritan cause considerably: the world premiere of a top film during the course of the November campaign. Columbia vicepresident Abe Montague, president of the organization, disclosed this as an annual event, announcing also that G. S. Eyssell, president of Rockefeller Center, Inc., will be chairman of the inaugural premiere, Samuel Goldwyn's "Hans Christian Andersen." It was Sam Goldwyn who gave Will Rogers his first job in films. It is particularly fitting that the first world premiere to benefit the Hospital comes as another contribution by Goldwyn. A SERIES OF promotions in the 20th Century-Fox advertising-publicity department has elevated: Edward Solomon as assistant to Abe Goodman, advertising manager; Ira Tulipan as newspaper publicity contcat in Edward E. Sullivan's pub'icity department, with Harold Rand moving up to trade paper contact, the post formerly held by Tulipan; and Leo Pillot as assistant to exploitation manager Rodney Bush. 14 FILM BULLETIN Nov.mb.r 17, 1952