Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1956)

TiJ&at t&e S^omnm /tie uaiay i / (Continued from Page 23) 4 Handsome and cleverly augmented with movie-type descriptive matter and props, this eye-catching in-store display at Abraham & Straus in New York for 20th-Fox' "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" is one of hundreds sponsored by Eagle Clothes in the manufacturers' nationwide tie-up with 20th. Full credits go to the Darryl F. Zanuck CinemaScoper and its Roxy Theatre engagement. In addition, almost 100 store windows throughout the Broadway area were devoted to the film. Whitney Sells 'Searchers' & Self In World-Wide Trade Campaign Belying its chronological infancy in the industry with a full-blown promotional program, C. V. Whitney Pictures, Inc. is going all-out to sell itself throughout the world as a powerful new factor in the business, as well as its product. The young production unit, headed by C. V. Whitney and Merian C. Cooper, who brought themselves squarely into the American exhibitors' eye with an extensive trade paper campaign on behalf of their first film, "The Searchers", are branching out with the same advertising in trade publications in Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Spain, South America, the Philippines and Japan, the ads appearing in appropriate languages. The Whitney placements are in addition to the advertising Warner Bros., who are distributing the film, will do. As an adjunct to the trade paper program Whitney is circularizing every exhibitor in the U. S. and some 40,000 foreign theatres with brochures on "The Searchers" and the company. Giant Bantam D-Day Tie-In A huge tie-in campaign with Bantam books will see over 100,000 book, department, drug and chain stores plugging 20thFox' "D-Day The Sixth of June". The Bantam movie edition will be backed initially with 10,000 22" x 28" 2-color blow-ups with art of film's stars and a like number of tack cards. The distributor, Curtis Circulating Co., has 300 field agents following through on promotions with key accounts and exhibitors. Bold Plug on Murrow Show Blue-ribbon penetration was accorded "The Bold and the Brave" when Mickey Rooney, co-starred in the RKO film, highlighted the crap game sequence over the Edward R. Murrow "Person-to-Person" May 4 network TV show. Pago 24 Film BULLETIN May 14, 1956 CommonwealthPlaygroundDrive To Hypo Drive-In Attendance "When you attract the small fry, you attract the entire family," is the basis of a new drive by Commonwealth Theatres to sell drive-in playgrounds throughout the chain. Having allocated a sizeable chunk of cash for addition of playground equipment in its drive-ins, Commonwealth is exhorting its managers to selling and developing activities and special promotions on the playgrounds, with the home office ad departments working up a large scale campaign toward that end, with planned promotions, games and stunts angled for both kids and their elders. The playground campaign, sponsored and developed by E. C. Rhoden, Jr. and Dick Orear, is soliciting personnel for suggestions. Armed with the experience of the great number of veteran drive-in managers, the playground campaign will utilize the most successful proven ideas with fresh material. A showmanlike bid for the world premiere of U-I's "Battle Hymn" arrived in the office of Universal vice-president David A. Lipton, no mean dispenser of showmanship himself, via the U. S. mails. The giant post-card, bearing the signatures of over 200 citizens of Marietta, Ohio, was the brain child of exhibitor Dale C. McCoy, who requested the debut in the home town of Col. Dean Hess (shown above with Lipton), whose life story is the basis for the C'Scope film. [More SHOWMEN on Page 27 J -A Five major recording companies' albums, each featuring Columbia's "The Eddy Duchin Story", will be released with full scale promotion for a huge advance boost three months before the film's release. In addition to the quintet (Decca, Capitol, Columbia, Mercury and Vik), seven versions of the theme song, "To Love Again" will also be waxed. •9 Paramount's "The Scarlet Hour", in which Nat King Cole's rendition of "Never Let Me Go" is an important selling factor, gets featured play in this window streamer from Capitol Records which is decorating music and department stores throughout the country. Some 3000 disc jockeys were circularized with the record in Capitol's promotion. Accent on Music Promotion As Film Discs, Albums Abound They're saying it with music this Spring. Armed with a batch of likely tunes and performers from their films, the distributors are filling the airwaves, music shop windows and juke boxes with songs plugging current and forthcoming pictures. Among the biggest is the five-album "Eddy Duchin Story" release (see cut above) with a nationwide campaign utilizing field forces to make contact on the local level. Not far behind is the title tune from Warners' "The Searchers", which will have four different record companies issuing platters, MGM, RCA, Capitol and Kapp. 20th-Fox, fresh from its "Carousel" and "Mamie Stover" plays, has launched another pair with Capitol's issuance of "The King and I" soundtrack album, due June 1, and the theme song from "The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit", released by Bell. On the latter, the disc and special promotional letters have gone out to more than 2000 disc jockeys and juke box operators, while Capitol has blueprinted a full-scale national and point-of-sale campaign to pre-sell the album in association with theatre datings. Album's release will also be heralded in music trade journals, lay press ads and mailings to d.j.'s.