Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1957)

r Strong Word-of-Mouth Drives Sell Films Sans B.O. Headliners 20th, Metro and RKO each are selling current releases via strong word-of-mouth drives to counter the absence of king-size pre-production reputations or pack-em-in boxoffice names. In a vigorous effort to stir up interest in "Three Brave Men" (20th), "Edge of the City" (MGM) and "The Young Stranger" (RKO), the three distributors are pushing these films through extensive screenings for and interviews among opinion-makers, with the aim of getting the pictures off the ground quickly on advance word-of-mouth impetus from prominent people. The 20th campaign on "Three Brave Men", patterned after the highly successful w-of-m build-up on "A Man Called Peter", has reached more than 50,000 community leaders from such organizations as the Federation of Women's Clubs and the United Church Women, who saw the film in a host of key cities. The Metro push for "City" has concentrated on screenings for "influential people" in the New York area, coupled with interviews and visits to opinion-moulders by key personalities such as David Susskind, producer of the film. Aiming principally at the teen-age set, RKO is running a series of contests for members of high school newspapers and journalism students. Students are shown "Stranger", then write reviews, the best review being honored in the school paper. Movie Popularity Contest Vigorous Boxoffice Stimulant North of the border in Canada, the Toronto Star Weekly is running a promotion on motion pictures that has scads of people reading, thinking, talking motion pictures. Boasting a circulation of over 950,000 the Canadian paper is running a Movie Popularity Poll to find Canada's three top motion pictures of 1956 and the favorite trio of actors and actresses. $1,000 in cash will be the prize to reader whose guess comes closest to the final poll results. Needless to say, the virtual flood of free publicity coverage is making Canadian circuits and independent theatre owners jump with joy for this potent p.r. lift. For their part, Dominion showmen are contributing two hundred double season passes to be given away to winners in the movie popularity contest. In addition to devoting $10,000 of free space to the promotion, the Star Weekly is spending plenty more via direct mail pieces, posters and displays. The newspaper advised every theatreman in Canada of the Movie Popularity Poll via letter soliciting their participation in the campaign. All participating theatres received a one-sheet outlining details of the contest to be used for display purposes. •T^GET THE 100T| pi Admiral ** BIG W POBTA»U TV k! -■V A trio of UA's exploiteers came up with -tfesome top promotions on "The King and Four Queens". Top to bottom: 1 ) In Cincinnati, Bill Shirley placed a safe in front of the Palace Theatre with the person dialing the right combo snaring a portable TV set. 2) Another Shirley gimmick had a live "king and queen" passing out cards from a specially numbered deck for a contest stunt. 3) San Francisco ballyman "Tiger" Thompson sent a K and 4 C*s on a shopping district tour. 4) St. Louis fieldman Bill Gandall arranged a neat stunt for a KSD program by having a teenage press agent Betty Creech throw the spotlight on Clark Gable. Italo-American Market Target of WOV-Columbia PR Promotion In a sock public relations promotion aimed at the Italian-American market, radio station WOV of New York City and Columbia Pictures have joined hands to hypo interest in "Full of Life", Columbia's new comedy starring Judy Holliday, Richard Conte and Salvatore Baccoloni. Long acknowledged as the nation's leading Italian-language kilowatter, WOV, in an attempt to batter the Italian stereotype, will plug the Fred Kohlmar production on all levels as "a film which shows definitely how story and comedy values can be extracted from an ItalianAmerican situation with offense to no one". For the use of Italian media everywhere, WOV has prepared a special kit of material to be used by Columbia exploiteers and local exhibitors. The N. Y. station is sending out batches of transcribed interviews to Italianlanguage outlets in every nook of the nation featuring Conte, Baccaloni and other supporting players. In addition, WOV is sponsoring a series of screenings for civic, religious and organizational leaders of the Italo-American community in N. Y., Boston and Chicago. Idea-ed by Columbia's Jonas Rosenfield, Jr., the promotion is scoring a public relations bulls-eye, with waves of enthusiastic comment coming in from notables all over the nation. "Full of Life" is apparently wellregarded by those who are sensitive to the flood of biased representations of first and second generation Italians in films, on television and radio, and in the press. Explaining the WOV decision to help Columbia sell the film in the lush Italian market, Ralph Weil, general manager of the station stated: ". . . 'Full of Life' is going to make a lot of friends for Italian-Americans. We want to encourage this kind of thing, and have told Columbia we will do whatever we can to get the word around." Campaign Contest Set for 'Big Land' St. Loo-K. C. Booking Three lucky and hard-working theatre managers in the Kansas City-St. Louis area are going to be gifted with $100 Savings Bonds from Warner Bros, for setting up the "sellingest" advertising and exploitation campaigns in their engagements of "The Big Land", Alan Ladd starrer which kicks off a saturation booking campaign in over 250 Missouri theatres on January 31. Theatremen participating in the campaign have been asked by WB to compile scrapbooks documented by photos, newspaper clippings, and all other pertinent material. Entries should be sent to W. W. Blumberg, Warner Bros., 321 W. 44th Street, New York 36, N. Y. To be judged by staffers at the WB home office, the contest will be divided into three segments, with bonds being awarded for the best campaign by a manager in (1) a city with a population of over 50,000; (2) in a city of not less than 5,000 nor more than 50,000; (3) in a city with less than | 5,000 population. Closing date for entries is March 15. Page U Film BULLETIN January 21, 1957