Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1957)

EXPLOITATION PICTURE TAJAMA' TOPS IN MUSICAL SHOWMANSHIP! Doris Day for the movie fans and a topdrawer Broadway cast that had tickled the funnybones and musical sensitivies of happy audiences for years in George Abbott's smash stage musical, "The Pajama Game", give this WarnerColor film entertainment a running start in the exploitation department. Streaming out as colorful adjuncts are the wonderful songs, the sock title and a slew of exploitaids worked up to a fine point by the Warner Bros, boxofficers under the aegis of Gilbert Golden. Spearheading the campaign is the simple — delightfully simple — advertising featuring the Day draw and the provocative styling of the display ads playing around the title. The coy figure of the star in pajama tops draws the eye, catchlines pique the fancy, bruiting it about that "Nothing Else Is As Much Fun As The Pajama Game" or "This Little Old World Wouldn't Be the Same Without the Extra Special Fun of 'The Pajama Game'." Spread around the ads are those hit tunes that had the whole country doing singing commercials for the musical: "Hey, There", "Hernando's Hideaway", "Steam Heat", "There Once Was A Man" and the others that are still titillating Broadway and summer stock playgoers after three years, another important campaign peg. The emergence of Carol Haney and John Raitt as top screen figures with this film is another selling angle. Miss Haney, a talented dancer who set the critics on their respective ears with her rendition of "Steam Heat" and "Hernando's Hideaway", has made a host of new fans via her television appearances; Raitt is the ruggedly handsome, strong personality type, with plenty of physical and tonal muscle. Both of these new-to-films people can be touted as bright new stars with all the thrill of discovery audiences love to experience. One of the hottest tie-in campaigns in recent years is currently blasting away in the Warner Weldon Pajamas co-op. Combining with the WB field force for local level theatre ties, Weldon has issued two campaign books, one pushing the national drive, the other laying out detailed plans for department stores and specialty shops handling the Weldon line. Full-page ads in color and black-and-white are plugging the picture in conjunction with Weldon Pajamas in top national mags. Large display ads, with Weldon sharing the cost, spark local newspaper placements by department stores. Special "Pajama Pals" boxes carry the stars on the cover. Every pair of Weldon Pajamas carries a tag plugging the film. By all means, don't pass up this excellent opportunity for big scale plugs for the picture and playdate. An extra bonus of other tie-ups have been set up by Warners with such important advertisers as Hotpoint (two-page color spread in Life), Contour Lounge Chairs, American Airlines, and several others. Display ideas built around the Day figure ("It's the Tops!") are easily adaptable from the lithos. The six-sheet (see below) and the 24sheet are especially good for cut-outs. Other posters also have the star figure well separated from the copy to permit similar reproduction on a smaller scale. PROMOTE THAT MUSIC! The music Pajama Game' made record and sheet sales history. The songs are still being played and sung everywhere. Warners have promoted terrific tie-ins with both Columbia Records and Frank Music Corporation for free display material which every exhibitor can utilize for lobby and store ballyhoo. Pajama Stunts Sliding into the stunt slot as though it were machine-tooled for it, the film is loaded with possibilities for gimmick-grabbing attention. Starting in with the doorman and ushers dressed in pajamas, the p.j. parade of stunts is endless. You can make a game out of making pajamas via a "Pajama Game Sewing Contest", co-sponsored by the local sewing centers; for a weather and local ordinances permitting, send a good-looking couple, as pictured, around town to distribute heralds or handbills; promote extra large pairs of Weldon Pajamas and offer free admission to anyone who fits them, displaying the giant nightwear in the lobby; have a paj ama game fashion show on stage, tieing in with local Weldon dealer, or using original ideas (you could get some lulus!) Working in the big picnic scene — and you can get a barrelful of ideas from this alone — arrange with a local charity for a "Pajama Game Picnic". Everyone comes in pajamas, the more bizarre the better. Prizes are offered for the funniest, the oldest, the sexiest, etc. And, naturally, the Columbia sound track album for background music for a delightful afternoon — and a lollapalooza of a talk-it-up stunt. 0 0 Doris Day J*£tCarol!an5 AltXFC.,., f?:U.Ain GitfiK CEPUS AH '51 Doris Day stands four and a half-feet tall in the six sheet, making it easily adaptable for lobby or marquee display. A clear plastic spray, when used outdoors, will protect it. THE PAJAMA GAME STORY There is the promise of solid entertainment in Warners' mating of producer-director Goerge Abbott, whose roster of Broadway hits from "Three Men on a Horse" to "Wonderful Town" represents a generation of entertainment, and Stanley Donen, whose offbeat musicals ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Funny Face") gave tunefilms a new look. Adding top cinelight Doris Day to virtually the entire Broadway cast of the Abbott long-run smash hit, it doesn't seem possible that "Pajama Game" can miss with its story, filled with typical Abbott hi-jinks, and the score, which rated at least three tunes in the Hit Parade's stratosphere. The scene is set in a pajama factory, where the employe's principal interests are divided between a 7l/2c raise demand and the annual forthcoming picnic. It doesn't take long for the handsome new superintendent of the plant, John Raitt, to become romantically involved with the grievances committee head, Doris Day, and for the raise dispute to complicate the romance. In the delightful proceedings at the picnic, the love affair is crystallized, temporarily dissolved when the raise is turned down and Doris sabotages production, and reinstated when Raitt turns up evidence of profits which forces the 7l/2c through. Worked into the story are all the wonderful Richard AdlerJerry Ross songs, topped by "Hey, There", "Hernando's Hideaway", etc. Page 22 Film BULLETIN September 2, 1957