The Film Daily (1931)

THE I Thursday, February 12. 1931 EXPLOITETTES A Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation Ideas © ie-up with Newspaper On Cut-Up Photo A CLEVER variation of the old cut-up picture puzzle is being used with fine effect by Warner Bros, staff at the Venetian, Racine, Wis. The puzzle contest is being conducted by the "Times-Call" and the theater. The newspaper twice a week prints a cut-up picture of a Warner or First National star and prizes are offered for those who first correctly assemble the pictures. The solutions are shown on the screen of the theater. The prizes for the winners in the contest amounts to $200 and there will be 100 theater tickets distributed among the runners-up. The contest is to run 13 weeks, covering 26 pictures, and has created a great deal of interest. — Venetian, Racine, Wis. Warners Tie-up With Childs' Menus A N extensive tie-up has been arranged between Warner Bros, and the Childs Restaurant Co. through which the restaurant people will give considerable exploitation to all the Warner and First National stars. The tie-up will be in effect in all of the restaurants in the Childs chain and will consist of reproducing artistic photographs of the stars on the daily menus. This is the first tie-up of any kind which has been arranged with the Childs chain of restaurants. — Warners TEN YEARS AGO TO-DAY IN :THE o* HIM DOM Pathe and Vitagraph split with N. A. M.P.I. Sydnev Cohen charges attempt to disrupt" M.P.T.O. * * * Associated Exhibitors deal oru New $3,000,000 company formed. * * * Loew's, Inc., assets over 50 million. Statement shows profit of $2,868,360. ■JZ0* DAILY • • • HY DAAB has struck a new angle in exploiting "Cimarron" he has gone back to the old circus idea every branch manager is expected to act as advance agent for the show, and go out and ballyhoo it in Barnum & Bailey style each exchange will probably stage a parade down the main street the branch salesmen will dress up as bushwhackers, buckaroos and tenderfeet others will impersonate claimjumpers and con men this division won't have to dress up, merely appearing as film salesmen Hy has a swell idea for a tie-up with real estate concerns trying to sell suburban lots in the different territories at the end of the parade on the outskirts of the city, they will stage a land rush, duplicating the big scene in "Cimarron" they will get the citizens to compete in the land rush, which will be to the suburban lots on sale as the winners arrive and stake out their claims, a real estate salesman will be on hand to congratulate 'em and sign 'em up for the first down payment Hy has arranged for a cut-in now ain't that using the ole bean? • • • WONDER HOW those B. I. P. fellers feel when they see the crowds swarming into their recently vacated George Cohan theater to see "City Lights"? there were lots of empty seats when they showed the British-mades, but now Charlie is turning 'em away grabbing a Broadway house to show your product doesn't mean anything you gotta have the product Eddie Klein, since signing that Ernesto Vilches releasing contract for Spanish talkies with Paramount, has gone Spick he signs all his South American correspondence: "Senor Eduardo Klein" Joe Fliesler, impresario of the Fifth Ave. Playhouse and the Eighth Street Cinema, was seen driving high and fancy in an imported Minerva, no less or has Joe turned chauffeur? but still handling a foreign vehicle • • • HELEN TWELVETREES gets an unusual break in that gigantic animated sign on the marquee of the Mayfair she dominates all Broadway, as the electric light effects show her eyes flirting as she toys with a lighted ciggie one of the smartest signs ever seen on Bored Way Some wise producer is now confronted with a grand opportunity to annex a Big Asset in exploitation and theater publicity Epes Sargent, dean of trade paper experts on| What Makes the B. O. Click, is out of "Zit's" with an authority like Epes supervising press books, for instance, the doggone things would commence to mean Something • • • CHARLIE CHAPLIN will take a print of "City Lights" to Sing Sing today they oughter appreciate it, for a lot of our City Lights are there which reminds us that this up-and-coming United Artists outfit is stepping right along with "City Lights" smashing all records at the George Cohan "Reaching for the Moon" increasing in biz in its seventh week "Hell's Angels" packing the Rivoli and "The Devil to Pay" opened at the Rialto to mobs not so tuff, not so tuff Pathe has some big ex ploitashe tie-ups in back of "Lonely Wives," but if they'd furnish the addresses of the lonely wives, THAT would create a lotta enthusiasm, too * * * * • • • ESTHER RALSTON sez that these beauty contests "give a girl a false sense of values, and! start her off on! the wrong foot" but you must admit, Esther, that they do give her a leg on the Screen Popularity Handicap that is, if she has a leg to start with "Hobo," by Frank Merlin, former Fox writer at the Coast, has opened at the Morosco And there was the Jewish gentleman who wore handcuffs to bed so his wife couldn't understand him wheri he talked in his sleep Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion = €)— Sees Home Talkies Killing Book-Reading AN entirely new form of literature will have to be written by authors of the future, in the opinion of Booth Tarkington, novelist. Popular interest in reading books, he said, is on the decline. . . .Dubbing this "a country club age," in which the American people were primarily interested in golf, automobiling, listening to the radio and going to the "talkies," Mr. Tarkington declared that the eventual introduction of talking pictures into the home, side by side with the radio, would cause a tremendous slump in reading. "The author of the future," he said, "will not go in so much for the writing of lengthy novels. He will find he has to create something fit for use for the family talking picture set. His writing will have to be more in the form of a script. When one can press a button and turn on a good play or vocalized movie on the home screen, there will be little time left for reading. Certainly there has been a gradual decline in reading for a long time. Times are materially changed from the days when the only diversion of the pioneer and farmer was a good book. Editors tell me more people than ever read books because the population is so much greater, but a very much smaller percentage of the population reads than formerly." — N. Y. Evening Post « « « » » » MANY HAPPY RETURNS Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the following members of the industry, who are celebrating their birthdays : February 12 Tom Moore William Collier, Jr. Gabriel L. Hess