The Film Daily (1935)

THE « » EXPLOITING THE CURRENT FILMS Mickey Mouse Gets f Top Exploitation THE celebration of Mickey Mouse's Seventh Birthday was held at Loew's Midland theatre, Kansas City, with an outstanding exploitation campaign that reached the proportions accorded a feature attraction. Arranged under the supervision of John McManus, assisted by James Major, Mickey Mouse got columns of free space in all local newspapers. Special stories on Walt Disney and the Silly Symphonies appeared in the "Journal-Post" and other local dailies. A week in advance of the show all theater ads carried special mention regarding the Mickey Mouse celebration. Two weeks in advance the lobby of the theater was decorated with banners and colored cut-outs. Special displays of all the Mickey Mouse characters were placed about the inner lobby with a huge birthday cake, arranged in a tie-up with the Campbell Baking Company. For a street ballyhoo, the Campbell Company got out a huge sound truck to exploit their product as well as Mickey's Birthday with special pennants and banners. Records of Mickey's latest hits were used on the truck which visited all local grocery stores and stopped at principal streets throughout the city. Radio broadcasts also played a big part in celebrating Mickey's anniversary at the Midland. Radio Station WHB gave Mickey five mentions during the week; station KMBC plugged the attraction on the "Magazine of the Air" program and station W9XBY featured hits from Mickey's latest production on their "Theater Organ" program. A special trailer announcing the gala program for Miokey Mouse's Seventh Birthday was used two weeks in advance of the opening. — Loew's Midland, Kansas City. "Barbary" Premiere Aggressively Exploited CAMUEL GOLDWYN'S latest screen sensation, "Barbary Coast," starring Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson and Joel McCrea and currently released through United Artists, was given its New York premiere at the Rivoli Theater with a most comprehensive exploitation campaign. Arranged under the supervision of Manager John Wright, with the assistance of the U. A. Home office exploitation staff, the picture got under way with a terrific advance campaign. Through a tie-up with the "New York American" Christmas and Relief Fund, a "Barbary Coast S^S DAILY Tuesday, Oct. 22, 1935 « « Ball" was arranged for Friday, October 18 at the Hotel Astor with the full proceeds going to the "New York American" Fund. This stunt broke fully a week before the opening of the picture and resulted in big daily art and story layouts in the "American," "Journal" and "Mirror". Ticket booths were placed in Times Square and leading ticket agencies throughout the city carried special window cards plugging both the ball and the engagement of the picture at the Rivoli Theater. Special radio broadcasts, street stunts, etc., were used. Two co-operative ads, each giving the picture full credit, were arranged with Best & Company and McCreery's. Special "Barbary Coast Coiffures" were advertised by Best & Company, and McCreery's placed ads in all local newspapers heralding the "Barbary Coast Shoe." All ads carried mention of Miriam Hopkins as the star in "Barbary Coast". On opening day an airplane with a kite reading " 'Barbary Coast' now at the Rivoli" circled six of the leading football fields and was seen by at least 250,000 persons. Evidence of this coverage was noticeable in Sunday's receipts at the Rivoli. Special accessories, window cards, scene stills and blow-ups were prominent in many local windows throughout the city, plugging the opening of "Barbary Coast". Among some of the leading merchants who co-operated in this huge window display campaign were Roth's Pennsylvania Drug Stores, Truly Warner Hats, United States Lines and Milgrim's. — Rivoli Theater, New York. Used Trick Photo Bally On "Page Miss Glory" £)EWEY MOUSSON, manager of the Knickerbocker Theater in Nashville, used a trick stunt to plug his showing of "Page Miss Glory", a Warner-Cosmopolitan release. A tie-in with one of the largest stores in town enabled him to get a large show-window. A camera was rigged up on a tripod, with a printed announcement which announced that group pictures would be taken through the window every 15 minutes and would be displayed at the entrance to the theater. Faces ringed with white circle would be presented with tickets. The stunt attracted large crowds both to theater and store. Large number of stills were placed in store window, as well. — Knickerbocker Theater, Nashville, Tenn. Modern Screen Ballyhoos Lily Pons Debut Film A/fODERN Screen Magazine, is to ballyhoo the cinema debut of Lily Pons with a special publicity promotion in the December issue which reaches the new.-stands on November 3. Tie-up with the leading article in that issue on the colorful operatic star, two hundred thousand beautifully colored portraits of the popular diva are to be distributed to purchasers of the magazine at their large chain of store affiliates. These include the 2,300 stores of the S. S. Kresge, S. H. Kress, W. T. Grant, H. L. Green, McCrory, G. C. Murphy, McLelland, ScottBurr and Fishman Chains. To emphasize the special tie-up, the magazine has prepared a picturesque and compelling window poster card, which is to be displayed throughout the chain stores. The poster features prominent copy credit to the title "I Dream Too Much", and should serve as a valuable exploitation accessory to the promotion of the film. The poster is 21 by 14 inches in size, and is printed in three colors. Exhibitors can easily avail themselves of additional cooperation by contacting their local store representatives. — RKO Radio Pictures. Tie-Up With Philco Aids "Broadway Melody" J^ TIE-UP with Philco Radio aided George N. Hunt's campaign on "Broadway Melody of 1936" at Loew's Theater in Louisville. Two of these radios were placed in the lobby of the theater one week before the opening and records of songs from the production were played. Patrons were requested to vote their favorite numbers on card pluggers distributed for that purpose. The stunt proved very popular with the younger set and served to draw them back for the picture. Hunt was assisted by an M-G-M exploiteer. Jell-0 dealers cooperated by placing cards and window streamers in prominent places. Jack Benny, star of the film, is sponsored on the air by the makers of the product. Six at tractive girls, wearing operalength hose, black velour practice suits and caps, carried black cards with white letters spelling out the title words. They did this each day at noon during the run of the picture. — Loew's Theater, Louisville. Window Display Helps Sell "Scrappy" CALE of the new Scrappy line of paint, crayon, chalk, and clay modelling sets, manufactured by the Scrappy Toy Sales Company, 200 Fifth Avenue, New York, leaped considerably with the installation of large window displays in street floor windows at Broadway and 20th Street, of Schranz and Bieber, one of the largest wholesale toy distributing companies in the East. The display features Edith Fellows, popular juvenile star of Columbia's current motion picture success, "She Married Her Boss". Miss Fellows is seen posing with the Scrappy paint sets in one of the displays. The other display contains six photographs illustrating how the Scrappy animated cartoons are made in Hollywood. — Columbia Pictures. Cleveland Main Library Features "Dream" Display gID DANNENBERG, Warner exploiteer in Cleveland, planted a special display on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the city's main library. The exhibit was placed on a large panel in a show-window case off the entrance to the library. It included five 11x14 stills depicting as many scenes from the Max Reinhardt production of the Shakespeare play. Appropriate copy was attached to each still. A copy of a volume of the '"Dream" with title nage open, was set on the bottom shelf of the case. Lying flat on each side of the book were stories dealing with the production. The entire display was given special lighting. — Hanna Theater, Cleveland. 381 Army and Navy Units Showing Motion Pictures A total of 381 units of the U. S. Army and Navy are now showing motion pictures for entertainment of personnel and recruiting purposes, according to information received for the 1936 Film Daily Year Book. Of these, 75 are operated by the army out of branches at New York, Washington, D. C, St. Louis, Seattle and Dallas. The 306 navy units are served from the Brooklyn Navy Yard exchange and include 199 regular navy ships, 14 coast guard vessels, four army transports, two coast guard stations, 52 naval shore stations and 35 navy recruiting stations. Standard size film is used in all but the recruiting stations, which use 16 mm. pictures.