The film daily year book of motion pictures (1932)

NEWSPAPERS — Kid Patronage A good stunt to bring in patronage from out of town. Insert guest tickets in all copies of the local paper distributed more than two miles out of town. The tickets state that any boy under 12 will be admitted free. As the kid comes from some distance, he will usually be accompanied by an adult. □ — Dialog Writers Arrange contest with newspaper for readers to fill in the dialog on some specified scene in your current attraction. The best are published in the paper, and prizes of tickets awarded. □ — Permanent Co-ops In cooperation with local merchants, run a weekly co-op page with a contest angle. Letters are dropped from various words in the ads, and when these are replaced they can be assembled to spell the title of the current picture. Offer prizes to the six neatest and most original replies each week. Merchants contribute the prizes. They will go for this stunt during the summer months, for it insures their ads being read. □ — Switch Ads Around When your newspaper ads seem to lose drawing power, try making a switch in style. If you are using more than a six-inch space change over to the open letter style. Write a breezy chat about the picture instead of using smash lines as display. You can use the same lines, if you want, but work them into a running comment on the picture. Use open space top and bottom, and decorate, if you want, with a head cut from some larger ad mat. You can cut down your space and still be so different on the page that yours will be the first announcement read. When that wears off, you can go back to regular display, but the open letter style should give you more punch in smaller space. Have the copy set in 10 or 12 point, leaded, if possible, and make it so easy to read that people are willing, and so bright that people look for more. Being breezy doesn't mean being familiar. The entire idea can be wrecked by getting too flippant. — City Beauties This one always gets over as a circulation stimulator for the newspaper. For several days before run of feature, a newspaper photographer snaps five photos of the prettiest girls he encounters on the streets, who are willing to pose. These are reproduced in the paper as the city representative beauties. For the grand finale there is a theater party for all the girls selected. □ — Ballyhoo Material You can invite the public in to furnish your publicity material on a forthcoming production. Through the daily ads in the newspaper, offer free tickets for those submitting the bast slogans and catch lines to advertise the feature. You can supplement this with printed slips handed to patrons the previous week, announcing the idea. These slogans submitted will make good lobby material. By adding the name of the contestants, it gives a personal touch. □ — Baseball Champs A good number for the sports editor. He plays this up for the local baseball team, offering tickets to the members who score the winning run, as well as home runs each day of play. The idea can be run right through the baseball season, or as long as the editor is willing to give it a ride. You can finish up the season with a Baseball Night, especially if the home team have won any local championship, which gives you a great chance to make it a community event. □ — Perfect Features This makes a good stunt for the special feature writer on the newspaper. The idea is to discover those who have the most symmetrical features. The feature writer builds up interest by comparing the features of contestants with those of the star of your feature. The photographs of those that most nearly meet the requirements are published in the paper. □ — Amateur Reviewers This will appeal to a great number of people who think they are capable of reviewing pictures. The newspaper invites them to submit criticisms on your feature. They are limited 682