Year book of motion pictures (1932)

TIE-UPS —City Day Have the city officials and merchants association join together in a special day named for your town to boost prosperity. Every merchant in town joins by offering attractive reasons why the citizens should loosen up and buy. Trolleys and buses give free rides to shopping districts during certain hours. Leading garages and parking spaces give free parking to anyone presenting a sales slip from any store. The telephone company phones housewives to remind them of bargain day. Taxi companies cut to a flat 25 cents from anywhere in city limits to center. Leading restaurants cut the price on their luncheon menus. The theater can get in on this one to advantage in many ways, especially if you take a lead in promoting the gala day. □ — Vacation Trips Start this one about the end of May. It can be made big enough for a city or small enough for a town. It costs little, and should bring in a lot. It can be worked with merchants or with a newspaper. All it needs is a little money and a lot of hustling. The bait is a two weeks' trip to some resort, with hotel and railroad thrown in. A due bill on the hotel can be promoted in return for an advertising display in program, on screen or in lobby. Transportation through the general passenger agent of the road. Kick in with little cash for spending money. Announce the trip as going to the person who receives the most coupons or votes. On a lone hand, the votes are given with ticket sales. With a newspaper, ticket votes are given by the house, and the paper gives a certain number of votes for a three or six months' subscription. If the merchants are interested, they give votes with purchases, and should make a small payment for each vote. It is often possible to add the offer of a suit or dress, handbag or valise and other gifts suitable for traveling. A trip to a nearby resort will sell tickets, and a jaunt to a more distant and desirable point will build even larger. Work on the usual balloting lines, but do not allot by chance. □ — Juvenile Athletes With the vacation season many cities devote their school yards to recreational centers to keep the children off the streets. It is a simple matter in most instances to tie up to this project with an athletic league, sponsored by the theater and conducted bv those having charge of the playgrounds. A few medals just before school opens again gives a talking point that will last all summer. Often this stunt can be broken into a newspaper where contests and similar hook-ups have been done to death. The circulation manager and the editor may see nothing in a week's contest, but they will appreciate an eight or ten weeks' feature that will appeal to children and parents alike. With the paper in, it may also be possible to promote other prizes from the merchants. If it can be arranged, talks by athletic coaches at matinees should further build the kid patronage. Theater parties each week for the playground showing the best results is another help, but the scheme has all kinds of angles. □ — Soda Fountains Here is a good stunt for small towns and neighborhoods, tied in with a popular soda fountain. It is a combination ticket good for a certain number of sodas, fashioned after the style of a meal ticket with punch spaces for each nickel, to permit a choice in ordering.The ticket is sold at face value by the soda fountain. When all of the holes are punched, it is good for one admission to the theater. An ad for your theater is carried in the center of the ticket. □ — County Fair If you are in a rural community, stage a Progressive County Fair. Small cash prizes are offered by local merchants for the heaviest pumpkins, potato, best ear of corn and largest apple. All exhibits are to be brought to the theater during a specified week to fit the various crops, starting on a Friday. The winners are selected from the first entries and placed on a table in the foyer with the name of the entrant and the weight. If a larger entry turns up, the new entry is given the place of honor. There will be several substitutions during the week, which will keep up the excitement. The whole idea is to get the farmers into town from the back roads so that the merchants can benefit from their trade. Prizes are distributed from the stage the Saturday following the contest. 692