Year book of motion pictures (1935)

MILLINERY CONTEST Line up as many millinery stores in town as possible. They all get a good break, and should be eager to come in. Each store makes up, or selects from stock, their leading creation. The women who wear the hats the most effectively and becomingly, receive the hats as prizes. Of course only one hat to any contestant. The contest is held on your stage. Winners are decided by audience applause. Before the contest display prominently in your lobby a large frame listing the stores that are in the tieup. They in turn display the usual theater announcement in their windows. A newspaper can be tied in at the end with the announcement of the contest winners, and possibly published photographs. CAMPING Use on any feature with an outdoor atmosphere. Good for tie-in with a sporting goods store or department store, especially during the camping season. The window is dressed to show a camping site in the woods or alongside a stream. The display includes blankets, cook stove, wind breakers, guns, canoe, fishine tackle, etc. Use a painted background of a forest scene, with the tent and a fire in foreground. Stills from the feature hook it up to your theater. EXPERT MAKE-UP Adapted eithpr for a furniture store or beauty shop. The window setting is that of a boudoir, with a beauty specialist during noon hours gwing demonstrations on expert makeup. This one ties in with some cosmetic being advertised heavily, with the window card stating that this cosmetic is used by the star in your feature. MYSTERY HOUSE A good novelty to plav on a mystery feature. A window is secu'pd in an emotv store. Have a model made of the mysterv house similar to the one in the feature attraction. Ribbons of various colors run from th»» different windows of the house, with cards pasted at the other ends explainine the various mvstcrious elements leading up to the mystery. This is a great stunt to arouse the curiosity of the window-lookers, and creates an urge to see your feature. ANIMAL CRACKERS Made to orHor for a wild animal picture. Cut a oiece of compo board to fit one of vour large frames. Paint it a deep black. Then glue to the board as many animal crackers as if will hold. The crackers must first be prepared in this fashion: Shellac the back of each cracker so that it will hold to the glue. Then silver paint the display side of each cracker. No one will guess that the display came from the grocery store. The folks no doubt will ask where these shiny little animal toys may be secured, but don't let on. You can say that you received the display from some nearby city. LOCAL BEAUTIES The students of a local school select the six prettiest girls by pop. vote. Photos of each winner are displayed in a photographer's window. In the copy, mention that an autographed photograph of any movie star selected by each one of the girls will be given as prixes. These photographs can be secured from the publicity department of the company home offices. The newspaper can tie in nicely with this stunt by running the photos. You can go further by having one grand prize for the prettiest girl in the group. HOPE CHEST A Hope Chest is displayed empty in the lobby, with a card advising that certain stores are going to contribute one article apiece to the chest. The contestants are required to visit the windows of these stores, and try to guess which articles displayed in the various windows will be contributed. About eight merchants are needed to put this one over. Contest cards are distributed by the stores and the theater, to be filled in with the guesses of the contestants. MILEAGE ESTIMATES This applies on a feature with an auto racing sequence or similar atmosphere. Use it in auto dealer's window, who supplies a medium priced car for an estimate on mileage contest. The car is jacked up, and contestants required to estimate the number of miles the car would run in three days. The store distributes the estimate cards. Interest merchants to donate prizes to those making the closest estimates. SEALED BIDS A novelty stunt to help the dealer dispose of two or three trade-in radios that he has on hand. The dealer announces a "silent auction," with anyone interested requested to drop a sealed bid in a box provided for that purpose at the theater lobby. On Saturday evening the bids are opened, and the sets delivered to the highest bidders from the stage. This stunt can be worked on a variety of articles that any dealer is trying to move off his shelves. nSH BOWL This one will have everybody guessing. It will not be hard to interest a dealer to make this window display. Place a large aquarium in the window with about a dozen fish of various sizes. Near one end of the tank have a wooden hoop about three inches in diameter. The stunt is, that anyone seeing a fish swim