The film daily year book of motion pictures (1936)

Flashy Animals • YOU'RE sure to play a number of adventure and wild animal pictures during the season. For one stunt try this out Cut a piece oi compo board to fit one of your large frames. Paint it a deep black. Then glue to the board as many animal crackers os it 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 will no doubt ask where these shiny little animol toys may be secured, but don't let on. Say that you received the display from New York. This frame may be used in a local store window or in a hotel lobby. Airplane Aces • CASH in on the popularity of airplane travel and the interest in airplane model building. Tie-up with a department store and display a number of models made by amateurs. Copy in the window should read that the winning display will be exhibited in the lobby of your theater and that free passes will be given the victors. Have as judges some local aviator and the head of the toy department of the store. Be sure to mention that each model will be returned to its owner, at the end of the contest This gives the merchant a chance to not only display his other toys in the window but the children will enter the store to secure the return of their model. Sports Equipment • MANY store owners should be glad to co-operate with you on this one. It is to be used in advance and during the showing of any outdoor picture. The store window is dressed to represent an outdoor camping ground, a fish stream or the sidelines of any popular sports contest. He should use plenty of equipment. It is all for sale in his store. In the center of the display place about 10 stills from the film and a few star stills. It's a swell tie-up and means extra business for all. Amateur Display • ARRANGE with a local art or pictureframing store to display in the store window, display cards made by local amateurs. The previous week, run a slide on your screen announcing the contest which should be for art work on the following week's attraction or a coming attraction. Amateur artists are told to put their ideas of the proper art display on 20 X 40 cards. Give prizes. Millinery Contest • EVERY millinery shop in town will be in on this tie-up which provides for each store to make up, or select from stock, their "ace" creation. The women who wear the hats most becomingly, receive the bonnets as prizes. Only one hat to a person. Hold the contest on the stage and allow your audience, through applause, to select the winners. Before the contest display prominently in your lobby a large frame listing the stores that are in the tie-up. They in turn display the usual theater credit in their windows. Newspaper tie-ups on this one can come in ot the pay-off when the winners are chosen. Clown Stunt • A GOOD clown can hold the afternoon shoppers in suspense with this one. In the store window the clown attendant affixes cutout letters to an easel announcing the attraction. He carefully spells out the title of the feature, and turns to the audience. As he does so, the letters fall to the ground. He expresses surprise at the laughter of the crowd, tiims, sees the letters on the floor, and starts all over again. The trick is this: The panel on the easel is of fine wire cloth. A vacuum cleaner is hitched to an cdr-tight box in back of it, creating a suction that holds the letters in place. In front of the easel is a switch that the clown works with his foot to shut off the CTirrent. This eases the suction, and the letters falL Stocking Parade • ONE of the old reliables that always gets them. A department store window is used, with the curtain pulled down to a little less than knee high, with the space lettered for the picture. Six chorus girls are employed to sit in the window. For a time they do a tap dance in unison, while seated. Then one after the other they change stockings, and model the new pair until all six are in motion. After the show, the curtain is pulled all the way down till the crowd disperses. Window Tapper • AN effective window tapper to call attention to a display can be made with an electric bell with the gong removed. This is placed in the window in such a position that the hammer barely touches the glass, and is wired to a battery with a switch instead of a push button. Throwing the switch will give a gentle tapping that will get attention even from the engrossed, and a single cell battery will ring the bell for a couple of days or more, according to its hours in use. The same gag can be used to beat a drum or vibrate a cymbal for a noisemaker in the lobby if the noise will not penetrate the auditorium. Expert Make-up • ADAPTED either for a furniture store or beauty shop. The window setting is that of a boudoir, with a beauty specialist during 856