The film daily year book of motion pictures (1937)

bui about three white bulbs should be used to each green, unless the green is very light. Safe-Crackers if GOOD lor any theater catering to the ac ticn trade and the youngsters, when playing a crime picture. Promote a safe from some store. Place if at lobby front facing the street. Place a sign on it offering cash prize to anyone who can open it. Nearly every kid in town will try it, and a lot of the elders. It will direct a lot of interest to the front oi your house. Foreign Players if A NEAT sfunt to sell the important foreign film star who is little known to your audience, ft applies specially to the present flood of worthy British pictures with some good players featured. Take a news story out of the pressbook, or better still, a bona fide news stcry that the home office of the distributor can supply from a newspaper write-up. Make a blowup of the story, and spot it on a lobby beard near the box-office. Special Lobby Displays if WHERE you are averse to using lithos in your lobby display because it tends to cheapen, still there are exceptions. Parts of many one-sheets would look well if cut out and mounted on card, with the lettering put in by hand. They might look even better if mounted on board, then cut out and the edge stained red or silvered. This will even go for three-sheets, if they are well done. SHI) more can be done in the way of cutouts with the better type pressbooks where the color printing is ahead of anything offered by the company for accessory use. Sometimes the front and back covers of such pressbooks offer better art than the average theater sign room can supply. And it doesn't cost anything except the trouble oi using scissors and paste. A good sign man can often save his house money by using his imagination more and his paint brush less. Cast Boards if Something that will be appreciated by a majority of your patrons is the Cast Board. It is made to fit one of the lobby frames, and gives the cast of the current showing. Most patrons cannot remember the names, particularly when they are flashed only before the showings. They will stop and study out the who's who, and if there is mention of the underline, they'll get that idea too. This is not worth much unless it is used regularly, and patrons get the habit of stopping to glance ever it on the way out. Summer Fireplace if Set up a fireplace in the lobby during the hct spell, with an electrical coal effect. Set it in a darkened corner of the lobby with a one-sheet against the backing. Those who investigate this winter utility in the hot season are greeted with a breeze from the cooling plant. The cool Sire will be talked about in town. Every stranger is run up against the gag, and the word-of-mouth advertising is very effective. The only cost is the cold air. You can promote a coal dealer to pay for the installation in return for a reminder that now is the time to lay in the winter coal. Door of Curiosity if Pick up a door and frame at the local housewrecking yard. Place at side wall of lobby. Back of the door place a board with sales copy. Scores of people will open the door, in accordance with a lettered invitation: "To see the title of next week's show, open the door." Door has a spring to hold it closed. Weighing Machine if Here is a good variation on the coin operated device for a lobby atfractor without the usual procedure of throwing off the coin control. Have the weighing machine issue a specially prepared card on which is stamped the proper weight and a non-committal fortune which ends with a prophecy that the holder will see the coming attraction. Instead of tricking the scale, have a uniformed attendant stand beside the machine and insert a coin az each person steps on the scale platform. This gives the stunt a lot of swank. Attractive Points if Every theater manager knows that the most effective billing for coming attractions is to place it on the lobby mirrors, for this is the spot that invariably attracts the women. In like manner the men can be interested. Place cigar lighters at either side of the lobby, placed right in the center of announcements for the next attraction. While the men pause to light up on the way out, they are sure to learn all about the new feature. A trial for a few weeks will easily prove its worth. Crazy Week if This method can be used on occasions to jazz up house fronts and gather a Utile extra business. Seme exhibitors work it with a stage show by booking in films that are out of the ordinary and then going lunatic in the lobby. One theater has as lobby exhibits (he old "invisible goldfish." the goose that laid the golden eggs and similar fooleries. Another had all the posters upside down or on a slant, with the back of the box-office to the street and a clown to officiously conduct the purchaser from the ticket window to the doorman if the crowd was coming slowly. It is just another case of suggesting novelty by a different sort of lobby. S80