The film daily year book of motion pictures (1937)

Dancing Class if Good for neighborhood houses. Hire a hoofer to teach hoofing from the stage in a len-minute demonstration twice a week. He has two ostensible pupils two good looking girls in rehearsal rompers. All of the lesson is addressed to them, but it is phrased to tell the audience what to do. The stunt costs little, as the girls are glad to appear for the lessons they get and a chance to get on a stage. The grown-ups will enjoy it as much as the juveniles. And it breaks the monotony of the all-film show. New Dances if With so many musicals introducing new dance steps, try this one as a natural. Tie up with the local newspaper or dance hall, or run the stunt alone. Announce a prize for the couple that best dances the number shown in the picture. Hold the contest on your stage. Have sketches of the dance reprinted from fhe press sheet and hand out to local dance halls and schools. Announce it on your screen with a slide. Applications to come to the box-office. Hold the stunt on an off night. No free passes admitted. Everyone pays. Christmas Show if Following the Christmas Eve or Christmas Night show, you can stags a colorful treelighting and carol singing period. Advertise it well and think up as many pleasing stunts for the occasion as you can. Time the show so that af midnight "Silent Night" is sung with the tree gradually being lighted until it blazes into a myriad of colored lights. Permit gifts for the needy children in your community to be strewn around the tree and make the presentation at the time of the stunt or have them distributed the following day. If you have room, fix up a plaster scene of the Nativity. Report Card Stunt if Advise members of the kiddie club that during the spring term all youngsters who can show an A report card will be introduced from the stage and given a prize (of nominal cost). Secure the cooperation of school teachers and local educators. Send around a pamphlet or card telling of Ihe stunt. Set the afternoon or night performance in keeping with the desires of the teachers. On the night of the rewards it is very probable that your theatre will be filled with scholars and their parents. Announce that the same contest for an A report card will be repeated later in the term of the following term and that children winning twice will be given a medal. For Boys and Girls Only if If you want to jolt some of the town's civic and religious leaders into noticing your theater, advertise a show "For Boys Only" to be followed in one week by a show "For Girls Only." Saturday mornings are the best times to present the shows. You will possibly get visits from ministers, etc., asking what you mean by a "For Boys Only" show. Of course the boy's show consists of an action western, a cartoon, a boy's comedy, etc. The girl's show is selected according to their desires. At the latter show you can have candymaking instruction. Charge a nominal admission for the morning shows. Treasure Hunt if A different slant to the treasure hunt. Split it into two sections — one for cyclists and the other pedestrians. Both start from the theater, but work in opposite directions, one toward a big lot about two miles from the theater and the other heading for a farm in the country. In both cases metal tokens are used to represent the treasure. The tokens are numbered, and all that is known is that the numbers do not represent the position of the prize. Number one may be near the bottom of the list, with the top prize going to a high number. Prizes and numbers are the same in both hunts, so that only a single list has to be prepared. This is unveiled after the hunt is over, the prizes being presented at the night performance. Clues are colors, and to make it interesting, have some of them more or less hidden, as the red in a store sign for fhe red route and a blue awning for the alternate. Where there is no color permanently located, streamers must be affixed. Fan Mail Club if Start this by soliciting members with a trailer on your screen. Those who sign up for the club receive a personal letter accepting their membership and explaining aim of the fan mail group. Plan is to arrange from time to time for letters direct from picture stars to club members, occasional star photos sent free to members, and weekly card or mailing piece on coming show. The letter contains request for member's birth date without revealing reason for wanting that bit of information. Club members will receive a brace cf guest tickets on their birthday. Here is a stunt particularly good for neighborhood spots. Theater Anniversary if For ycur anniversary, try to get the mayor, or some ether local celeb, on the stage for the special program. Your local editor can stress the advance in quality of entertainment since the opening year of your theater. A musical program should be offered, with a current singer and a revival of the old illustrated song, if slides can be obtained. It shculd be possible to get someone to circulate an album in which all of the townsfolk subscribe to a resolution of good will to the manager, and of course, he is taken by surprise at the presentation ceremonies. Another good gag is to offer tickets for the best recollections of the theater's opening night."