The film daily year book of motion pictures (1940)

women's angle, an additional campaign was set about the new Korda film discovery, June Duprez. That this campaign was highly successful is shown by the fact that "Four Feathers" is proving to be one of the biggest money-makers ever to have come out of England. Newspaper publicity was centered upon the discovery, in New York, of a group of veterans of the British Army who had fought with Kitchener at Omdurman. These men, after seeing the picture in advance of the premiere, vouched for the authenticity of story and location. An outstanding publicity stunt was the one the Associated Press liked so well — the idea of a story on the three Korda brothers. They ordered the interview from London, and it was used by nearly 1,000 newspapers in the United States alone. Picture layouts and stories in the American Weekly, Life and Look were planted to augment the regular newspaper publicity campaign. The exploitation campaign on "Four Feathers" was made to order for stunts of all kinds. In New York, helium-filled balloons were spotted at important vehicular and pedestrian traffic points. These balloons carried picture and theater copy. An extra "break" came when one of the balloons broke away during a heavy wind, and floated all over the city, coming down in an airshaft of a Mulberry Street tenement house. Quill pens, the holders made up of four different colored feathers were sent to all circuit theater heads, to the trade and lay press, and were extensively used by theaters as a giveaway. A huge float, showing dervishes attacking the fort with British soldiers defending (12 men being used in all), was a part of the campaign. Three 30-foot trucks carrying 24-sheets drove all over New York, paying particular attention to beaches and baseball games. These were used for one week. Enlisting the aid of Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Boy Scouts and other organizations to participate in premieres, with their own bands, always made the openings everywhere very colorful afairs. The game of Darts was exceeding popular at this time, and a special exploitation giveaway, in the form of a target, (just large enough for use in a game room), together with four darts each having a different colored feather, was sent to the same people who received the quill pens. From the fashion exploitation angle. June Duprez was played up wherever a break was possible. Jaeger's, famous London woolen house, was interested, and a series of pictures taken in color, in London, got good breaks in papers throughout this country. Univer sal's Campaign On "The Uider-pup" ONE hundred and eighty-six thousand words were filed over telegraph lines from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to newfpapers all over the country by 78 correspondents who had just witnessed the film debut of eleven-year-old Gloria Jean in Universal's "The Under-Pup." The week running up to the premiere had seen as many more words dispatched in addition to a half-dozen Associated Press and United Press stories which printed in probably every good-sized town in the land. The above results, recorded in a press book nearly a foot thick, were the consummation of the critics' junket instituted by Universal to introduce Gloria, practically unknown beforehand, to film fans. Decision to bring the critics to Scranton, the little star's hometown, for the premiere, was made about three weeks before release of the picture. In that period nearly 100 invitations were sent to the reviewers, complete preparations for Scranton's enthusiastic reception were made, and trans portation arrangements completed that involved two special trains, 42 plane movements and almost 100 separate train reservations. The out-of-town scribes were housed at the St. Moritz Hotel in New York, lavishly entertained in the metropolis and transported to Scranton by chartered, air-conditioned special train. On their return to New York, they were feted at the World's Fair, taken to the pick of the Broadway shows and night clubs and sent home by any type of transportation 808