The Exhibitor (1955)

14 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 1955-56 SERIES Finalists In Contest No. 27 George Nonamaker Editor Atomic Age Reaches Sweepstakes As "Uraniam" Entry Takes $100 Philadelphia — The winner of this week’s contest in SHOWMANSHIP SWEEPSTAKES turns out to be Richard R. Rook, Rook, Cheyenne, Okla., whose entry “Selling Via Uranium” found favor with the majority of the 50 judges. His $100 check from MOTION PICTURE EXHIBI¬ TOR is on its way to him. Some of our judges have been giving their opinions in connection with recent contest entries, other than just checking off selections for winners. One judge re¬ marked; “The entries are all good. It’s been much harder to select prize winners lately. This week’s entries are particu¬ larly attractive since several are very small town with low advertising budgets.” Another judge has told us, “Entries have improved. Competition is good among the contestants. The last few contests have been hard to select winners.” This indicates that, as intended, SHOW¬ MANSHIP SWEEPSTAKES is the best contest of its kind ever lom by the trade press. These tried and proven showman¬ ship stunts, particularly those okay for the small towns and small theatres that operate on low ad-publicity budgets, are definitely of value to all theatremen. WINNING ENTRY SELLING VIA URANIUM Submined by Richard R. Rook Rook, Cheyenne, Okla. 375 seats * 45 cents top odmission Small town and rural patronage. This town of 1,200 population recently had a uranium strike which set the whole county buzzing. Geiger counters have be¬ come rather common as everybody wanted to check their own land. This “uranium fever’” set the stage for one of my promotions. I mixed crushed uranium ore with my paste and the count¬ ers fairly jumped out of people’s hands when held up next to Doris Day in a special lobby poster. There were a good many jokes about the “hottest” thing in town. WKY-TV came out from Oklahoma City to do a story on the uranium strike and they took quite a lot of footage of this display, and it was shown all over Oklahoma on TV. Two weeks prior to opening, I made a lobby board with magazine reviews I had saved on the film. The magazines used were Life, Coronet, Look, Colliers, News¬ week, and the Daily Oklahoman, a news¬ paper. The board was red and black. Also, two weeks before playdate we increased our newspaper ads to give “ad¬ vance word about a very fine picture.” I also made a six-sheet board framed by 40 watt lights. Flasher buttons were be¬ hind each bulb causing a very nice effect day and night. To the right of the display I had a phonograph which played the title song from the picture. So I had art work, sound, and movement, the flashing lights, all in one. Added art display was featured in back of the concession stand, including cut¬ outs of the stars; and a tie-up was made with a local drugstore with a home-made cardboard display in red and black read¬ ing “He’ll Love You Not Leave You! Shop Locally For These Beauty-Aid Specials.” Being in a small town, our exploitation budget is pretty limited. The cost of this entire campaign came to less than $5.00. The newspaper space, pretty extensive in this case, is a swap arrangement we have with the paper — passes for space. The picture, of course, was “Love Me Or Leave Me.” Being a musical with the word “love” in the title, it would have fallen flat out here. The resulting gross, however, was about 140 per cent of normal. RUNNER-UP NUMBER 1 ^ "A MAN CALLED PETER" Submitted by Harvey A. Gifford Kee, Kiester, Minn. 250 seats * 50 cents top adult admission Village and rural patronage. Being a small town of 550 people and the last in the area to play this film, I knew that I would have to do something extra to “draw them in” and find the audience that had not gone to three nearby towns to see the picture earlier. I also knew that the campaign must cost less than $15, so here are three ideas I worked out. I contacted local grocery stores and secured permission of the three of them to print advertising on grocery sacks used to pack grocery orders. All stores con¬ sented. Between the three stores I gath¬ ered 2,000 bags; delivered them to the local print shop. On one side of the bag, I had printed a large three-column ad taken from the press book. The cost for the printing was $7.00. The bags were re¬ turned to the stores, and for two weeks prior to playing time, every grocery order leaving these stores carried my ad. Everywhere one looked they could see people walking up and down the street carrying these grocery bags with “A Man Called Peter” ad advertising the show. Needless to say the talk that this caused in this small town was terrific. My second idea was to obtain three sixsheets which were hung at the three grocery stores. I found that the sixsheets, because of their size, were a great attraction “getter,” and well worth their $2.70 cost. In addition, I ordered 1,000 heralds, four by nine inches, at a cost of $3.00. These were distributed by local school bus driv¬ ers, as well as the drivers of school buses in two adjoining towns; and they agreed to have some student in each of their buses hand them out as the children left the bus. Then, on a Sunday morning, when I should have been in church, I started out about 10.00 a.m. and drove like mad to all the church yards in the area and placed a herald in each car parked at the various churches. Perhaps, the crowds this picture at¬ tracted would have been just as great had I sat back and let them come of their own free will, however, the results were so good that I cannot help feel that it was all worth the extra effort, and the town is still talking about the crowds that came to see the film. The total cost of the cam¬ paign was well within my $15 budget, $12.70, to be exact. RUNNER-UP NUMBER 3 LOBBY ART EXHIBIT PLAN Submitted by Caryl Hamburger, manager Film Centre, Baltimore, Md. 960 seats • $1.00 top adult admission Art house and general patronage. With the three-fold purpose of supple¬ menting the theatre’s public relations program, providing interesting lobby dis¬ plays for our patrons, and encouraging the work of local artists, this theatre is spon¬ soring a series of exhibits by local art groups in its foyer and lobby. The policy of group displays, rather than one-man shows, has several advan¬ tages, the exhibits are diversified and usually have some appeal for everyone; more artists have an opportunity to ex¬ hibit and, possibly, even to sell their work; and more people are brought into direct contact with the theatre. During the past year, exhibiting groups have included Artists’ Union, Artists’ Equity, The Lensmen of Baltimore, The January 4, 1956