The Exhibitor (1956)

28 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR George Nonamaker Editor Rock W Roll Bandwagon Carries Florida Exhib To Sweeps Victory Philadelphia — This week’s SHOWMAN¬ SHIP SWEEPSTAKES winner, A. K. Rothschild, Roosevelt, Jacksonville, Fla., made an early jump on to the rock ’n’ roll bandwagon; the ride not only paid off in added receipts at his theatre but in the eyes of the judges of contest 75, who have voted him winner of the weekly Motion Picture Exhibitor’s $100 prize. WINNING ENTRY ROCK /N/ ROLL TALENT CONTEST Submitted by Arv K. Rothschild Roosevelt, Jacksonville, Fla. 1200 seats • 50 cents top admission General patronage. We really had the place rockin’ with this stage contest, which ran every Friday night for 15 weeks. Three sponsors put up a total of $1,000 in cash; and a popu¬ lar local disc jockey on station WRHC was named contest director and master of ceremonies. Entry blanks were dis¬ tributed throughout the community for three weeks prior to opening night. A four piece combo accompanied all entries. The only cost to the theatre was adver¬ tising including window cards, marquee banners, heralds, and lobby display. Every week for 12 weeks, six or seven sets from among the entries were audi¬ tioned on Friday morning for that same night’s show. Audience applause selected the first prize winner each week. This gave us 12 prize winners at the end of 12 weeks. These were divided into two groups of six each for the semi-finals, held on the 13th and 14th weeks. Three top acts in each semi-final went into the grand finals and competed the 15th week. Professional judges, radio, TV people, school music teachers, etc., selected the finals and rated the six acts. Grand prizes in the finals were $150, $100, $75, $50, $25, and $20. In addition all finalists received con¬ tracts for auditioning with three different recording companies tied in for the event. Widespread publicity was given the contest by local press, radio and disc jockeys and local civic groups. We started the contest in the middle of summer and despite the hot weather the opening night resulted in a capacity house with every available inch of stand Columbia's "Saucer" Flies By With No "Earthly" Winner PHILADELPHIA — The $500 prize Columbia posted for the best campaign submitted on “Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers” in SHOWMANSHIP SWEEPSTAKES expires with this issue with¬ out anyone being judged the winner. There were four different tries for for the money but the judges placed them second once, fourth twice, and fifth once in various weekly contests. ing room taken by 7:45 p.m., although the contest did not go on the stage until nine p.m., following the movie program. The second week, six policemen were required to control crowds in front of theatre attempting to buy tickets after we had to close the boxoffice; and the third week was the same as the second, with more than 1500 people turned away after we admitted 1600 people into the 1200-seat theatre. Sponsors were delighted with their stage plugs, screen trailers, and general publicity they receive in the community. We have found it paid us splendidly to get with the rock ’n’ roll craze. It was boxoffice magic for us and we found it can be capitalized along the lines of the old amateur nights. Just change ye olde name to “Rock ’N Roll Talent Contest” then go hire some cops to control the crowds who will jam your boxoffice with money in their hands. RUNNER-UP NUMBER 1 KIDDIES PROMOTIONS Submitted by Frank Sabatini Lake, Fort William, Ontario, Canada; and Gordon Carson, Fort, Fort William, Ontario, Canada Lake — 455 seats; Fort — 582 seats 50 cents top admission in both houses General patronage. With the Lake in the East End of Fort William; and the Fort in the West End of the city, both neighborhood houses and far enough apart to be non-competitive, joint promotion quite often affords an opportunity for both managers to work closely together which enables us to save costs in printing and other minor ways; and adds impetus to the promotion when both houses are offering the coverage. Our policy is to run each program three days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with a matinee on Saturday. This gives us but one matinee the year ’round, so in the summer we can profit¬ ably promote one matinee for the Monday through Wednesday program as well. We decided on Wednesday as it splits the week in half and because the stores are closed Wednesday afternoons. Our pro¬ motion was the Kiddies 1-2-3-Free Club. The idea was quite simple. Attend three Wednesday matinees in a row and get admitted to the fourth Wednesday matinee free. Membership cards were printed on which the rules of the promo¬ tion were outlined; and it was so made that with each Wednesday matinee at¬ tendance, the card could be properly stamped or punched. We distributed these membership cards at each theatre, 1500 in all, with distribution commencing one week in advance of the opening program. Joint newspaper ads outlining the promo¬ tion were run well in advance. Free popsicles were promoted from a local dairy and were given free to the first 100 kiddies at each theatre each Wednesday matinee. To make the programs more at¬ tractive we booked in one hour of car¬ toons in addition to our regular two fea¬ tures. We had different stage contests for the children promoting prizes from local merchants for winners. With the North American and Canadian yo-yo champions in town during the time of the promotion, they appeared on our stages treating the kids to a display of yo-yo tricks as well as holding yo-yo contests for big prizes. They appeared on several of our Wednes¬ day as well as Saturday matinees. Results were excellent. Both theatres were filled each Wednesday; and on the day the kiddies received their free show we did almost as much at the boxoffice as the previous three Wednesdays; and did exceptionally better at the confection bar. With the completion of this summer matinee promotion, we set out on a “Back To School Theatre Party” held jointly on the first Saturday in Septem¬ ber prior to the opening of schools. We sold several neighborhood merchants in each location on the idea of giving free theatre tickets with the purchase of back to school items. The merchants then paid for all turned in at the boxoffice. Adver¬ tising was placed in each store and co-op ads run two weeks in advance. Lobby dis¬ plays were set and screen advertising used with announcements made from the stage at every opportunity. The regular Saturday show was used for this “theatre party.” This consists of cartoons and serial in addition to our two regular fea¬ tures, and special stage activity. Both theatres were packed with almost all the kids having come with “Back To School Theatre Party” tickets, so you might say that through this promotion both our theatres were sold out in advance for the Saturday matinee — and the con¬ fection bar sales in both theatres almost doubled a good Saturday matinee take. Both of these promotions proved profit¬ able to us and the participating merchants were quite pleased as they had an un¬ precedented sale on back to school items mainly due to this promotion. December 5, 1956