The Exhibitor (1956)

14 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 1955-56 SERIES Final lists 1 In Contest No. 78 George Nonamaker Editor " Friendly Persuasion' Woos Sweeps Judges Philadelphia— Dick Kline’s entry on how he used some friendly persuasion to sell Allied Artists’ “Friendly Persuasion” has won this week’s $100 SHOWMAN¬ SHIP SWEEPSTAKES contest 78 award. The entries covered another kiddie promotion and tieup and how to cash in on Elvis Presley without playing the 20th-Fox picture by the name of “Love Me Tender,” among others. As one of the judges remarked: “All entries are good this week.” WINNING SNTRY SHMBBi "FRIENDLY PERSUASION" Submitted by Dick Kline Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio 620 seats • 90 cents top admission General patronage. We started to brag about this picture a month ahead of playdate with a special lobby piece made up from stills. Badges were worn by the staff and 150 bumper strips were placed on cars, a few on the theatre front, the candy machine and other spots around the house. A teaser letter was used on the Satur¬ day theatre page two weeks in advance telling that I had seen a preview of the picture and that I recommended it. A teaser trailer was run two weeks in advance and regular trailer 10 days in advance. We had a 30x40 still board with quotes from national magazines out front two weeks ahead of playdate. Our biggest advance tieup was with a local disc jockey for 13 days ahead of opening. He played music from the pic¬ ture, plugged the film, mentioned the playdates and the theatre, etc., and the fact that he would broadcast the opening night from the lobby of the theatre from seven to 10 p.m. He practically saturated the air with “Friendly Persuasion.” He appealed to all the Pat Boone fan club members to turn out. There are 800 regis¬ tered names. He played the “Friendly Persuasion” record so much that he act¬ ually was reported creating a local de¬ mand for it. The opening night broadcast was terrific. I would say 70 per cent of the opening night business was teenagers. The lobby was packed. They had to have a ticket before they got in. They danced under the marquee. He interviewed them coming in, going out, and had them drive past the theatre and let him know if they were listening by blowing their horns. The Pat Boone Fan Club president was present. Al Kane, left, United Artists branch manager in Washington, recently presented Jack Foxe, right, Loew's, with $375 check for his campaign on UA's "Alexander The Great," which tied for first place in MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR'S SHOWMANSHIP SWEEPSTAKES contest. Taking part in the presentation is Orville Crouch, Loew's eastern division manager. Foxe staged the cam¬ paign when he was manager, Loew's Capitol, Washington, but he is now public relations di¬ rector of the circuit's Washington theatres. Many favorable comments were over¬ heard, including some saying they be¬ lieved we had bought the radio station, judging by the amount of advertising we received. We held the first special screening the town has had for years, and invited the clergy, the mayor, librarians, educators, others. For the first time we managed to get an announcement made in the schools and a special memo went to all school bulletin boards inviting teachers to the screening. The screening was well at¬ tended and we had two cakes decorated with “Try Friendly Persuasion” on dis¬ play in the lobby, where they were served after the showing with Coke and mints by our staff, who wore corsages built around the “Friendly Persuasion” badges. Comment on the film was truly wonderful, and those present expressed surprise at the reception. Special treatment in all ads featuring “double your money back guarantee” if not satisfied — definitely got results. Jn fact, in five days the house record was broken for any picture ever played. Lines, lines, lines. Now word of mouth is doing the rest. RUNNER-UP NUMBER T BIDS FROM THE KIDS Submitted by Howard A. Young Rialto, Peoria, III. 1500 seats • 85 cents top admission General patronage. This might be called merchandising the kids back into the theatre and getting paid for doing it. It is the Producers’ Dairy “Bids From The Kids” auction held at the theatre. The dairy provides one grand prize, a bicycle or something similar, each week plus several other lesser prizes. Kids at¬ tending the auction with their sacks of accumulated points bid for the prizes. So that those with just a few points won’t be discouraged, at least one boy’s prize and one girl’s prize are given to anyone who has 25 points or more and is pointed to when a hidden bell rings. The kids raise their hands and an announcer counts up to 25 as he points to different ones. The one he is pointing to when the bell rings, wins the prize for 25 points or less. The prizes are displayed on the stage and the master of ceremonies, assisted by two traveling mikes in the audience, conducts the bidding. This auction is broadcast over WMBD radio direct. After the auction low priced kids items like yo-yo’s, gliders, model airplanes, etc., are sold to the children for 25 points, by the dairy, in order to keep the kids who won’t go to the effort necessary to accum¬ ulate several thousand points from being discouraged. Admission for the movie following the auction and lobby sales is 25 points. The house is emptied and the points collected at the door before the start of the movie. Regular customers may pay admission as usual. The dairy’s promotion of the stunt is on radio, television, and in their newspaper advertising. A direct radio broadcast is made from the theatre using radio per¬ sonnel; and all radio advertising also promotes the auction and “movietime.” All TV time used by the dairy also pro¬ motes the stunt; and they use our two TV stations every day, sponsoring spots on one station and news on the other. The dairy kicked off the kids stunt with a series of fairly large newspaper ads using one 72 inch ad in color, then settled down to running four inches per week on Fri¬ days attached to the theatre ad. We run an ad on the screen; have a board in the lobby promoting the feature. We receive $75 rental for the theatre and house staff, a kids feature film and cartoons. House opens at 10:30 a.m. Attendance for the auction averages about 150 to 200 kids with a take of from 10,000 to 25.000 points depending upon the quality of the prizes. This must be thought of in terms of 10,000 to 25,000 quarts of milk. Lobby sales of the small items at 25 points each adds another 3,000 to 5,000 points. Movietime attend¬ ance averages 400 to 600 each week or 10,000 to 15,000 points. This means that for one and one-half years an average of 31,000 points or quarts of milk or pounds of cottage cheese have been coming in every week to this theatre. To go further that is two and one-half million points in the year and a half that this has been in existence — plus — thousands of points that are saved and lost or are still being saved and haven’t come in yet — plus the selling effect that thousands of little salesmen (the kids saving points) have on the dairy business in this city. The theatre gets the additional revenue, makes movie customers out of the new TV generation. They, in turn, resell the older lost audience on coming back to the December 26, 1956