The Exhibitor (1959)

October 7, 1959 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 31 * CARDINAL GIANT GC-45 THE COMMIT! • 001 A book that tells the fascinating stories behind the headlines — stories of saboteurs, spies, communists and gangsters! DON WHITEHEAD WITH A FOREWORD BY ~*J. EDGAR HOOVER This nationwide best seller has b< into an exciting movie starring Jai and Vera Miles in a Mervyn Le Ro; for Warner Bros, in Technicolor. Chip Hardesty is the FBI man whose adventures span two continents and whose love story is a wonderful motion picture all by itself. OTHER BOOK TIE-UPS can be built around a 25 cent cut-rate for the front cover of the "paper-back." And the Dell comic book, awarded to the first 100 youngsters. AGAIN THINKING about that female and family audience, in addition to the males and action lovers, Mr. Osborne suggests using elements from the big six and seven column ads as single entities. He also likes the family approach in 1-col Mat No. 114 (140 lines). There is a very good rea¬ son why ‘THE FBI STORY’ is considered such a wonder¬ ful motion picture. Rarely within memory has the screen offered as much excitement combined with such an abun¬ dance of warmth and humor. While it is ‘the FBI story’ it is at the same time the happy, sometimes bitter-sweet story of the growing pains of the family of Special Agent Chip Hardesty. Women especially will love this family and love THE FBI STORY STARRING JAMES STEWART as Chip Hardesty, the mjn behind the badge VERA MILES as Lucy Hardesty, the girl behind the man aWARNER BROS, picture TECHNICOLOR* aMERVYN liROYproduction Screenplay by RICHARD L BREEN and JOHN TWIST LOTS] Directed by MERVYN UROV • tta t, m stoker KcaV appeal to youngsters at a very small cost. If you can afford to offer an additional 100 toy FBI badges to early birds, so much the better. B— If you have a local FBI organization, it is of course listed in the phone book. The agents in charge of these offices are most happy to cooperate with you in promoting the picture as long’ as they do not per¬ sonally become involved. For example, they should have on hand, placards showing the “Ten Most Wanted” criminals. With some advance notice and planning, they probably can dig up some large photo¬ graphs of the FBI laboratory, the basic finger prints, bullet enlargements, etc., which will make a good lobby display for the weeks in advance of the picture. This same display can be utilized during the run of the picture in an available store window away from the theatre. All this is good attention getting stuff, hut I feel it is most important to remember that the angles which really sell the picture are the emotional and human appeal elements which are top entertainment for the whole family. If you oversell the guns and gangland sides of the picture, you will alienate a certain percentage of your customers. C— If you are in the mood to create some fine public relations, have a private screening for policemen and their wives, and other law enforcement officers too. If your cops are friendly, cooperative, and willing to help when you need them, here is a fine opportunity to show appreciation for their valuable services. Right now, our local hospital has about 50 new student nurses just starting in. We will probably invite them to come in a group as our guests to the movie. Many of them are from out of town so the party will ac¬ quaint them with the location and hospitality of our theatre. They should help create good word-of-mouth impressions of the female angles in “THE FBI STORY.” D— You should know best how to use local radio, TV, and newspaper time and space to the best advantage. Ordinarily, I figure that 85 per cent of our advertising budget should go into newspapers. However, a local “Back-to-SchooF promotion on radio, or a portable TV giveaway on TV7 sometimes veers us off this percentage formula. Should you have a local disc jockey who has the imagination to tape up appealing and compelling radio spots (as contrasted to just standard radio announcements), maybe radio or TV has a more important position in your budget than ours for “THE FBI STORY.” If you offer passes as prizes for contests and promotions in connection with the picture, you will be offering passes to a picture which will stand out as superior entertainment. I congratulate Warners on bringing out “THE FBI STORY” at a time when we really can use it.