The Exhibitor (1960)

April 27, I960 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR EX-217 _ _ _ • 1.. APRIL 27 1960 section three A\ri\IL. £.! f I VOL. 63 NO. 23 A CIVIC-CLUBS NUMBER A37 “Dee Day” In Bayonne THEATRE: SW De Witt ADDRESS: Bayonne, N. J. MANAGER: Nyman Kessler With plenty of cooperation from all, we recently staged “Sandra Dee Day” here in Bayonne, N.J. with the Universal star honor¬ ed by the city of her birth. The Mayor, the City Commissioners, Police Department, the school she went to as a child, the Kiwanis Club, the Bayonne Mer¬ chants Board of Trade, the priest who bap¬ tised her, her grandparents, her great-grand¬ father and many other relatives and friends, business men and local store-keepers all participated in one of the biggest celebrations that this town has ever seen. The newspapers all aroimd greater New Jersey gave the event plenty of coverage with thousands and thousands of lines of stories heralding her appearance in advance, as well as the day after “Dee Day” was proclaimed by the Mayor. All this preliminary work was accomplish¬ ed in just seven days — just one week after Universal okayed the planned visit. All in aU, it was an outstanding demon¬ stration of civic cooperation with plenty of love and affection bestowed on a yovmg girl who made good. Practically everyone in Bayonne felt proud of her. Universal News had its cameraman travel arotmd all day with her. Initially, we had a 40x60 enlargement of Miss Dee made up for our front lobby with necessary date announcing the “Day planned in her honor.” Then the marquee annoimcements were put up. After that we ordered a 25x18 foot flag covering the center of the street next to the theatre. It stretched from one side of the street to the other, so all cars could see the announcement. Five days before her arrival, teaser ads were placed on nine different pages, along with other ads. Front page stories were plant¬ ed in local and surrounding city papers. Followed the Mayor’s proclamation of “Dee Day.” Universal’s publicity department cooperated in furnishing pictures of Miss Dee when she was 18 months old, posing with her mother; and another when she was about flve years old. These pictures, plus those contrasting with the way she looks as a glamorous star today, were reprinted in the local newspaper. Another story was used with Sandra and her teacher, to illustrate that she must still continue her education, as her tutor travels with her wherever she goes. On the day before her appearance, we ob¬ tained wonderful cooperation from eight mer¬ chants and the Bayonne Times in a full twopage spread with the top heading reading “Welcome Home, Sandra Dee” stretching all the way across the two pages of co-op ads. Our screen attractions of “Dee” Day were two of the pictixres that led to her stardom. I EXPLOITATION I ACTUAL PROMOTIONS, accomplished by Experienced Theatremen, that can be applied with profit to many other Theatre Situations, This special section Is published every-second-week as a separately bound saveable service to all theatre executive subscribers to MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR. Each such cumulatively numbered saveable section represents current submissions that have been (udged by the Editorial Board as having the originality and ticket selling force to warrant placement in the 1960 SHOWMEN OF THE YEAR CONTEST (explanation elsewhere). It is recommended that theatremen save complete annual consecutively numbered files of these EXPLOITATION sections, and on the last page of each issue will be found a complete cumulative index for the year. Address all communications and submissions to the Editors of MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR, 246-48 N. Clarion St., Philadelphia 7, Pa. Individual ACHIEVEMENT CITATIONS have been issued for each of these: Bayonne, N. J., recently paid tribute to native daughter Sandra Dee with a "Dee Day" high¬ lighted by a showing of U-I's "The Snow Queen" at the DeWitt. Miss Dee is seen on the stage of the theatre with the "Queen of Bayonne," local beauty contest winner. “Stranger In My Arms” and “Restless Years.” The star arrived in Bayonne with police escort to the front of the theatre as she officially cut a tape heralding the opening of the new spring season sponsored by the local merchants’ board of trade. She then visited the school she attended as a child, met the children and members of the board of education in an auditorium ceremony. She was presented with a loving cup and an honorary diploma. Next was a Ivmcheon at the Industrial Y.M.C.A. where she was hon¬ ored by the Kiwanis Club. At each stop she was accompanied by Universal Newsreel cameramen and Bob Brown, master of cere¬ monies and disc jockey, WNTA, Newark, N.J. She was next interviewed by high school editors and the regular press. Next stop, was an autograph session at the Harris Rosenberg Company store, where police es¬ cort really had their hands full and finally had to call a halt as things began to get out of hand due to the mob on hand. Following a short rest, a real welcome home dinner was held at her aimt’s home. This was to have been followed by a parade to the the¬ atre; but the Universal publicity and ex¬ ploitation department sure prayed hard for they had real snow coming down (not artifici^ snow from Hollywood) to help pub¬ licize “Snow Queen,” in which Sandra Dee’s voice is heard as one of the main characters in the cartoon feature. Well, the snow cur¬ tailed the parade; but we had St. Vincent’s Drum and Bugle Corps and 40 sailors from the Bayonne Naval Supply Depot making up an honor guard for the star at the theatre. We had large searchlights outside to give a resemblance of a Hollywood premiere and throngs cheered and cheered as Sandra’s lim¬ ousine arrived and she was escorted into the packed theatre for her personal appear¬ ance. Universal News Reel made up a 12 minute subject of her Bayonne welcome home tom'. We thought enough of it to take a three column X eight inch ad announcing it when it was rushed to us to show. Incidentally, Sandra was so pleased with her trip here that she donated a 16mm print of this to the Board of Education of the City for futme showing in any school or any organization desiring to show it at their meetings or as¬ semblies. Newspaper coverage continued all during, and even after, her visit; which as we said in the first place, was one of the bigest and most successful promotions ever vmdertaken by us and all of those who cooperated with us. B KIDS' MATINEES NUMBER B59 Kids Attraction Gets The Kids THEATRE: SW Baker, ADDRESS: Dover, N. J. MANAGER: O. Schoepe We recently broke records with a special Satmday matinee stage show for the kiddies with a 75 cents admission. On stage was Bill Britton as “Bozo, The Clown;” and with him was his partner Doris Faye as “Ticklefeather” with Sunflower, from WPIX-TV. Kids, kids, and more kids resulted from the recent personal appearance of Bozo, the clown, from WPIX-TV, at the SW Baker, Dover, N. J. Appearing with ^zo was Princess Ticklefeather with Sunflower, plus a special screen show for the kiddies.