The Exhibitor (1960)

OF THE YEAR... on Saturday, (date) which is the day the series begins. All tickets MUST be paid for at the theatre as no money will be collected in the schools. Season tickets will be avail¬ able at the theatre (date) for those who did not get one. The films to be shown are: (1) Fun Festival of cartoons and comedies; (2) “Bad Day At Black Rock”; (3) “Annie Get Your Gun”; (4) “Courage Of Black Beauty”; (5) “The Yearling”; (6) “Cheaper By The Dozen”; (7) “Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay!”; (8) “The Stratton Story.” The time of shows is 11 A.M., 1 P.M., and 3 P.M. Although the ladies auxiliary set up a publicity committee all activities and pub¬ licity was under the theatre’s control. It was our plan to concentrate all of our publicity within 10 days continuing without any letup through the first day of the series. We knew that there was some bitterness between labor and the local newspaper, therefore we had to depend on publicity from other mediums. This was accomplished through Shopping News, a weekly paper made up in two issues, one of which is rural and mailed to 6,000 area boxholders; and the other is city-de¬ livered door to door to 16,200 homes. In these issues we promoted the top half of the front page with photo and story as well as a one column x 16 inch ad inside the paper; both at no cost. The following week we paid for a one column x 16 inch ad. The Argus Leader did come through with a small stoiy which appeared on the women’s page. Radio helped as much as they could with all four stations carrying story, while disc jockeys made daily mentions of the spon¬ sored shows; and we received a television break when members of the auxiliaries visi¬ ted the orphans homes and presented these children with free tickets for the series. At the Labor Temple, a sample ticket was posted on the bulletin board while at Morrell’s packing plant, which employs over 3,000 persons, every paycheck received the week in advance of the first showing had a season ticket attached. BILL TRAMBUKIS, Loew’s State, Provi¬ dence, R.I., won for his entry, “Horses, Horses, Horses For ‘Horse Sol¬ diers.’ ” He started with Loew’s Theatres at this theatre as an usher in 1940 and worked up through the ranks to student assistant man¬ ager until joining the U.S. Navy Sea Bees in 1944. He returned to the theatre in the ca¬ pacity of assistant manager in 1946 when hon¬ orably discharged from the Navy and worked until 1949 when he was promoted to manager, Loew’s Strand, Syracuse, N. Y. He was then transferred to Loew’s Regent, Harrisburg, Pa., and finally returned “home” as manager of the Providence house in 1954. He has won many awards in Loew’s Theatres’ contests and recently was a runner-up in the National Screen Service Trailer Contest. Active in civic affairs, he is married and the father of two daughters, living in the Warwick section of Rhode Island, where he presides as vice¬ president of the Warwick Parent-Teacher As¬ sociation. Trambukis’ effort was termed the biggest and most successful exploitation put across in all New England in the past 25 years. It was estimated that over a million residents of the territory were ‘exposed’ to the many -pronged campaign. We timed our program to coincide with one of the biggest celebrations ever witnessed in this state. WJAR-TV, the pioneer station in Providence, staged this in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of their first telecast and lined up a gala three-day ‘Mardi-Gras’ in¬ cluding a free circus, carnival, block-dance, fireworks and personal appearance of TV cele¬ brities on a huge stage which was set up completely across the main thoroughfare. However, the capping climax was a monsterous street parade which took over two hours to pass a given spot. This parade drew over 75,000, to watch the floats, scores of bands, marching organizations, etc. Loew’s State and “The Horse Soldiers” re¬ ceived terrific publicity when it was arranged for a group of 10 riders to carry ‘Horse Sol¬ diers’ cavalry guidons along the route of march. The horsemen were strategically spot¬ ted near the center of the spectacle, some farther back. The American Legion’s ‘Iron Horse’ was bannered with six-sheets mounted on either side heralding the film. A special film depicting the parade was later telecast over WJAR-TV, and, based on trendex reports, over 800,000 TV-viewers saw the parade and Loew’s State publicity via de¬ layed telecast. The rival station, WPRO-TV, recognizing the 10th birthday of WSAR-TV, carried highlights of the parade on their “Eleventh Hour News” telecast and this added another estimated 100,000 to 200,000 viewers. An outstanding feature was the distribution of hundreds of balloons imprinted with “The Horse Soldiers” and Loew’s State. These were distributed to parade watchers by marching costumed theatre aides, and also tossed from the ‘Iron Horse’ and other floats. Another facet of our campaign was the suc¬ cessful negotiating with Naragansett Racing officials whereby the feature race of the after¬ noon was named “The Horse Soldier’s Purse,” a six -furlong stake race for three -year-olds. Some 17,000 racing fans witnessed this event, which was won by “Sengalese.” I personally entered the “winner’s circle” to present a handsome plaque and the winner’s purse to jockey Vincifora and trainer Clelland. The race-track armouncer Jim Hines, a popular local disc jockey, as he called attention to the presentation taking place in front of the crowded grandstand, went on to plug the film, giving name of theatre and play-dates. All local and state newspapers carried this publicity and even the New York Telegraph and Daily Racing Form carried items. Newspaper publicity was proficient with the Cranston Herald featuring a special ‘coloring contest’ for kids, utilizing a sketch from the picture. Passes were awarded the top six artists. Television came through with ‘open end’ interview records with Bill Holden and John Wayne with the commentators creating the illusion that they were conducting a ‘live’ conversation with the stars in Hollywood. WJAR’s Shenn Brown conducted a contest. “Why I Would Like To See ‘The Horse Sol¬ diers’ ” with 25 top winners receiving guest tickets to the opening performance, following a free breakfast at the Sheraton-BUtmore Hotel’s “Minute Chef,” another deal promoted by us. In another contest, WICE’s top disc jockey, Jim Mendes, conducted a special contest beamed at the young fry with Union and Con¬ federate Army caps awarded winning essay writers. Radio stations plugged the ‘March Of The Horse Soldiers’ and other recordings from the film; while 36 Constance Towers’ records of “There’s Something About A Soldier” were sent down by Mutual Distributors and awarded at three separate Record Jockey ‘Hops’ held at local amusement spots. Department stores and record shops ac¬ corded cooperation by using huge streamers publicizing the film, theatre and playdates. Eight trucks of a news agency were bannered and toured the area. JOHN J. PARSONS is a native of Minneapolis, who attended the Uni¬ versity of Minnesota. He served the Telenews or¬ ganization in various ca¬ pacities since 1944 in Oakland, Cal., Seattle, Washington and San Francisco, where he makes his present head¬ quarters as western di¬ vision mcUiager for Tel¬ enews. He organized and heads Telenews Network for television, a subsidiary that handles closed circuit telecast presentations in 16 California cities. He is former chief barker. Variety Club, Tent 32, a director of the California Theatre Association and a member of TOA. He is married and has two daughters. Parsons’ entry on “Artificial Snow, Wild Animals As Bally” for Disney’s “White Wil¬ derness” started four weeks ahead of playdate and highlights were the placing of two posters bearing playdates in every school in the city — 268 posters in all; and a tieup with Pictsweet Frozen Foods. Pictsweet sent 12,000 mailing pieces to all grocers in four coxmties; and furnished us with a moimtain of artificial snow, 15,000 pounds of blown ice, at a cost of some $2,500. To this was added a pretty live model at¬ tired as a snow-bird; and a few gimmicks in¬ cluding a north pole; and it made a traffic stopping sidewalk display in front of the theatre. Huge window displays also resulted from this tieup with markets; while other window displays were set with San Francisco’s lead ENTER NOW A new ‘Showman-Of-The-Year’ contest is now current in the EXPLOITATION section for 1960. It was off and running with the first January issue with cash prizes again totaling $1,000. As the judges of the past contest so aptly put it, “May the best men win.” PARSONS I I 4, I960 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR