The Exhibitor (1961)

Here are ihe . SHOWBfEN The best men won MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR’S exciting 1960 EXPLOITATION Contest and garnered $1,000 in prizes The third “Showman-Of-The-Year” con¬ test of the EXPLOITATION Section of MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR carrying with it $1,000 in prizes, divided among the five winners as chosen by a committee of theatre circuit executives, has been com¬ pleted after weeks of judging and tabulating. The winning entries are reprinted for the benefit of other exhibitors who may wish to adapt them. ED LINDER, manager. Gopher, Minneapo¬ lis, Minn., was born in Springfield, Mass., in 1909. From 1929 to 1943 he was associated with Loew’s, Inc. (MGM), the last seven years of which he was their representative at the Criterion, New York City. Upon his discharge from the Army in 1946 he operated or super¬ vised some of the top theatres in the country, including the Winter Garden on Broadway; the Roosevelt, Miami Beach, Fla.; the Astor, Syracuse, N.Y.; the On¬ tario, Washington, D.C.; the Gopher for the first time in 1954; the Villa, Rockville, Md.; the Town and Country, Jacksonville, Fla.; Melba, Dallas, Texas; until he was recalled by the Berger Circuit to take over the Gopher again on Dec. 2, 1959. He is married to the former Bunny Schwartz, who is also in show business as an assistant box office treasurer, hard tickets lA Card — Miami Beach local, during the winter season at the Miami Beach Auditorium and Convention Hall. She returns north to Minneapolis in May. Linder’s winning entry was on “Midnight Lace.” Our recent campaign on U-I’s “Midnight Lace” in all probability may set the house record for the year 1960. For advance publicity we used one mount¬ ed six-sheet and two mounted three-sheets in our lobby four weeks prior to opening, using on and off colored lights on these dis¬ plays plus the trailer for the same period. Both Shinders’ Book Stores, largest book stores in the Twin Cities, used 40x60 displays two weeks in advance. We also had three sheets and one sheets placed in empty store windows several weeks in advance of opening. The Dayton Company, one of the nation’s leading department stores, gave us two win¬ dows with an Irene original gown; and one with an Irene suit with both windows plug¬ ging the picture. We secured a window in the Raddison Hotel Arcade from the Finger Tip Beauty Salon. More than 10,000 people a day pass this win¬ dow, which contained a colored blow-up of Doris Day in a white gown, plugging the pic¬ ture; plus an additional 20x40 with three hair styles of Doris Day plugging the Midnight Lace hairdo. We had a model at the salon, where they gave her a Midnight Lace hairdo, with many women watching through the Ar¬ cade window. We retained this beautiful local blonde model to represent Doris Day in Minneapolis and lined her up on radio and television guest shots. Had a sign made “Vote ... To See Doris Day etc.” and had her carry it down¬ town on the day before election. This was the only sign allowed with the words “Vote For” on it because it had no running candidate’s name on it; but the sign created a lot of at¬ tention and interest — so did the model. Fifteen thousand jumbo heralds were print¬ ed for the Minnesota -Iowa football game at Memorial Stadium, which was the number one spot in the National rating plus the Big Ten Championship. Over 60,000 people came to the game. Heralds had the starting line¬ ups, names, numbers, weights and substitu¬ tions on one side plus a full page ad of our picture on the other side. Our model and boys passed out heralds before game time with our sign in midst. Ralph Green, Milace Underwear Company, maker of “Western Maid” undies, furnished SHOWMEN OF THE YEAR 1. ED LINDER Gopher Theatre, Minneapolis, Minn. 2. S. L. SORKIN RKO Keith’s Theatre, Syracuse, N. Y. 3. VICTOR NOWE OdeonCarlton Theatre, Toronto, Ont., Canada 4. FLOYD H. GAINOUS Carolina Theatre, Florence, S. C. 5. ELMER L. PIGNEY Clinton Theatre, Port Clinton, Ohio us with sets of black lace slips and panties. These were presented to the coach of the winning Minnesota football team for his wife, one half hour after the game was over in the Minnesota locker room. Cedric Adams, Min¬ neapolis Star; Will Jones and Bob Murphy, both amusement columnists for the Minne¬ apolis Star and Tribune, various radio and TV personalities were all presented sets for their respective wives by our model. She also presented a set to Elmer L. Anderson, newly elected Governor of Minnesota. Don Doty, of KSTP radio, ran a contest asking people to mail in cards naming the last three pictures Doris Day appeared in. Prizes were sets of lace underwear and passes to the theatre. All radio and TV stations were vis¬ ited; presented with “Midnight Lace” record¬ ing sound track and asked to play it. All seven stations cooperated 100 per cent. The picture was screened for Will Jones, leading midwest newspaper columnist, in company with three Minneapolis Police De¬ partment Homicide Squad members and their wives. The picture was stopped 10 minutes before ending. Viewers were given a pad and pencil and told to write who they thought the would be murderer was. Picture was then completed. Jones guessed right person in one minute and 18 seconds. One member of the department guessed partly right. Others missed completely. This stunt resulted in a full column in Jones’ Sunday story and created much interest. As an election night stunt we had our model and a boy carrying “Vote For Doris Day” sign at Lemington Hotel, news. Radio and TV headquarters, where they were con¬ stantly seen all evening. Thousands of people were invited over the radio and TV to come down and watch the broadcasts and telecasts. Our model posed with various newscasters during the evening. SOL L. SORKIN was born in New York City and started in the theatre business as an usher at the Rivoli on Broadway after gradu¬ ation from high school. In those days, the ushers were trained for at least two weeks be¬ fore they were allowed on the floor and then only with an experi¬ enced usher. The re¬ quirements even for an usher in those days was a high school diploma. His beginning in the theatre was just a fill-in job before entering col¬ lege. He worked only six weeks and then started college. While going to school at N.Y.U., he worked at night. It got in his blood and his original plans to become a doctor were scrapped when he decided there was no business like show-business. He worked his way up at the Fox, Brooklyn, N. Y., to chief of service and house manager. In 1930, he went to work for RKO Theatres at the RKO Mayfair on Broadway. In 1931, by that time first assistant manager and treas¬ urer, he was placed in charge of the school for training assistant managers and treasurers for the expanding RKO Theatres. In June of 1932 he was married and in November of that year was transferred to RKO Keith’s, Washington, D.C., where he remained for 15 years. From there he went to Flushing, N. Y., and then to RKO Keith’s, Syracuse, N. Y., as city manager and he has been at this spot for the past 12 years. His family is expanding rapidly. He has two daughters, two sons, two grandchildren. He knows show business from usher-hood up and the walls of his office are filled with numerous citations and awards. He was a runner-up in last year’s contest. Sorkin’s winning entry, “Birthday Anni¬ versary Hints,” deservedly attracted the judges’ attention. In planning our 40th anniversary campaign recently we first met with newspaper drama critics, television sales and promotion man¬ agers, and radio promotion men and worked out details about 20 days in advance. Our newspaper activities resulted in 3,450 lines of free and promoted space. Special SORKIN 14 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR May 10, ,1961