The Exhibitor (1961)

March 7, 1962 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR EX-393 MARCH 7, 1962 EXPLOITATION SECTION THREE VOL. 67, NO. 12 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 scrveable 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 1961 SHOWMEN OP 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, 317 N. Broad St., Philadelphia 7, Pa. Individual ACHIEVEMENT CITATIONS have been Issued tor each of these i D | MERCHANTS NUMBER D-14 100% Coca-Cola Cooperation THEATRE: Esquire, ADDRESS: Sacramento, Cal. MANAGER: John Reidt Knowing that Coca-Cola Company had a lot to do with the contents of United Artists’ “One, Two, Three”, I invited their top of¬ ficials to a sneak preview I held two weeks before my playdate. My next move was an appointment at their office. They had 23 route trucks that covered the entire city and county; and I arranged to put large banners on each of these trucks advertising the film and stating “Now play¬ ing, Esquire Theatre.” They put in 100 displays in chain grocery stores throughout the territory. Featured was the giving away of free cases of Coke and a pair of guest tickets to see the film to the customers of these stores. All stores kept these displays up for the entire three week run of the film. All carried full credits on the picture and my theatre, and gave us a massive coverage all over the area. In addition to this promotion I arranged with the Coca Cola people to give away 12 Picnic Coolers plus 12 cases of Coke through a radio contest. This contest went over very big. The cost of the radio time was split be¬ tween the Coke company and the theatre. I gave them a large lobby display. The first week we gave out lucky balloons on the downtown streets. We had the mar¬ quee lined up with balloons; but due to a heavy wind storm these didn’t last very long although they created a lot of attention dur¬ ing their short stay. We also lined up 15 other places of business in good traffic loca¬ tions for window displays. The campaign was very successful and gave us good business. The cooperation from the Coca-Cola Company was tremendous. Coca-Cola lent full cooperation to John Reidt, manager, Esquire, Sacramento, Cal., by setting up 100 displays in chain grocery stores in his area on United Artists' "One, Two, Three." old, local film. We also had a total of 100 spots on the radio at no cost to us. We dressed all the employees up in old style clothes with smart-looking fancy vests, straw hats, etc. and sold sno-cones for the good old price of a nickel. We constructed a false front; arranged to have three old cars parked out front during playdate, one being a 1935 Ford. The new print of the film was re-done with a sound track featuring the voice of a popular local television announcer. The results were very good; and with no film rental for the added attraction, we, of course, came out alright. NUMBER D-16 jalopy Give-Away in Blizzard THEATRE: State ADDRESS: Fostoria, Ohio MANAGER: C. Y. Mitchell Despite the worst storm of winter, seven inches of snow, our second annual jalopy give-away proved mighty effective. For six weeks patrons received coupons with every adult ticket purchased at the boxoffice. All they had to do was put their name on it and deposit it in a container in the lobby. The jalopy was parked in front of the theatre on Friday nights, and the rest of the week it could be seen at the cooperating dealer’s. As the date for the give-away neared, we distributed heralds with Kresge, Montgomery Ward and Murphy’s dime store assisting by putting one in customers’ bags at the check¬ outs. Also, the dealer had some heralds as well as coupons which were passed out to all cus¬ tomers at his parts department. All these stores put a herald and coupon in their store windows. The local newspaper runs a “Teen Page” once weekly and gave us a nice write up. This year it was a little harder to get a jalopy as the dealer who previously cooper NUMBER D-15 Re-Run Of 27 Year Old Local Film THEATRE: Colonial, ADDRESS: Florence, S.C. MANAGER: Floyd H. Gainous Back in 1935 a photographer came into town and made an hour long film of people, places and things of interest. This film had not been rim since then. After a screening, I observed that 20 of the merchants who were in the film then -are still in business today. With the thought that the residents of the city might like to see this picture again I went to work and sold all 20 merchants on the idea of sponsoring the pic¬ ture for a re-run. This insured our getting a good return for our troubles and our house nut out of it. The merchants received a mention at the beginning of the film saying they spon¬ sored it; and took a full page ad in color in the newspaper on opening day. The news¬ paper was one of the 20 so they helped by running free publicity on our showing of the Six Radio City Music Hall Rockettes recently toured midtown Manhattan, New York City, with Oriental parasols ballyhooing Warners' "A Majority Of One." The Japanese theme is dominant in the national promotion of the film.