The Exhibitor (1962)

EX-480 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR February 20, 1963 THE EXHIBITORS’ EXPLOITATION EFFORTS DON MOTT, publicity director, Greater In¬ dianapolis Amusement Company, Inc., work¬ ing with Bill Blankenship, Circle manager; and E. J. Clumb, general manager, recently executed the following promotion on U’s “40 Pounds Of Trouble” for the Circle engage¬ ment. WFBM-TV was contacted. Each morn¬ ing they have a high rated local program known as Bernie Herman’s Movie Party. Her¬ man is quite popular in the area. We decided to have a Bernie Herman Movie Party featur¬ ing a special preview of the film at the thea¬ tre the Saturday morning the week before opening. In order to get tickets to the party, viewers had to write the TV station, which gave us a 10 day promotion on the air. Bernie made use of stills when he talked about the special showing. On the morning of the preview, the station took their TV news cameras to the theatre and filmed the activi¬ ties. These pictures were featured on the week-end newscasts. Guests were interviewed by WFBM Radio for playback the following week on their Sound of the City broadcasts. Tuesday following the party, Bernie used a five-minute film clip of the activities and this gave us an additional plug. He gave a nice introduction to the 2100 guests. We presented him with a surprise birthday cake to celebrate the first birthday of “Movie Party.” The tele¬ vision time we received was valued at not less than $4,000. It cost us the price of the special tickets, and one extra showing of the film. Incidentally, the concession business was ex¬ cellent at the special showing. We tied up with 22 of Hook’s Drug Stores in the area. They featured a Hollywood Special Sundae for one week before opening and during the en¬ gagement. Each store had window cards ad¬ vertising the feature and theatre as well as special strips advertising the sundae, etc. We placed a one sheet in the theatre lobby calling attention to the sundae at the drug stores. We contacted the J. B. Dee Scale Company; and they placed a scale in the lobby. If your weight was 40 pounds you were the guest of the theatre. The only number on the dial was “40” and a buzzer went off right at 40 pounds. This attracted a great deal of atten¬ tion and made the Sunday section of the Indianapolis Times. This kind of promotion can be worked into any kind of situation and the picture is deserving of it. We found the promotion to be of definite value to our engagement JOHN C. CORBETT, city manager, Penn Paramount Scranton, Pa., theatres, held a con¬ test to select a ‘Miss Cinerama’ for the opening of MGM’s “The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm,” Strand. The winner was an honor student at Marywood College in Scranton, a Miss Barbara Crawley. She visited all the cities in the area and invited the Mayors and other important people to visit Scranton and be her guest to see the film. In each city excellent coverage was obtained from newspapers, radio and television; and ‘Miss Cinerama’ also appeared on several live television shows. On opening night, a huge birthday cake was furnished by the Jermyn Hotel. This heralded the 10th anniversary of Cinerama. ‘Miss Cinerama’ cut the first piece of the cake, which was then served to 600 of the opening night patrons. In u recent tie-up with a scale company, the Circle, Indianapolis, Ind., had this scale in the lobby for U's "40 Pounds of Trouble." If a child's wight was 40 pounds free admission to the theatre was given. "Cleo#< Lights Broadway The biggest electrical sign ever utilized for a motion picture was unveiled when 20th Century-Fox inaugurated the daily operation of a giant, animated spectacular for “Cleo¬ patra” high above the northeast comer of Broadway and 46th Street. More than 1,500,000 persons will view the display each day. The gigantic sign will convey in silhouette form animated scenes announcing the world premiere of “Cleopatra” at the Rivoli Theatre, Broadway at 49th Street, its premiere on June 12, and its stars Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison. Created by the world-famous Douglas Leigh Company, the sign is the only one of its kind in the world, and features a unique photo¬ electric lighting system that enables animated films to be projected onto a 720 square-foot bank of 4,104 light bulbs. Each bulb in the sign, which measures 30 by 32 feet, is activated by a photo-electric cell which, in turn, is set off by light passing through a moving picture film. “The Chicks of Cleopatra” is the title of the second successive eight-page color photo story devoted to “Cleopatra” in the current issue of Playboy Magazine. The layout fea¬ tures Elizabeth Taylor and a large group of young beauties who appear in the 20th Cen¬ tury-Fox epic. Included in the photo story is Marie Devereaux, an English actress, who also served as a stand-in for Miss Taylor for long shots. On opening night of MGM-Cinerama's "The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm," Strand, Scranton, Pa., a huge cake in salute to the 10th anniversary of Cinerama was placed in the center of the lobby. 'Miss Cin¬ erama' cut the first piece as the Mayor and other important people looked on. Best Window Displays Sought In "Boys" Contest Theatre exhibitors and record dealers throughout the country are currently being invited to jointly enter a national window display contest held in conjunction with . the MGM Record LP album “Follow The Boys,” featuring Connie Francis. The contest inspired by the MGM film will award $100 each to the winning thea¬ tre exhibitor and record dealer who turns in the most original window display. Second and third place winners will each receive $50 and $25 respectively. In addition al¬ bums of “Follow The Boys” will be awarded to 25 participants whose photographs re¬ ceive honorable mention. Photographs should be directed to “Follow The Boys” Window Display Con¬ test, Sol Handwerger, MGM Records, 1540 Broadway, New York 36, N.Y. "Victors" Star Interviews Set The most extensive series of motion picture location interviews for radio transcription use was recently concluded by Columbia Pictures on behalf of three of its overseas productions, Carl Foreman’s “The Victors,” Carol Reed’s “The Running Man,” and Irwin Shaw-Robert Parrish’s “In the French Style.” Sandy Lesberg, whose top-rated interview program is heard in more than 109 countries throughout the world over WRUL as well as on WBFM in the New York area, journeyed to Europe where he visited the locations of the three films in England, Ireland and France. Following weeks of on-the-set recordings, he returned with material for 20 complete halfhour shows based on informal interviews with top stars of the films on the actual sets be¬ tween “takes,” as well as rare tapes of scenes in “The Victors” with audible direc¬ tion to the stars by Carl Foreman. Lesberg’s interviews included George Ham¬ ilton, George Peppard, Eli Wallach, Jim Mitchum and Carl Foreman on the set of “The Victors”; Laurence Harvey and Lee Remick on the set of “The Running Man”; and Jean Seberg, Stanley Baker, Irwin Shaw and Robert Parrish on the set of “In the French Style.” Movie Parties' ( Continued from page EX-417) ager will provide you information about how to go about it and what’s in it for your group. “The scale of group cut on the box-office gate goes up in accordance with the size of the block of seats the participating organiza¬ tion guarantees. Lowest participation is 10 per cent of the price of a ticket. Movie thea¬ tre parties using the plan range in size from 100 upward. “There is a better financial break for the movie theatre party fund raisers on a reserved seat project than on those for the ‘grind’ policy. “Reasons are obvious: Ticket prices are higher. Performances are limited and selec¬ tive. “Records show that all types of organiza¬ tions have taken advantage of the movie thea¬ tre party fund raising plan. PTAs, fraternal groups, hospital aid societies, Schools seeking to raise funds for athletic equipment, uni¬ forms, band instruments, civic clubs, fraterni¬ ties and sororities, and industrial organization clubs. “As a matter of fact, veterans organizations will take over the Grand for Pearl Harbor Day showing of ‘The Longest Day.’ ”