The Exhibitor (1965)

December 15, 1965 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR EX-727 British Showmanship By Jock MacGregor A big picture — “Mary Poppins” — and a big showman — Leslie J. Harris, of the Odeon, Birmingham, long known as the show place of the midlands, mean a big campaign. Here indeed he has excelled himself and been given 100 marks by the Rank Regional controller. He preceded his opening with a press preview and invited many VIPs and opinion formers. “Mary Poppins”, “Bert” penguin and a troupe of Pearly Queen Babes were in the foyer to greet the guests. In his opinion the piece de resistance of the entire campaign was a free stand at the Boys and Girls Exhibition, the Midlands largest exhibition. With the assistance of Rank regional and' theatre staff, a 150 seat theatre was constructed and the “Poppins” trailer and three Disney cartoons were screened every hour. At the end of each show a giant “Spot the Difference” contest was held. Disney supplied many posters of all sizes, blow-ups, stills, contest forms, newsletters, color brochures, overprinted balloons, and a “do it yourself” cut out display. 200,000 adults and children attended the show and there is no doubt in Harris’ mind that this stand played a big part in the breaking of recordsi during the four week run. The 400,000 circulation Evening Mail and Despatch serialized the story over the six days prior to opening and ran a painting contest for which there were more than 1000 entries and organized the local heat for the national “Mary Poppins” personality girl contest. This was backed with editorial and pictorial breaks over three and one-half weeks of the four weeks run. A children’s painting contest was also sponsored by the Sunday Mercury. Harris’ effective tieups are too numerous to list. Harry Murray, Gaumont, Sheffield, took full advantage of the visit of Robert Calvert, who holds the honorary rank of major in the Confederate High Command (UK Division), dedicated to upholding the high honor of the Southern Confederacy and to defend the memories of those men in gray, on a recruiting mission to exploit “Major Dundee”. The Sheffield Star published a six inch treble column picture and serialized the story over five nights. He was forestalled on book tieups as the book was not to be published until after his run. Doris-For-A-Day ( Continued from page EX-725) sweepstakes which awarded a U.S. Savings Bond to each manager whose theatre has booked “Do Not Disturb” and which is named on the entry blank. An exhibitor could be a winner even if he were not playing the attraction, but merely cross-plugged it. More than 550 theatres have participated in this phase of the promotion. A diversified line of unlimited amounts of contest materials and accessories were made available by 20th-Fox to promote the event at no cost to the exhibitor, including a special 35mm color trailer, 30x40’s, 40x60’s, counter cards, entry blanks, lapel ribbons, door hangers, 16mm trailer for tv, 16mm tv clips, manuals, newspaper and broadcast kits, and production information guides. The various kits provided a complete guid¬ ance for major theatre chains, independent exhibitors and co-sponsors. An 18-page man¬ ual provided a step-by-step guide to all pro¬ cedures, and described all materials available as well as merchandising ideas. The broad¬ cast kit, for television and radio station co¬ sponsors, included special on-the-air copy, flip cards, 16mm trailers, telops, and transcrip¬ tions. The newspaper kit included stories, suggested display ads, and scene stills. Manson illustrated newspaper co-sponsor¬ ship by showing editorial and display lay¬ outs and color breaks from various cities around the country. He said that many papers used even more space to promote the contest than had been suggested by 20th-Fox. Another unusual aspect of the contest was the additional cooperation of many tv and radio stations’ sponsors, such as local super¬ markets, chain and department stores. For example, WSB-TV in Atlanta made an addi¬ tional tie-in with 100 Big Apple Supermarkets which displayed 40x60’s in windows and 30x40’s at checkout counters, distributed entry blanks, and devoted much of their regular advertising space to the contest. In addition, more than 1.000,000 broadside mailings by the chain prominently featured news of the contest. Similar cooperation between stations and local merchants has occurred in Kansas City, San Francisco, Toronto, Miami and Seattle, among others. An interesting sidelight point¬ ing up the enormous interest in the contest, Manson reported, was that Seattle is not one of the 25 major cities, but only part of a regional contest. The 20th-Fox executive also discussed pro¬ motional activities in the foreign territories. “I am delighted,” he said, “that our overseas promotions are as extensive and as showman¬ ship-oriented as our domestic ones.” All local winners will arrive in Hollywood on Dec. 17 for five days of whirlwind activity including press interviews, sightseeing, and the climactic world premiere of “Do Not Disturb” on Dec. 20 at the Studio Theatre. Manson said an extraordinary lineup of additional merchandising beyond the contest has been created for the film. A major tiein, for example, is with Bardley Woolens which not only will give the contest winner a “dream” wardrobe, but also will provide woolen ensembles to each local winner. On Dec. 18 in Hollywood, the Wool Bureau will present a fashion show featuring the original clothes designed by Ray Aghayan for the film as well as the adaptations by Bardley. This event will kick off similar promotions between Christmas and New Year’s across the country in department stores that sell Bardley clothes. Some of these include Jordan Marsh in Miami, Julius Garfinckel in Wash¬ ington, D.C., Hornes in Pittsburgh, and Best & Co. in New York. All' stores, in connection with the Bardley shows, also will present a nine-minute, 16mm featurette made in cooperation with the In¬ ternational Wool Secretariat. Starring Doris Day and1 narrated by Reginald Gardiner, the short is a salute by the wool industry to the designs created for Miss Day. In addition, full-page cooperative ads are Johnny Crawford, one of the young stars of Em¬ bassy’s “Village Of The Giants” recently hammed it up in front of a giant blow-up for the film during its multiple engagement in Chicago. Join Presley's Harum Young men and women throughout the country will have an opportunity to win a new spring outfit as a result of MGM’s “Harum Scarum” starring Elvis Presley. The women will be invited to write in to various radio stations telling, in fifty words or less, why they would like to be in Elvis Presley’s harum. Those who submit the best replies will re¬ ceive an outfit similar to the one Mary Ann Mobley wears in the production. The girls will also be invited to write in telling why their boy friends should be selected as Sheik of their city. The men selected will receive outfits suitable to princes of the plains. being prepared in 15 cities between Bardley retailers and 20th-Fox. These ads interweave a message about the clothes and news of the film. Another tie-in with the Spadea Pattern Syndicate will find 240 local papers in the U.S. serviced by that company with a fashion pattern service for women’s pages. This pro¬ motion was kicked off Nov. 14 in 48 cities when This Week Magazine featured Miss Day on the cover with the center devoted to patterns of the costume designs by Aghayan. The campaign is tied in with approximately 400 yard goods departments of retailers. Columbia Records has issued a 45 rpm record featuring Miss Day singing two songs from “Do Not Disturb.” Nationally, they will be serviced to 5,500 leading radio personali¬ ties in each area. There will be a local service follow-up by both the record com¬ pany and 20th-Fox with an additional mailing and servicing of the record to all exhibitors. Also, travel tie-ins have been effected with both Lufthansa Airlines, on an international basis, and American Airlines on a domestic basis. Lufthansa will take ads featuring Doris Day in principal papers around the United States. Other aspects of the extensive campaign include 300,000 “Do Not Disturb” door handle tags to be distributed through the 20th-Fox branch offices to all major hotel chains throughout the country, as well as 500.000 Christmas stickers to be serviced to leading department and specialty stores for gift wraps. The stickers feature the key ad art and this message, “Doris Day Says Do Not Disturb until Christmas.” In addition, a Dell paperback has been pub¬ lished featuring scenes from the film on both the front and back covers as well as full credits.