The Exhibitor (1966)

EX-769 June 22, 1966 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR June 22, 1966 SECTION THREE Vol. 15. No. 20 \ EXPLOITATION I ACTUAL PROMOTIONS from the fertile minds of exhibition and dis¬ tribution that can be applied with profit to the theatre situations. This special section is published every-second-week as a separately bound, saveabie service to all theatre executive subscribers to MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR. Each saveabie section represents current submissions by theatremen and promotion plans from distributors that have orisinality and ticket selling force. Exhibitors are invited to submit campaigns on specific picture* or institutional ideas. Add EXPLOITATION to your permanent theatre library. Address all communications and submissions to the Editors of MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR, 317 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Penna. —19107. Local Sky Divers Participate In Jump For 'lost Command" *Boat* Sails Along “The Glass Bottom Boat’ will have more than 300 key city engagements during June and July, it was announced yesterday by MGM General Sales Manager Morris E. Lefko. The full release schedule in all parts of the United States and Canada will follow the initial more than 300 engagements, with the Los Angeles multiple engagement beginning August 17. MGM is putting full scale advertising, pro¬ motion and publicity campaign on this Doris Day starring picture. There will be full color ads in the June is¬ sues of Life and Look magazines, with a com¬ bined circulation of more than fifteen million. This will be followed by full scale news¬ paper trade advertising in all situations near time of release. In addition, national women’s sportswear merchandising tie-up is one of the special highlights of the campaign. Advance publicity tours have been set in 20 cities for co-stars Paul Lynde and Dom DeLuise. Radio greetings in five languages have been taped with Doris Day for overseas play. Dick Strout radio interviews with stars Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey and Dick Martin will be distributed in the United States and all English speaking countries. Music promotion is focused on Columbia Records’ single of the title song by Miss Day, and the Contempo Records’ release of Arthur Godfrey’s title version. Disc jockey screenings will be keyed to record releases. A TV promo film, highlighting the Catalina location, is narrated by Arthur Godfrey. Also for television, MGM has prepared, in connec¬ tion with “Maid of Cotton” National Cotton Council tour, a fashion news feature tied to Ray Aghayan’s cotton costume designs for “The Glass Bottom Boat.” A glass bottom boat for home use in shel¬ tered waters is being marketed by DunbarStanley and will be used extensively as a theatre contest prize on the local level. Four series of color still postcards and souvenir mailings continue to attract the attention of editors and columnists. Added newspaper con¬ tacts will be made with personal interviews by telephone with Doris Day. Billboard spectaculars, adorned with Doris Day in very abbreviated costume, will ask the question — “Is this the girl next door?” The “new Day” approach will key ad copy in all media. Coppertone Tie-up Ivan Tors’ “Birds Do It,” a Columbia Pic¬ tures release, will receive extensive local na¬ tional publicity exposure throughout the sum¬ mer via a major tie-in with Plough, Inc., mak¬ ers of Coppertone products. The company will feature Beverly Adams, who stars in the film with Soupy Sales, in its full-page national advertising. A member of the Orange, Mass., Sky Divers Club is seen landing near target on downtown Boston Common in an exhibition marking the opening of Columbia's “Lost Command" at the Boston Savoy. The target was a 24-sheet on the film held by four men in camouflage jungle uniforms, wearing red berets. Signet Publishes ^^Khartoum*' Julian Blaustein’s Cinerama Production of “IGiartoum” is being backed with a paperback book edition, written by Alan Caillou, based on the original screenplay by Robert Ardrey. The book, a Signet publication which will be sold at newsstands, bookstores and leading retail outlets, will be issued and timed to the first dates of the Untied Artists release. The color cover is based on the film’s ad¬ vertising art, conveys the excitement and ad¬ venture of the story. The back cover carries an action picture from the film. Dole For ^Xrusoe’^ Dole Pineapple Corporation has set plans for a nationwide promotion linking their new Pineapple Pink Grapefruit Juice-Drink with the release of Walt Disney’s feature-length comedy, “Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.” A “Lt. Robin Crusoe” Sweepstakes contest which will be offered to 37 million readers of 105 U.S. newspapers in a full-page color ad will run in late June and early July. Prizes in¬ clude 10-day trips to Hawaii, color television sets, and one thousand “Mary Poppins” al¬ bums. BOSTON — How to stage a promotion for a motion picture, and when it’s a film like “Lost Command,” with parachute jumps and all that, what’s better than staging a para¬ chute jump? Nothing, of course, but it’s not that easy to stage parachute jumps. That’s what John Markle, Columbia field exploitation chief, found out when he got the idea. First of all there was a thing about get¬ ting permission from the city, and then, if you want the parachute jumpers to land on Bos¬ ton Common in front of the state house, there’s the necessity of permission from the state officials also. But, the most important thing — you have to have parachute jumpers. And where do you get them? Fortunately, Orange, Mass, a few miles out from Boston, is the headquarters of the Sky Divers Club, and do those boys like to jump. You bet they do. So, with all the com¬ ponents working, permission obtained, the great parachute jump on sacrosant Boston Common got underway. That it was a success is evident by the photographic evidence herewith displayed. Parachute jumpers jumped on target. The target: a “Lost Command” 24 sheet held by four men in camouflage jungle uniforms, wearing red berets. The parachute jumping attracted huge crowds to the common, got television, radio and newspaper coverage and swelled the boxoffice at the Savoy Theatre where “Lost Command” opened. Three television stations, WHDH-TV, WNAC-TV, WBZ-TV, five radio stations, all of whom did interviews with the parachutists on their landings, gave the showmanship stunt plenty of exposure. The jump was also covered by the national wire services, while stories and photographs appeared in each of the city’s major news¬ papers, including The Boston Herald, The Record American, and The Boston Globe. The “Lost Command” activities and sub¬ sequent radio, TV and press publicity was the culmination of a week of advance promotion for the opening of the film which included various advance items carried by all Boston newspapers, and announcements over all local radio news programs for two days preceding the jumping exhibition. EXPLOITATION— an encyclopedia of useable exploitation stunts — is published every other week as a section of Motion Picture Exhibitor \