Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1932)

December 17, 1932 ROUND TABLE CLUB 63 PRE ELECTION STUNT WORKED OUT BY BOYD MADE HIT WITH FANS A pre-Elcction Day stunt that brought a lot of sizzling publicity to the RKO Albee Theatre, Cincinnati, Ohio, was recently tried out by Manager Boyd. He placed a microphone in the lobby, wired through to a local station, and twice daily patrons were allowed to participate in the "First Radio Straw Vote Ever Taken." They stated their names, professions, party choice, ideas on the bonus and prohibition questions and gave their lowdown on respective candidates. The stunt kept patrons all "het-up" for a whole week and fitted in nicely with the run of "Washington Merry-Go-Round" at the Lyric, another local RKO house. Incidentally, while on the subject of the RKO Lyric, Clem Pope, RKO city manager, advises us that Manager Hastings is supervising a dance class, which we will attempt to tell you more about later on if Hastings or Clem will come through with details. Boyd's election gag was a corker all right and we can very well see that it made a great hit with a public supercharged with TOILET CLEANLINESS! If there is any part of your theatre demanding close attention it is your toilets. Yet, you can walk into hundreds of theatres and find these rooms foul-smelling and an insult to your patrons. Particularly on those days when the kiddies predominate, you must exercise extreme caution and make frequent trips to those rooms to make sure that they are fit for the use of your patrons. Toilets, especially in the busy theatres, cannot wait until the following day for a mopping or cleaning. This is necessary every hour or two and be positive that the toilet paper holders are full, too. In ladies' rooms you should make doubly sure that everything is O.K., because nothing will chase away the ladies quicker than dirty lounge rooms and toilets. There is nothing delicate about this subject. It's as important as any phase of your theatre's operation; so just check up a lot more in the future than you have in the past, to be certain that your hired help is not overlooking or neglecting the toilets. thoughts about the coming national election. It's a good one to file away under this classification, fellows, or to use, perhaps, for some other event you may be able to fit it to. New Publicity Set-Up A new set-up in the Fox publicity department, New York City, includes Morris Helprin, formerly with . Paramount, who will serve under Earl Wingart, recently with Paramount as publicity manager. Resignations include Mike Vogel, Edward Eustace and E. F. Simpson. CILLMAN'S SWELL BALLYHOO! SEE the funny looking gazebos ? And the animal that is not a bull? The combination represents a novel street bally used by S. A. Gillman, manager of Loew's Parkway Theatre, Baltimore, to exploit Laurel & Hardy in "Pack Up Your Troubles" and, from what we hear, the stunt tied up traffic and brought out the police. Two ushers were dressed in clothes similar to those worn by Laurel & Hardy and caricature heads made from papier mache. The model cow was promoted from a local dairy concern and carried a banner rearling "This Is No Bull," and other copy pertaining to picture, theatre and playdates. The bally attracted such a large crowd that a hurry call had to be made to the police department for help to straighten out traffic, which suggested to Gillman the faking of an arrest. The playing off of this comedy also suggested a "Laff Week" program, which included a Charley Chase two-reeler and a Betty Boop cartoon. The Week was played up on the marquee sign and on 5,000 heralds distributed from house to house. Lines such as "Laff Week," "All Comedy Show" and "Barrels of Fun" — the latter painted on two barrels placed atop the marquee — were used to advertise the occasion. Results at the close of the Week were all that could be looked for and considerable credit for the excellent returns is attributed to the novel bally. The papier mache heads look mighty good to us and there's no reason why these couldn't be used again and again on future Laurel & Hardy attractions. As near as we can learn the heads were obtained from the M-G-M home exchange in New York and if other Club members want to invest the small amount necessary to secure a pair of them, we'd suggest getting in touch with your local exchange. The "No Bull" idea, Gillman tells us, was inspired from a cartoon run in this department some time ago. Lest we forget, let us also credit Assistant Manager R. F. Etchberger for his share in the Laff Week campaign. We'll be looking for further news concerning the showselling activities of these men because we like the way they do things. HERE'S PROOF FROM SWANK THAT CO-OPS GO IN SMALL TOWNS In order to prove to the man who doubts the possibility of promoting a full page cooperative ad in small towns we are presenting facsimile evidence of one that was YEA TEAM! We're Sending You lolijg^l W00D5T0N TO WIN The Armistice Day Game Nov and We're Giving the Team and Pep Club FREE TICKETS to '-r$ ALL AMERICAN" £ Nova Friday Night ^ilP It llth W SEE American^ Football's Biggest Stai 1931 All Amer.can Team IT S MORE THAN A GREAT FOOTBALL PICTURE, IT'S AN OUTSTANDING SCREEN DRAMA; — » RICHARD ARLEIN Nova, Fri.& Sat., Nov. 11-12? 4DMISSI0N 10 and 25c put over by M. M. Swank, manager of the Nova Theatre, Stockton, Kas. With "All American" booked for Armistice Night, Swank called on his newspaper friends and together they cooked up the attractive page reproduced here. He designed the ad, using a re-vamp of a stock mat, with copy built around the local "Big Game" of the season. The merchants who stood the cost were given credit for the free tickets for the team and Pep Club, but the theatre actually stood this portion of the expense. In addition to lining up the merchants' signatures the newspaper came through with a corking publicity story on the front page. "Give us small town fellows more dope on how to sell our shows," S. O. S's Round Tabler Swank and we are hereby broadcasting his message to other Club members similarly situated. It takes real shows, he tells us, to bring patrons to town after the cows and chickens have been put to bed and unless there's a good attraction in town the Fords are also put to roost for the night. So come on through, fellows, and let's us see what you can do to help this member out, even though he appears to be getting on pretty well with his own ideas.