Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1936)

July 2 5, 19 3 6 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 73 «T MOTION xT^v PICTURE U HERALD MANAGERS ROUND TARLE CE <uin international association of showmen meeting weekly in MOTION PICTURE HERALD for mutual aid and progress op NO MORTGAGE NECESSARY The Quigley Awards have no home. The Silver and Bronze plaques, the First and Honorable Mentions have been voted to entrants in big city and small town, to theatremen in first and last-run situations, to de luxe managers and those in modest neighborhood houses. They have gone to those who shoot the advertising bankroll to put over a date and to those who have no other publicity weapons than two-bits in cash and a flock of fingernails. In the eyes of the judges, all entries start from scratch, and the winners are selected because their campaigns display a superior degree of showmanship, an ingenuity, a forcefulness, a taking advantage of every possible opportunity to bring attention to their attractions, over and above those things done by their fellow-entrants. In the past months, winners have been listed from cities as large as Toronto, Canada (pop. 631,207), from Memphis, Tenn. (pop. 253,143), from spots as small as Ellsworth, Me. (pop., 3,557), from Clovis, N. Mex. (pop., 8,027). And entries voted top honors have come also from houses of limited capacities. All of which is set forth in answer to a query from a Canadian theatreman, operating in a small community and playing three changes a week, who requests a Junior Quigley Contest for managers in similar situations to give them "a chance of winning a trophy in keeping with their pocketbooks". Sez he: "We have often wondered if it could not be worked to an advantage to have a Junior Quigley Contest, giving us small town exhibitors, who have three changes of pictures per week, a chance at winning a trophy in keeping with our pocketbooks. Although we realize that many small town exhibitors are not as aggressive as they might be helpful, there is only a limited field for the amount of business that can be procured in theatre situations. It is possible to do a lot with a small town situation and to put through houses on a profitable basis, as it has been shown repeatedly by new blood that has moved into the theatrical field. We have promoted and realized a good business by cooperative advertising, style-show, theatre parties, merchants' night and street ballyhoos. We would have to put a mortgage on our theatre, to begin to enter the field for the Quigley Award, competing with houses in towns and cities of large populations and greater seating capacities ..." No ambitious theatreman need mortgage his theatre nor the smallest part of it to fashion a campaign to earn the votes of the Judging Committees. He may be competing, yes, with houses in cities of large population and greater seating capacities, but not to his disadvantage providing he has the savvy, that certain something that is the talented showman's heritage whether he runs the village "movie" or the world's grandest motion picture de luxe "temple". From what our correspondent writes, he is not unfamiliar with the profitable usages of cooperative advertising, style shows, street ballyhoos and other exploitation devices upon which he reports fine business forthcoming. There should therefore be no hesitancy on his part to enter the lists against others even from larger spots who are no better equipped mentally to create worthwhile Quigley Award entries. Showmanship is where you find it. The sock of the smart campaign is heard as loudly upon the sparsely populated plain as it is in the congested city. V V V THE LACK OF COLOR Receipt of tearsheets from Boston on director Frank Lloyd's recent visit in the interests of his new picture, "Maid of Salem," discloses as fancy a job of coverage as these aged orbs have gazed upon in a month of Sundays. Under the guiding hand of Tod Browning, M & P Theatres' publicity head, Mr. Lloyd, was photoed and interviewed in a manner that nostalgically recalls the handling of such visitors in the not too distant past. The lack of color, general excitement and all-round zowie that was so much a part of theatre publicity is revealed emphatically when one compares the usual newspaper drive of today with such campaigns as the above. Color in motion pictures should not be confined exclusively to the screen. V V V Juveniles, if not managers, in the Empire State now have cause for rejoicing in the recent passage in Albany of the Joseph Bill. This "open sesame" allows minors in New York the privilege until now withheld of attending motion picture theatres unaccompanied by adults provided special sections are set aside for the juvenile patrons. Well and good, but more interesting to harassed managers putting on those Saturday morning kid shows would be another law that would fasten the youngsters to the seats already provided for them.