Motion Picture Herald (Sep-Oct 1939)

Tell 'Em About Your New Equipment^ New Furnishings —They're Interested • Showmanship doesn't end with selling the picture -you have a theatre to "sell" too. And it's full of things that appeal to modern interests-and that provide grand possibilities for exploitation By F. LOUIS FRIEDMAN ARE YOU putting in new chairs? Hold a preview for them. Getting new projection? Tell the world about it. New sound? Pre-sell your patrons so they'll know what you're doing to give them the best for their enjoyment. Such secondary exploitation of new, more comfortable chairs, modern projection, or better sound, and of other improvements, can be made as resultful for you and as profitable as a successful campaign on a picture. Just recall the publicity "breaks" the French Line got several years ago when the Normandie made its maiden voyage. Front page stories, eight-column streamers, newsreel shots, radio broadcasts, photographs galore — all were turned into publicity that was literally worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Analyze such publicity and you'll see that basically the entire campaign was shrewd and intelligent exploitation of new equipment. Or, take the gleaming chromium-trimmed Pullman exhibit at the New York World's Fair. A constant stream of curious and fascinated visitors troops through these modern cars, eager to examine and learn about the newest in streamlined trains. Many of the people in these crowds may never ride on a Pullman. Certainly the great majority are not particularly mechanically minded, nor do they aim to be. But here is an exhibit that does "sell" the public because the entire display is an example of brilliant showmanship, exploiting new equipment and doing a superb job of it. Attractive Lobby Displays Recently an astonishing show of interest was displayed by Chicago theatre patrons when the manager of the theatre held a lobby preview of new projection equipment about to be installed. So much curiosity was evoked by the appearance of the new projectors in the lobby that the management found it worth while to assign a competent staff member to explain the operation of the new equipment to attentive and genuinely interested patrons. The same response was achieved on several occasions elsewhere. Such intelligent equipment exploitation has definitely proved its possibilities as a goodwill medium for any theatre. Building goodwill of this kind is valuable. It creates talk — and you know what word of mouth advertising means to your theatre. Not long ago an important circuit house in the Middle West put over a smart campaign on new chairs about to be installed. Several of the chairs were spotlighted in the lobby, and an informative sign was placed nearby, urging every patron to try out the seats. The customers of the theatre, attracted by the inviting look and obvious comfort of the chairs, sat in them, if only to satisfy their normal curiosity. The result was that the theatre got a host of good breaks, with pictures, in local newspapers, while the theatre's patrons were even more completely "sold" on the theatre management's eagerness to have every patron enjoy the pictures in the greatest comfort. What does it take to get publicity for new sound, new chairs, new projection — even a new screen? You need no more than what any smart exhibitor already has in full measure — showmanship. Showmanship, imagination, ingenuity — and some little work. The manufacturer of the new equipment you buy, or the supply dealer who sells it, if he is alert to your needs and is publicitywise, can give you many a tip. Available, in fact, are prepared pressbooks, news stories, newspaper mats and tie-up ideas that will help you in dramatizing the publicity and goodwill angles of the new equipment you install in your house or your projection room. Take, for example, projection lamps — the so-called "Simplified High-Intensity" type, let us say. Perhaps you look upon their purchase as a sort of necessary evil. Without imagination, they are just a mass of metal and parts put in the projection room and forgot about. That's one way of doing it. But there's another and better way — a way that will get valuable publicity for your theatre and make your public conscious of the money you have invested to give them a finer, more enjoyable picture on the screen. Exploitation Copy Before the new lamphouses are actually installed in the projection room, have your supply dealer put them on display in the lobby of your theatre. Hang up a sign {Continued on page 29) An example of effective lobby exploltafion of new projection equipment. Arranged by W. S. Schoening, manager of the 49th Street Trans-Lux theatre in New York, this consisted in an historical exhibit of old mechanisms, contrasted with a new projector of the most advanced design. BETTER THEATRES: Sept. 16, 1939 9