Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

zAn international association of showmen meeting weekly in MOTION PICTURE HERALD for mutual aid and progress CHESTER FRIEDMAN, Editor Manager Charlie Call of Century's ^1 Bliss theatre, Sunnyside, N. Y., wasn't taking any chances of passing out a pocketful of free tickets when he dreamed up the turtle promotion for "Blue Skies." Charlie acquired nine turtles and painted a letter from the title on the back of each reptile. Above the aquarium he arranged for them, a sign read: "Look! win a free pass . . . rules are simple . . . when the turtles assemble themselves to read 'Blue Skies' just notify the doorman." £\ Lamar Swift, the enterprising district manager for the Georgia Theatre company in Macon, walked off with top honors in the recent theatre participation in the annual March of Dimes Drive. Lamar staged an intensive campaign for the drive, and as a result $8,600 worth of dimes were collected in the theatres under his supervision. The money was turned over to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. ft Many theatres throughout Canada ^1 and the United States have formed boys and girls clubs, and at considerable expense to the individual theatre. Just recently, manager Mel Jolley gave this idea a new twist and at practically no expense. Jolley formed the Maple Leaf Bantam Hockey Club at the Marks theatre, Oshawa, Canada, in cooperation with the Quaker Oats Company of Canada. The company supplied membership certificates, official badges and autographed photos of the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Team to kids who wished to join the club. For their part the kids brought in Quaker Oats box tops. One box top is required for mem Some New Patrons DON C. WOLF, manager of the Elkader theatre at Elkader, la., looking for a promotion that would arouse interest in the coming of "The Jolson Story" to his theatre, brought back to life the old angle of discovering whether or not there was anyone in his community who had never seen a motion picture. One ad in the local weekly brought him 27 letters from people admitting that they had never seen a motion picture, and some of the letters came from towns 30 miles around. From this group, Don selected a couple as his guests to a preview of the picture. The promotion was covered by the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald and a daily newspaper 60 miles away. Elkader is a town of 1 ,800 people, proving that a town is never too small for live publicity or a live wire manager. bership and an additional box top each Saturday. Over a period of 18 weeks, the kids could collect autographed copies of the entire Maple Leaf team. f% The Fox Wisconsin circuit has set up ^1 quiz headquarters in Milwaukee to sort through suggestions for a contest which can be used in their theatres. All circuit personnel are eligible to enter the competition and try for the $100 prize offered for the winning suggestion. What the circuit is looking for is a contest and possibly a quiz with a giveaway each week or something that will have cumulative value. Theatre courtesy is not only the ^1 March slogan for Hamrick's Tacoma, Wash., theatres, but, according to Will J. Conner, it is to be particularly stressed in all houses of the circuit for the balance of the year. In a check of 113 employees at the end of the first month of the courtesy competition, it was found that all had been eagerly striving to win an award. The four top winners for the first 30 days were Dolores Mott, Music Box; Hazel Hall, Temple; Jeannette Karbo, Blue Mouse, and Beverly Triplett, Roxy. Investigations will continue over a sixmonth period and awards will be made each month for courtesy, the awards including cash and an attractive courtesy lapel pin. The winner of the top award at the end of the six-month period will receive an extra week's vacation. € Since the end of the war, the services have been eager to cooperate with any bona fide promotion that would help them to publicize their various recruiting drives. Many alert showmen have capitalized on this by tying-in with the drives. It was just such a tieup that drew considerable attention to the recent opening of "The Beginning or the End" in three west coast cities. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer exploiteer Dick Schuette promoted an .Army bomber to shower down more than 15,000 paper "bombs" on Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and Salem, Ore. One side of the bomb advertised the picture while the other side publicized the Army recruiting drive. The plane also had been scheduled to drop the paper "bombs" over Portland, Ore., but officials of that city refused permission to the flight at the last minute. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, APRIL 5, 1947