Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1948)

Manager Su bm its A New Selling Approach 13 Campaigns REVIEW OF CURRENT PRESSBOOKS For Awards "MY WILD IRISH ROSE" — Warner Bros. In Color by Technicolor. In Your Wildest Dreams, You've Never Seen "Such Color, Comedy and Dancing Colleens. It's McNificent! And there's sixteen song hits to work with, including "My Wild Irish Rose" — "A Little Bit of Pteaven" and "Mother Machree" with a special record album available that will make you plenty of tieups. You can't go too strongly on music that so many millions love. Dennis Morgan has an ear for a tune and an eye for a wild Irish Rose; the ladies will be -hasing him. Posters are gay and Gaelic, especially the 24-sheet which has a lilt to it; like the 6-sheet, it sells music. Newspaper mats are all okey, with plenty to choose from in three columns or less width, and some you can cut down to size. Trailer copy keys the selling approach, aimed at that big interested audience, who have been presold on these tunes since they were babes in arms. There's a cooperative newspaper ad suggested in layout form, but no special mat, unless you take the pressbook to your newspaper man and dope something out. Naturally, lots of radio and other song tieups; also cooperation to be expected from Irish societies and florists, who sell wild Irish roses. Merchant tieups are numerous and you can use window cards to good advantage with many possibilities. Story is life of Chauncey Olcott, so you can promise everything nostalgic, romantic and authentic. (Mailman just arrived with a bit of the oud sod, direct from Ireland by Pan-American Airways, to exploit this picture!) Cooperative Programs For February Holidays Irving Schwartz, manager of the Allerton theatre, Bronx, New York, has arranged with his local Firestone store to underwrite a special Lincoln's Birthday show, with 500 gifts to be awarded in stage contests. With this so successfully financed, he immediately went to ten other cooperatig merchants, who were anxious to get on board with the financing of a Washington's Birthday Show along the same lines. Special cartoon and comedy programs are provided, with all expenses paid by the merchants. Write a Harrowing Humdinger! Joe Samartano, manager of Loew's State theatre, Providence, running a limerick contest to advertise "Sleep, My Love," in which he solicits blood curdling rhymes for his unfinished verse, containing words like "dreams", "screams," "desire" and "eerie." Should convince 'em the picture is not one to sleep through. "TYCOON" — RKO Radio Picture. In Color by Technicolor. Thrills Galore Are In Store! RKO's Story of Love and Adventure In the Andes! She's Romantic, He's Rugged, Together They're Dynamite! Slogans from the pressbook set the pace for this picture of love, dynamite, flames and flood. Go ahead and blast! Posters, and display materials, from 24-sheet down to the herald, are alike in style, so look them over and pick the best for your purpose. The 6-sheet has a lot of punch and is good for cut-outs or lobby display. Picture has had the benefit of unusual preselling by color advertising in key cities. Newspaper mats are generally good and with more variety in styling than the display material. A set of teaser ads are forceful, all in two-column width, but sold separately. There is an interesting mat, No. 402, which you can buy as a four-column mat for 60c but cut it up into two separate ads or arrange it differently, with the cooperation of the composing room foreman at your newspaper office. Too many big ads, you may get by with the one-column mats that are provided so ungenerously. So many theatres use smaller sizes; so few, use big ones! Tieup stills are available in National Screen Service Sets. A novel teaser puzzle mat, No. 3-X, is clever. Free transcriptions feature the voices of the cast for spot announcements. Especially recommended are good ideas developed by Iowa theatre managers in handling "Tycoon" which will be found elsewhere in this issue of the Round Table. The title is not easy to sell. Promotes Street Parade For "Red Stallion" Herschel A. Wheeler, manager of the Pace theatre, Gordon, Nebraska, says his town has only 2,100 population, but there wasn't anyone in the countryside who didn't know he was playing "Red Stallion" after a threeweeks campaign. He used 3-column ads in his local newspaper, and a reader illustrated with a scene mat, together with his monthly calendar, special bread wrappers, window displays, contest in the high school, and free tickets to everyone who came to the opening performance on a horse, the riders thus forming a free street parade. Reissue Gets Exploitation Sid Kleper, manager of Loew's College theatre, New Haven, found plenty of good exploitation in the reissue title, "You Only Live Once." He placarded 100 taxicabs, front and back, with bumper strips, and tiedin various ways to "drive safely" and "look twice before crossing streets." Among newer members of the Round Table, and eager contender for the Quigley Awards, is Edward N. Brown, manager of the Gayety theatre, in the steel mill district of South Chicago. His first campaign book carried the announcement that a complete series of 13 campaigns would be submitted in the Awards competition. With the arrival of Book No. 8, we must admit, the manager's job is not an easy one, where you follow 95 per cent of Chicago's theatres, and patronage must be won and held on a basis of showmanship and community relations. The Gayety circulates a weekly program, advertises in The Daily Calumet, a neighborhood newspaper, expands both media on special occasions, but it is in practical, personal methods that one builds business for this 850-seat theatre. You have to fight for it, and Ed Brown's campaigns show him in there, fighting. In Book No. 2, we notice a group picture, with John F. Burnham, Quigley Silver Award winner for 1938, standing alongside, so there's an old strain of showmanship on these premises. It shows clearly in the results obtained. Burnham, with Chief Harry F. Clineen, of Chicago's Fire Department, were judges in a school contest for Fire Prevention Week. Ed Brown makes the most of every community opportunity. He works closely with public and parochial schools, conjures up contests and prizes from civic minded local merchants. He offers plenty of give-away novelties for children (mostly obtained from Reed & Associates, Chicago) and enjoys a complete sell-out of children's performances in his neighborhood. City and State officials cooperate in making civic occasions important to both children and parents. Photographs of his "hold out" crowd show a lobby jam-packed with kids, waiting to get in. Through all his campaigns is the everpresent proof that he works materials over and over again, saves money as he makes money. He has come to the conclusion that a large and special ballyhoo front is the best exploitation he can use, and in thirteen weeks he has built 40 of these fronts, each one different from any that have been used before. He says, these 13 weeks represent the biggest business in the history of the theatre, and we can readily see why. MANAGERS' ROUND TABLE, JANUARY 31, 1948 41