Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1948)

Matlack Steers A Ne w Campa ign For 'Red River' Jack Matlack, exploiteer extraoardinary for the J. J. Parker Theatres in Portland, Oregon, turns in his complete campaign on "Red River*' at the Broadway theatre, as an entry for the Quigley Awards. Jack has been rather quiet in recent months, but now he says this campaign will be followed soon with another one, to restore his oldtime activity in the Round Table. Realizing that he had quite a piece of entertainment to sell, Jack picked an idea from the Herald, and gave away substantial steaks to start off his camapgin. But he entrusted the steaks only to newspaper reporters, editors and film critics, with the result that he landed stories and pictures on all their pages. "The response was terrific," he says, "and the original steak idea certainly brought home the bacon." Both the Oregonian and the Journal went overboard to promote the picture. The opening day ad was a sweeping eight-column, eight inches across the bottom of the amusement page. An original Oregon stage coach was featured in the street parade and ballyhoo, and a square dance, in front of the theatre, was an old-fashioned "hoe-down" with plenty of public interest A 24-sheet was mounted for lobby display and both billboards and window cards were used throughout the city. A special preview was arranged for a newspaper group to study the reaction of a local steer who attended and saw 5000 other steers on the screen in the projection room. Sounds screwy, but it got the publicity, and that is all that counts. Dozens of local tieups, including restaurant place-mats and stickers marked "Red River" — "medium, well or rare." Bantam Books provided display in over 150 outlets throughout Greater Portland. Lands Front Page Picture Bill Reisinger landed a four column, top of the page picture on the front page of the Dayton Journal, with the story of his presentation of trophies to "The Three Musketeers" of local football, on the stage of Loew's theatre. Honorary prep grid captains received awards as the three top high school football stars of the Dayton area. FINEST QUALITY *PDQ SERVICE Your Selling Approach REVIEW OF CURRENT PRESSBOOKS STATION WEST— RKO Radio Pictures. A great motion picture straight from this famous Saturday Evening Post serial of the last frontier! He had a lot of dangerous territory to handle, but it wasn't all on the map! Double-crossing a tiger-woman is just another way of kissing life goodbye. He didn't look for trouble, he made it. When a man fights a woman, the rules go out the window. Dick Powell and Jane Greer, with Agnes Moorhead and Burl Ives in a western melodrama with two new songs, suggesting a "singing ballyhoo" of man in cowboy costume playing a guitar. Posters and accessories have much similarity, so pick the size and style you want in the same theme. Newspaper advertising puts the best stuff in big ads, beyond the budget of smaller theatres, but you can find usable one and two-column mats that will answer your purpose. There's been a lot of national pre-selling in magazine advertising but it won't be remembered even as long as it took to serialize this story in the Post. An attractive cartoon layout, telling the film story in strip-style, is described in the pressbook as part of newspaper advertising in 42 cities, but nothing is said about how you might get a mat of this for your own hometown paper. Radio spots may respond to a program idea "Who's Charley?" which is intriguing because "Charley" is the bad girl of this western. Free radio transcription record from RKO branches will provide for spots on local radio time. Bantam Book tie-up gives you the original novel by Luke Short in 25c edition and 400,000 copies of this have been sold prior to release. Best notion is to have your local news delivery plug the book when you play the picture. NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES— Paramount. Novel thriller of "Man Who Could See Into Tomorrow." Thrills, suspense, offered in weird tale of Pre-Vision. The strange drama of a man who kept a timetable for Murder! Are you sure you would like to know what the future holds for you? Edward G. Robinson heads a cast who develop melodrama of a kind seldom seen upon the screen. Great advertising possibilities— and plenty of newspaper mats to rhoose from, even after discarding all those that are too big for any practical use. Good series of teasers, look different and will be considered unusual by readers. The two and three column mats give you everything you need additionally for display and there are two midgets on one mat for program use. Composite mat will cost 60c and with the help of your composing room foreman, you can work up something of your own design. Posters are strong, with the one, three and six better than the 24-sheet, which is too cluttered for good cut-ups. Herald is okey and will develop for a cooperative advertiser. Full-page head, for cooperative newspaper ads, lacks imagination but it will serve. The title of the picture suggests better things. Several pages of good exploitation in the pressbook, which is recommended for your careful study. Simple street ballyhoo of mysterious character who claims second-sight, and a blindfold lobby character who could answer the description of Triton the Great. "Can It Happen?" as newspaper query or radio program quiz, will start talk. Special groups who are interested in psychic or mental phenomena may be invited to a preview. National "eyes contest" suggests local stunt along same line. Pat Promotes a "Concurso" Pat R. Notaro, who migrated a while back to Havana, Cuba, to take over the management of two Warner theatres there, is in the mail with a "concurso" which is Spanish for contest. Pat promoted Gruen wrist watches which were given to winners who were best guessers as to the exact time a sealed clock would stop. The whole proposition was cost-free exploitation for "The Big Clock" with over 5,500 answers submitted. Display Cards for Schools Frank Boyle, publicist for RKO Keith's theatre, Lowell, Mass., shows us samples of display cards, 9x12 inches, printed from pressbook mats, which were used on school bulletin boards throughout the trading area. Feature is a reproduced letter, over the signature of manager Sam Torgan, recomending this attraction to public and parochial schools as a story of the historic Chisholm Trail. PRESS AGENT Wanted experienced theatre press agent to do publicity for group of 12 theatres 50 miles from New York City. Must know ad makeup, lobby displays and exploitation. State age, experience, reierence and minimum salary. Box 420, MOTION PICTURE HERALD 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20 N<m» Specializing' in Refreshment SERVICE fo> DRIVE-IN THEATRES; SPORTSERVICE, Inc. Jacobs bros. | HURST 8LDG. ' BUFFALO. H, Y. MANAGERS' ROUND TABLE. DECEMBER II, 1948 4S