Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Mar 1954)

DRIVE INS!!! PERMALUM SCREEN American & Canadian Patents Applied tor All Metal— Permanent Screen for 3-D, 2-D and CinemaScope Delivery will start in 4 weeks ORDER NOV/ First come, first served delivery POBLOCKI & SONS 2159 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Milwaukee, Wisconsin GREATER Durability in GRIGGS CHAIRS Superior construction gives years of service. Comfort— the minute they're occupied! Their Beauty sparkles! WRITE FOR CATALOG GRIGGS EQUIPMENT CO. Belton, Texas Wide Screen Means Bigger B. 0. Our All-Purpose Stereo Screen Has All These Features: • Excellent for 3-D, 2-D, and all wide-screen systems. • 3.5 to I brightness gain over flat white screen. • New type invisible seams — will not show in picture. . LOWEST PRICE EVER Only 9<>C SQ. FT. Prompt Shipments on Wide Angle Lenses — Order Now! EVERYTHING FOR CINEMASCOPE | “The Department Store of the Motion Picture Industry S O S. CINEMA SUPPLY CORP. Dept. A, 602 W. 52 St., N. Y. 19 Cable: SOSOUND YOUR QUESTIONS ARE INVITED. If you have a problem of design or maintenance, the editors of BETTER THEATRES will be glad to offer suggestions. Please be as specific as possible so that questions may be answered most helpfully. Address your letter to BETTER THEATRES SERVICE DEPARTMENT, Rockefeller Center. New York. We then inquire of the occupants how the heater performed. Temperatures at night during the past month have ranged all the way from 40° comfort, individual in-car heaters operating nightly The results were so satisfactory that we announced through a special screen trailer, down to 8°, and we have yet to experience one unfavorable reaction, and mostly the users have said they were quite comfortable. Located in the “ice-box” of New Jersey, we have never previously kept open so late in the year. As it turned out, we continued to develop an audience that made it a challenge to stay open in spite of the cold weather. First, people attended as a novelty, then it developed into a special kind of fun to sit in their cars with temperatures outside 20° or less and watch a movie. Recently a middle-aged couple drove up to the boxoffice, and the lady shook her first out of the window and jovially shouted, “Mr. Smith, if you close this theatre this winter, I’ll kill you.” Well, that set us to work to exploit the fact that we were still open. We increased our newspaper space, even took on publications we had never used before. Our psychology was to “put the monkey on the patrons’ backs.” COPY FOR THE ADS We headed our ads, “You keep coming — we’ll stay open.’’ Another pointed up the angle, “Even if we only take in enough to meet the payroll, light bill and film rental each week, the Garden Auto-T orium will be open every night.” Of course, in every ad, in bold copy, we said, “For your one month in advance, a special New Year’s Eve show, this program to consist of five features and to continue from 7 p.m. to midnight “at the low bargain price of only $1.20 per person,” with free coffee and free hot chocolate to everyone. All the local newspapers gave us prominent free space, playing up the fact that this was the first time in the history of any drive-in theatre in northern New Jersey that such a program had been undertaken. Who knows, maybe we can go through the entire winter ! • NEW DRIVE-IN DISPLAY SIGN The attraction panel (above) erected tor the new Twin Vue Drive-in theatre at Odessa, Tex., has two openings, measuring 57 inches high by 24 feet long. Frames and glass background made by Wagner Sign Service, Inc., Chicago, were used by Martin & Company, Sweetwater, Tex., who fabricated and erected the display. Wagner 17-inch green plastic and 10-inch red plastic letters form the copy. 24 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JANUARY 9. 1954