Motion Picture Herald (1954)

Setter £hcu>tnanAkijt Apparent in the tteie £eaMn SOMETHING new lias been added to promote cooperative ads at the local level for motion picture tieups. As part of its many-sided promotional effort for “Beau Brummell” MGM has announced that it has the benefit of Metro Newspaper AdMat Service on a national scale (no relation to MGM) but which serves 3,500 newspapers throughout the country. Metro service will distribute a four-page broadside with complete full-page and double-page ads which newspapers and theatres can sell cooperatively to local merchants. As a special attraction, the spread will feature a prize contest to identify the mystery “Beau Brummell” who will shop in local stores during the campaign. The unusual part of this project is that instead of the theatre having to initiate the promotion with the newspaper, it will be the newspaper that starts the cooperative campaign. The 3500 newspapers that subscribe to Metro ad-mat service pay from $15 to $75 per month for a book of ad mats, suitable for advertising in all lines. The price of the service varies with the size of the situation. They obtain from thirty to sixty full pages of mats every month, for the subscription fee that covers the whole service. Joseph Burnstein, manager of Metro-admat service, estimates that upwards of 300 pages of “cooperative” advertising will result. It will be a revelation to you to see how ad mats are used in other lines. CSV, tl LOtJ COHEN was honored with a special full-page, front-page break in the Hartford, Courant to mark his “double feature” testimonial dinner at the Statler Hotel on October 4th. It might have been a special edition, but Lou and the Mrs. got the whole page of pictures and story to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary and his 35th year in show business. The paper is goodhumored in saying that an early “crime,” (at age 13) in which he was encouraged by Harry Reichenbach, while he was a singing EMPLOYMENT ACENCY Elaine S. George, owner-manager of the Star theatre, Heppner, Oregon, who represents small town showmanship at its best, reports an activity of hers during the summer that has paid off in public relations. She runs an informal employment agency in Heppner — there's none such in the village — and the theatre has found jobs for patrons, without charge. She says they found baby-sitters, housecleaners, tractor drivers, hay hands and farm help. They've started something they can't stop, because it's a community service. We have something like an informal and unofficial — and unpaid — employment service in the Round Table. Hardly a day goes by that we don't have an inquiry from a youngster, just starting in — or an oldster, with a lifetime of experience. The two extremes are most numerous, and it's interesting to watch the distinction and the difference in their approach to a common problem. We encourage you to read "The Ben Mindlin Story" in this issue. To young people, coming into show business, we have this advice: There are no text books, other than the trade papers; there is no school, except that of experience. Apply to your neighborhood theatre, with serious intentions, and start at the bottom. You'll be the members of the Managers' Round Table in future years, but you must acquire your knowledge by working at the business that you like well enough to give it all your best effort, for the best part of your life. usher in Bridgeport, lead him to “go straight” and spend his life in the theatre. They salute “The Mayor of Main Street” — which attests his popularity with fellow business men. By-line writers on the Courant tried to out-do each other in their praise — and ribbing — and press photographers made plenty of good pictures. •][ ROY ROGERS, oft" the screen in movie theatres, for any new films since 1951, is scheduling two pictures a year through his own production unit, headquartering on the Goldwyn lot in Hollywood. The new films are to be in color, and for wide-screen projection, in competition with television. The Roy Rogers entourage has just finished here with his annual rodeo at Madison Square Garden, to big business, which he duplicates elsewhere throughout the world. He has made sixty-five TV films so far this year, and will have thirty-five more before the year is out. This figure is in contrast with eighty-six films which he made for theatres, during fourteen years with Republic Pictures. It is obvious that television films are much more numerous than those made for theatres, in terms of effort, time and money. But we believe the rewards are enough greater to warrant his decision to return to production for theatres, where his loyal Riders Club members have been numerous enough to make him “King of the Cowboys.” <JSI FABIAN went to Europe and the Near East this past summer, and thus perfected the best piece of propaganda for America by installing Cinerama at the International Fair in Damascus, Syria. The Arab world was much impressed with this terrific demonstration of American motion pictures in new dimensions. Russia spent $2,800,000 on its exhibit, but they had nothing to compare to Cinerama, which captivated everyone who saw it. Now, Issa El Korashi, Damascus correspondent for the New York Daily News reports that Al Sarkha, Communist newspaper, pooh-poohs the whole thing. They say the Russians had Cinerama 20 years ago, and that it is a Russian invention. Shucks ! We might have known — even if they haven’t yet seen Cinerama behind the Iron Curtain. They’ve been keeping it under wraps, in the Kremlin. — Walter Brooks, MANAGERS' ROUND TABLE SECTION, OCTOBER 30, 1954 35