Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

Sk o wmen in ^yQcti on The biggest typographical error in town has been fixed, by request of the sovereign State of Oklahoma. The Broadway sign for the Mayfair Theatre, which is seven stories high and a hundred feet the other way, spelled “Oklohoma” with an “O” instead of an “A” — much to the delight of assembled press-agents. So now, with ceremonies, they fixed it, viewed by the Times Square throngs. ▼ And over the weekend, some vandals, no doubt, took five letters, in enduring bronze, from the sign on the corner of this building, which read “First Federal Savings” — at the street level. If these five letters should happen to spell “Elvis” — we’ll know that the fan clubs are planning to present him with a plaque. T A cute gadget, in the mail, is a “Pass Kit” containing eight “passes” — on the facetious side, including a Men’s Room Pass “for immediate use.” Good kidding of “the privileged few” who think they need passes — and a good advertisement for a sponsor who wants to spend 15<* per kit, in 1000 lots, for a laughing gag. ▼ Reader’s Digest has re-publisehd a booklet by and for their advertisers, in which a good copywriter tells you how to sell a stubby second hand pencil without an eraser, in gobbledygook, as it is spoken in the advertising trades. It would do the trick, for it contains every cliche you’ll find in the ads. ▼ Very, very fine — the full color page on “Tea House of the August Moon” which launched the campaign in the Chicago Tribune for the premiere of this very good picture at the Woods Theatre. We can’t reproduce the color — for it is really four colors — so all we can say, it’s a grand example of “color on the press” when you find it at your local newspaper, and that’s more often, these days. ▼ Also, in the Omaha World-Herald, a wonder full-page cooperative ad for “Giant” — also in color — which won’t reproduce to any advantage in our limited space and as a line cut in black-andwhite. It offers a “Giant” attraction — and “Giant” bargains for a line-up of fourteen sponsors, who bought the page, and gave theatre space without cost. T Nineteen theatres in the New York metropolitan area will re-run Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” for a simultaneous holiday booking starting November 21st, with 500 music teachers among those invited to a preview for opinion makers. The picture has made history, since the original release in 1940. John Di Benedetto, manager of Loew’s Poli theatre, Worcester, Mass, is advertising “The Opposite Sex” and Elvis Presley in “Love Me Tender” — using a combination of all the best selling approach that goes so easily with Elvis and obviously with the opposite sex. When you play these two pictures, mix up some of the same procedures and watch the results! ▼ Ralph Moyer, who has long been a member of the Round Table, is now manager of the Roxy theatre, Atlanta, where “Cinerama” is the attraction, and where salary scales are appropriate to the twoa-day policy. We like to see good Round Table members in “Cinerama” situations, for its has a good effect on our trades. ▼ Allied Artists’ “Friendly Persuasion” will be the Thanksgiving attraction in over 250 first-run theatres across the country — and it is doing right well at the Radio City Music Hall, with excellent reviews and around $140,000 per week in the till — in spite of a limited engagement, crowded at both ends with outgoing and incoming bookings, which were in ahead. A Fred Ross, manager of the Dixie DriveIn theatre, Seguin, Texas, has signed up twenty merchants at $30 each to sponsor his Christmas Eve show, which will give him a nice profit on a poor night. And as a postscript, he says he promoted twelve large turkeys for Thanksgiving, to prove that the patrons of his 350 speakers on the ramps really get a deal at the Dixie. ▼ Arthur O’Brien, manager of the Webb Playhouse, Wethersfield, Conn., mails invitational letters to newcomers in his area, with a formal guest ticket to introduce them for free admission. It’s a nice gesture, and done with good taste, for good business reasons. Three-Way Tie-Up For Kid Shows MILWAUKEE: In promoting the “Better Approved Kiddie Matinees,” 11 shows for $1.00 at the Sherman theatre here, manager Thomas Mack, Jr., worked hand in hand with Carl Brandenberg, of Carl’s Texaco service station, and the sponsors of Fire Prevention Week. Mr. Mack gave out some 4,000 applications to children, entitling them to join in the contest for fire prevention week. The children in answering them had their essays brought to Carl and Bill’s Texaco service station, located two doors west of the theatre. The essays were picked up and judged by members of the fire department, who selected the winners for toy fire engines and fire equipment given to the winners. The service station gave out thousands of flyers to their patrons with announcements of the kiddie approved movies. Tickets were sold at both the theatre and the service station. A write-up of the contest and the matinee program was in the Northwest Reporter, a Milwaukee county paper. ▼ Jerry Berger, whom we remember meeting in New Orleans, when he was introduced by Rodney Toups, has left Loew’s in St. Louis, where he was publicist on the staff of Frank Henson at the State, to become manager of the Esquire and Norside theatres. Since he gets around, we want to bring him up to date in our records. Now, he submits a fine roto page on “Lust for Life” which was the opening gun in the St. Louis Post Dispatch for this MGM art film. He also distributed 10,000 students discount coupons good for tickets at the box office at reduced prices. "I love coffee, I love tea" — you know the rest of the rhyme, but we're too bashful to quote it. Above, Tommy Martin, manager of the Radio City theatre, Minneapolis, serves coffee to working girls at a morning matinee for "The Opposite Sex" — and at right, Ben Simon, manager of Loew's Metropolitan theatre, Brooklyn looks on, while a pretty gypsy model pours tea for patrons, and tells their fortunes in the tea leaves, as a lobby attraction. MANAGERS' ROUND TABLE SECTION, NOVEMBER 24, 1956 39