Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

Medina incj ^rpproac, It FRIENDLY PERSUASION — Allied Art ists. Color by DeLuxe. William Wyler's production starring Gary Cooper, “will pleasure you in a hundred ways.” One of the most enjoyable family films ever made. Co-starring Dorothy McGuire and introducing Anthony Perkins, the best boy of the year, with an all star cast, including Marjorie Main, as “the Widow Hudspeth.” From the best selling book by Jessamyn West, which has been twice reprinted in “Reader’s Digest.” Powerfully presold with over 200,000,000 readers in national magazines alone. The plush publicity carpet has been rolled out for the friendliest motion picture. “Friendly Persuasion” does it, because Gary Cooper sings! You’ll be delighted with “Samantha,” the goose, who steals the picture. 24-sheet sells Cooper and the idea that this is a “friendly picture.” Other posters also have all the pictorial art to create lobby and marquee display, on your own premises and policy. An Indiana farm, created in California’s San Fernando valley, is a delight to the eye, and the heart. Your audience will marvel at the beauty of these scenes, and will thank you. William Wyler is the director who gave you “Roman Holiday,” “Best Years of Our Lives,” “Mrs. Miniver,” and other Award winners. Even Dimitri Tiomkin, who composed the music for the picture, has won three Academy Awards in his own right, and has been nominated ten times. We don’t have to tell you anything about Gary Cooper, because your audience knows the answers. Newspaper ad mats have been supplied in very generous style, and reduced to the best selling approach with the experience in the early runs. You can get all you want in any size or shape, mostly too big for small situations, and there’s no composite mat at 35c, which there should be for a family picture. Lots of merchandising tieups, including a line of hats for the ladies from John Frederics, foremost creator of millinery. You can create these styles yourself, for they follow Quaker fashions. There are nine recordings from the picture, three fine albums from Coral, Unique and Dot, and sheet music, for tieups. A friendly public relations firm has been hired to help you in 35 key cities. A study guide for schools is available in the usual manner from Publication Press. You can key the campaign by making yours a friendly town and setting up cooperative ad pages on this theme, as explained in the pressbook. A movie edition of the original book is available for your public library. Slogans, service clubs, opinion makers, will go all the way to boost the picture that has this exceptionally friendly approach. 4-H and farm clubs are highly important. There is no herald, and should be one. So you can use oversized ad-mats and print your own with the help of a cooperative advertiser. WAR AND PEACE — Paramount. VistaVision, in color by Technicolor. The greatest novel ever written, magnificently produced on the screen. One of the two or three best pictures of all time, to our everlasting credit. Produced entirely in Italy, with a cast including more than fifty speaking parts. Audrey Hepburn has never been seen to better advantage; Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer and many others crowd the marquee with names. Based on the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy, which will have a greater audience than in its one hundred years. For the first time, the public can see and visualize the impact of this great piece of writing. Color as you have never seen it; spectacle as it is often attempted and seldom achieved; acting that will stand out in your mind and memory for years to come. 24-sheet and all of the posters and accessories are calculated to sell a great property. Make sure that you see it the same way, and don’t spare your efforts. Tabloid herald, in two colors on two sides, from Cato Show Print. Giant cut-out standee from National Screen. Poster art can be made dramatic in your own lobby and marquee displays, using your ingenuity. Newspaper advertising is extravagant, extensive and assorted for size, shape and style. Plenty to choose from, and lots of opportunity for you to make your own selection, based on what you want to make a real smash with the year’s hit picture. There are so many newspaper mats that we ask you to study the whole group, and do it conscientiously. The complete campaign mat, selling for 35c at National Screen, has eight ad mats and slugs, three publicity mats, sufficient for small theatres, but this isn’t a small picture, so don’t treat it that way. Every book dealer is your friend, for there are eight editions of the famous book, including a “picture story book” and the Bantam pocket book, which sells for 75c instead of a quarter, and worth the difference. Suggestions for public library tieups and schools are included in the giant pressbook. Seventeen magazines, in their school editions, have enrolled 17,000 high school teachers in their campaign for “War and Peace.” Special school bulletin board displays are recommended, and displayed for teachers. The picture is a natural for school “co-ops,” and will get unusual attention. A pattern tieup sells fashions such as are worn by Audrey Hepburn in the early Russian sequences, an era of luxury. LIFE magazine and other publications have given “War and Peace” about the biggest pre-selling in film history, with many pages of color to illustrate the story. You’ll find that fine color on your big screen, and television will never have it. Get out your special work and careful study departments to properly handle anything as big as this attraction. Walter Reade Managers Are Contenders Paul Raise, assistant advertising manager for Walter Reade Theatres, writes from Mayfair House in Oakhurst, where Reade Theatres have a baronial estate, to say that they are stirred by our comment concerning diminished exploitation effort, and to prove the contrary, he submits some recent campaigns from their managers, that show conclusively these showmen are in there, fighting. In the lot, are good exhibits from George Kemble, of the Community theatre, Hudson, N.Y., where we visited one summer day, on the occasion of a world premiere. He has a fine house, that really looks right in the role of a Community Theatre. His campaign on “Walk the Proud Land” — which had the world premiere there — is one the judges will contemplate in the fourth quarter for the Quigley Awards. It’s an exceedingly large exhibit, and we remember all the detail of it. George also submits his campaigns on “Eddie Duchin Story”, “Bus Stop” and a local “fish story” staged as promotion for “Moby Dick.” John Balmer, manager of Mayfair theatre, Asbury Park, who was a winner in the Walter Reade managers’ contest, shows his work with “The King and I” — very fine — as well as “Moby Dick”, “Bus Stop” and other pictures. Michael Dorso, manager of the Community theatre, Kingston, N.Y., has some real evidence of his showmanship in half a dozen campaigns, and we’ve known this theatre to be noted for good stunts in the past. An old friend of the Round Table once built an imaginary bridge across the Hudson at this point, as a front page newspaper story for “Walter Mitty” — one to remember! Charles Sutton, manager of the Park theatre, Morristown; Bert Greene, manager of the Strand theatre, Freehold; Julie Stern, manager of the Paramount, Asbury Park, and Bob Hynes, manager of the Strand theatre, Plainfield, are others whose work is included in this lot of good material, from Walter Reade’s domain across and along the Hudson. The circuit can be celebrated for having founded the idea — and the architectural style. TEASERETTES / we catching on fast f / PHnUpI These short, snappy talking traileretfes ore just what you've been waiting for. No contracts, no returns. Write J * g > for information! ■ FILM ACK !■■■■■■■ 1327 S. WABASH CHICAGO. ILL. MANAGERS' ROUND TABLE SECTION, DECEMBER I, 1956 49