Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

396 Motion Picture N e vj s\ WINTER GARDEN theatre Hi AR* OK OUR W TO St* Showing part of the exploitation for “ Where Lights Are Low” during the showing at the Winter Garden theatre, Seattle, Wash. Carrier Descends on Seattle “ Where Lights Are Low ” Given Through Exploitation Campaign School Children Help Put Over “Connecticut Yankee ” The Johnstown, Pa., public schools have their own publication, which circulates among 5,000 students. It has always been the policy of the Board of Education to exclude advertisements from the pages of the paper, which actually reaches about 85 per cent of the homes in the city. When the management of the Parkview theatre booked “ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court ” permission was sought for advertising space in the school journal. By consenting to give special school children’s matinees at a slightly reduced price of admission, permission to use the paper’s pages free of charge was granted. The matinee gained the theatre considerably publicity in the daily newspapers and interested the entire city in the production. Further exploitation of the picture was as follows : SEATTLE, Wash., has recently witnessed one of the best exploitation campaigns in its history in the event staged by the Winter Garden theatre for “ Where Lights Are Low.” The campaign was planned and executed by James Carrier, R-C Pictures exploiteer, and neglected no opportunities for legitimate publicity. Mr. Carrier tied up with a local celebration in connecton wth the visit of Marshal Foch by having gummed stickers reading “ Welcome Marchal Foch — See ‘ Where Lights Are Low ’ ” printed and then hiring unemployed members of the American Legion in uniform to stick them on automobile windshields and windows, permission first being secured. Przes were offered by the theatre to the children under fifteen years of age who would appear at the theatre at a given hour, arrayed in the best character makeup. Hundreds of children responded and many of them brought their pets, including donkeys, cats, dogs, rabbits, birds and even a tame bear cub. The children were lined up in front of the theatre to be photographed and were held until traffic was blocked. Then the police interfered and there was more publicity. The boys and girls were paraded through the streets and back to the theatre to see the show. Large numbers of adults followed them into the house — paying the regular admission fee. The children were taken to a local football game where 25,000 people were assembled and paraded about the field in costume much to the amusement of the crowd and with a great amount of advertising for the picture forthcoming. The American Legion boys were hired to hang cards advertising the engagement on the door knobs of the business places on the Saturday night previous to the opening. The cards in most cases were allowed to remain until business time Monday. In addition to these exploitation stunts, The Johnstown Ledger conducted a Mark Twain essay contest in wrhich the prizes awarded to the winners were free tickets to the show. The largest department store in town distributed several thousand book-marks advertising the “ Connecticut Yankee ” with every purchase made for a period of three days. Stills and window displays were used by the store tying up with various bits of merchandise the name of the picture. By arrangement with a local automobile and motorcycle agency, two motorcycles and a machine were obtained for use in a street parade. The car was decorated with large canvas signs telling of the engagement of the picture, and the men riding the cycles were attired in armor. By using a siren in the body of the machine general attention was attracted to the procession, which paraded along the city’s streets regularly until the run of the feature was concluded. Several of the window displays placed about the city were characterized by such armor as was used by the warriors of King Arthur’s time. the picture was backed by a big newspaper display campaign and a big billboard campaign. The lobby was beautifully decorated in an Oriental theme, and Japanese lanterns were suspended over the sidewalk for a block in both directions from the theatre. The expense of the campaign was small though virtually every resident of Seattle was reached, and it proved to be a splendid investment, based on the boxoffice returns. Mitchell Gets Local Aid in “Peck’s Bad Boy” The “ Peck’s Bay Boy ” contests are still going good, judging by the front-page space that W. Griffith Mitchell, managing director of the Majestic Gardens theatre, Kalamazoo, Mich., recently was able to secure in the Kalamazoo Gazette. Mitchell and the Gazette offered as prizes a suit of clothes, donated by a clothier ; $5 in gold given by the theatre ; a Jackie Coogan doll contributed by a toy shop ; a regulation football given by a sporting goods store and twenty free tickets to a special matinee. The contest was in charge of a star feature writer on the Gazette and so much space was accorded it and so much punch put into the copy that the number of replies received far exceeded any contestever put on in the state. This is the way Bob Lynch of the Metro Film Exchange, Philadelphia, exploited ‘‘The Mysterious Pear!”