Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

“Rent Free” Lobby Attracts Excellent Business FOR a two days’ showing of “ Rent Free,” at the Mojeska Theatre, Augusta, Georgia, Manager Frank Miller duplicated the big twenty-four sheet advertising the picture in his lobby. An improvised tent of sheeting was the central decoration of the lobby. A clothesline was stretched clear across the front of the theatre, the tent being upheld by this. It was fastened to the clothesline with small clothespins. At one end of the tent, a life-sized cutout of Wallace Reid, in the paint-spattered smock which he wears in the picture, was posed, and at the other end, peeping at him, coyly, was a life-sized cut-out of Lila Lee. The display almost filled the lobby, leaving only a narrow entrance and exit on either side. Artists’ palettes, toy-bulldogs, an easel and similar articles occupied the inside of the tent, of which only a glimpse could be secured as one entered or left the theatre. Newsboy Ballyhoo Sells “I Do” for O’Connor THE Strand Theatre of Trinidad, .Colorado, lined up a unique parade to exploit “ I Do.” According to John M. O’Connor, the Strand advertised in the evening papers for six small boys. At 2 P. M. the next day the manager had fifty-two kids waiting for the six jobs. He took twenty of them and put banners on their chests with the words, “ I Do,” and twenty more with the same slogan on banners attached to their backs. He then paired them off so tht each pair had a banner on front and back and started them through the town at intervals of thirty seconds. Following the last pair he sent out a boy with a larger banner, reading: “ Harold Lloyd in ‘ I Do ’ at the Strand Sunday.” The procession covered an entire block, and the people gave the boys a lot of attention. .The stunt was worked two or three times before the first performance. According to Mr. O’Connor, it cost him fifty cents for the want ads., $1.10 for the cloth, which, together with a little paint, and about thirty minutes time, resulted in an exploitation stunt which packed his theatre to the doors. Log cabin lobby display on “The Girl From God’s Country” built by A. C. Slalcup, manager of the Princess theatre, Eastland, Texas Examples of Cooperative Advertising Tie-ups on “ Hail the Woman ” Have Been Especially Advantageous Four-Horse Chariot Parades Des Moines The management of the Strand theatre, Di Moines, la., effected an attractive street balh hoo in the exploitation campaign for “ Quee of Sheba.” A chariot, composed of the front wheels an tongue of an old grocery wagon and a bo’i made by a local carpenter, was sent faring int the thoroughfares of the city drawn by fouj horses. The driver was attired in mail, wor> plumes, and was escorted by two helmete “ knights ” who walked alongside the horses. J large banner on the horses gave the messag of when, where and what. Noon hour crowds were attracted daily by th strange vehicle, which challenged street-car:, automobiles and wagons to race it. Aside frot the unique appearance of the chariot itself, th i four horses, side-by-side were a curiosity to th | crowds that lined the streets wherever the affai ! appeared. Two views of the exploitation which W. R. Ferguson and the Forsyth theatre ( Atlanta ) publicity staff put over for “ Theodora,” practically a duplication of the campaign staged at Mobile, Ala., recently and described in last zecek’s News THE use of co-operative newspaper advertising, the exploitation on “ Hail the Woman,” has been found unusually successful in various parts of the country, and with newspapers of widely divergent policies. For the exploitation of “ Hail the Woman ” at the Bijou Theatre, in Richmond, Va., a double page co-operative newspaper smash was arranged with the Richmond Times Dispatch and the Richmond Dispatch, the morning edition of the Times-Dispatch. The Rialto Theatre at LaCrosse, Wis., in exploiting “ Hail the Woman ” developed eight solid newspaper pages of co-operative newspaper advertising in the LaCrosse Tribune and Leader-Press. In Stillwater, Minn., the Majestic Theatre secured a double truck and in Eagle Grove, Iowa, the Princess Theatre tied up with the Eagle Grove Eagle on a double page spread which the merchants supported enthusiastically. The unusual success of the co-operative newspaper advertising connected with the exploitation of “ Hail the Woman ” is doubtless due to the particular merchandising value of the tie up. The picture is in many ways, a woman’s picture, and it is billed as “ Thomas H. Ince’s splendid tribute to the new social and economic position of American womanhood.”