Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

■cm her 8 . 1 " .-' " M o t i o n P i c t it r e N .59 MANAGtW flCLND TADLt CLUE C. J. Latta Promoted; Leaves New Haven For Cleveland Post "C. J." has left New Haven. Who are we talking about? Oh, yes. We are talking about C. J. Latta, former managing director of the Roger Sherman Theatre in New Haven, Conn., ^ -__^^^_____ who has just earned a wellmerited promotion to the post of district manager for Warner Brothers' Cleveland, Ohio, theatres. Every constant reader of the Round Table pages knows what C. J. Latta has done since he has been in the show game. We started to pass his work along two years ago, and we are >till doing it. Talk about improving with age! Latta's work does! He made many friends in New Haven, and it is a certainty that it will be some time before they forget him — if ever they do. His contacts with newspaper men and dealers were always a source of great profit for his house. The reason why being that Latta always treated them fairly. On the evening that his appointment to the new position was announced, plans were immediately made by his house staff to tend him a dinner. And it was some dinner! Speeches and everything. The sentiments of the entire organization that Latta had built up at the house were expressed in these words, found in the dinner program : ". . . it certainly was a pleasure working, not for, but with 'C. J.' " That's enough for us, or any showman. When every one in the house says "Oke," can you ask for more? Now to get down to business. We are presenting the last activities of Latta at the Roger Sherman. The photo of the man dressed in full-dress suit and wearing a mask, that we are showing, was used on "Raffles." The man walked about the streets of New Haven handing out calling cards reading: "I'm Lonesome. Meet me at Warner Bros.' Roger Sherman, Saturday at 1 o'clock." It was signed: "Raffles." Ronald Colman heralds were also used to plug the picture. The man was picked up by the police at the close of the second day. It seems that an officer, well informed on city ordinances, did his duty. The story crashed the local papers for a picture, too. New Haven knew that "Raffles" was playing in the town. The heralds on the picture had a novel slant. The back page was imprinted with copy on a tie-up that Latta had obtained with a local jeweler. The jeweler offered weekly prizes to persons holding heralds that carried numbers corresponding to ones in his window. The town ate up this stunt. They made sure that they received a herald weekly. Thousands of them were given out. There was no question but that the theatre received thousands of dollars worth of publicity. The jeweler was also given a mention on the screen, via trailers, announcing the stunt and new picture. The herald gag is a weekly feature, NOVELTY SOUVENIRS Make friends with your patrons Jow profits In your box office receipt. ;t»e kiddies "Braze! Novelties" and win (hem as Boosters Tor your show house . . Inexpensive attractive novelties aerre aa real huOness fetters always. BRAZEL NOVELTY MFG. CO. r.ltitt. SL An Appreciation! We want to take this means of expressing our appreciation to the members of the Club who responded so promptly to our request for the special material which appeared in The Showman issue last week. All of those special articles constituted the real "meat" of the Club discussion on theatre maintenance and equipment, and that it will be of great value to other showmen, desirous of learning more about this phase of theatre operation, goes without argument. We are now preparing the list of subjects to be | featured in the December Showman Club section and another group of members will be selected to contribute the necessary stories. In this way each succeeding issue of the Club pages in the Showman section will present new slants until it becomes as valuable from the equipment angle as it now is for exploitation, etc. every herald on a new picture being imprinted. Incidentally, the gifts were sometimes displayed in the theatre lobby, as, for instance, when a 52-piece silver set was offered. The other photo that we are showing was a ballyhoo on "All Quiet." A stuffed bear was placed alongside a sign carried on a white truck, plugging the film. A radio set was also installed on the truck and this served to attract plenty of attention to the street ballyhoo. This one stunt helped plenty to sell the show, though Latta used others as well. Another gag that went over well — this on "Scarlet Pages" — was the novelty herald in the form of a booklet that was distributed. It contained twelve pages, in which was found very effective copy — along the lines of these "True Stories," so prevalent— that must certainly have aroused interest in the film. The heralds had no pulling power for the kids — the fact being that the picture was made for adult consumption — so they were left out this week. We are sure that "C. J.," in his new assignment, is going to continue this live-wire work, and we look forward to hearing that his houses are knocking them cold. Good luck, "C. J." •Write f*T our FrM Booklet. 8howlm I. Ml Kind*. A classified ad that drew Emil Bertistecker lots of comment and created . . 0 attention was used by Emil Landed tree Space Bernstecker of the National In Local Newspaper Theatre in Greensboro, N. C., at no cost to himself or the ~~^~ ~ ^ ~~ ^^^~ ^^^^~ house, recently. The heading was, "EMIL AND 'STUFFER' SPEAK THEIR MINDS." And then followed an explanation who the principals were: "The place is a well known South Elm Street Restaurant. The time is just after ice cream — just before coffee. The verbal combatants are the manager of the National Theatre and the advertising manager of Odells." A conversation then followed about Saturday ads paying in the Greensboro Daily News, a part of which is repeated: Stuffer: "Well, I don't know about you, but I tried a Saturday ad offering 1,000 bang guns free to the first 1,000 kids coming to a tire store on Monday morning, and by 10 o'clock the perspiring manager had a broken arm from handing out the favors, a headache from the noise — and no guns." Emil: "Oh, so that was where those kids came from! Do you know they almost broke up my show with their popping?" Stuffer: "That's funny. Wonder why they came right over to your place?" Emil: "I wonder — could it have been — ? Yes, I guess they must have read my ads in the Saturday papers, too." The ad was primarily one to entice advertisers to use the classified columns in the Saturday editions as well as other davs. And it proved a good plug for the theatre. "Which," says Emil, "is another way of grabbing publicity." "And," says we, "how about some more, Emil?"