Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

66 Motion Picture News November 2 2 , 19 3 0 MANAcercr kclnd table club NON-LAUGHERS GIVEN PASSES One that had them talking for days out in New Albany, Miss., was pulled by C. B. Anderson, livewire manager of the Ritz Theatre in conjunction with the selling of the picture "Night Work." Anderson advertised that anyone sitting through the feature picture without laughing would be awarded a month's pass to the theatre. Forty persons entered the contest. Two prominent business men acted as judges. Of the forty entrants, seventeen managed to hold straight faces, the other twenty-three gave up. The house was jammed on the night of the contest. As the passes were good for only one admission, Anderson stated that he expects to profit by reason of the fact that the person bearing the pass will bring along a companion, at regular admission price. How about you pulling a stunt like it? Laughing Gallery Is Good Stunt For A Break In Newspaper Whenever a showman wants to plant a contest in his local newspaper it can generally be arranged if the contest has any sort of interest value. Roger Drissel, manager of the Loew's =^= Columbia Theatre in Washington, D. C, got his house a lot of publicity when Jim Lundy, the Loew press agent for the city theatres, planted a "Laughing Gallery" contest in one of the papers, the Washington "News." The "Laughing Gallery" is an idea that lias not been pulled for a long time. Some showmen may know it, though. It consists of running two pictures daily, one showing a star, with facial characteristics distorted, of the manner that you see when you look in concave and convex mirrors at the amusement parks. The other photo is a straight still, but not of the same star. The idea is to save all of the pictures until the contest is concluded, match them up, and then submit the set to che judges. This stunt looks as though it is going over big in Washington. The local editors think a lot of it. A two-column notice was run on it, thus giving the theatre free advertising. A special throwaway was turned out by Lundy for the midnight show on Hallowe'en Eve at the Columbia. We think that this throwaway merits reproduction, so we are reprinting it here. Remember that you can use the same slants yourself. You don't need any special picture to make use of this sort of herald. The copy was in black and white, printed on paper used for mimeographing. Incidentally, the party was a great success. We want to thank Drissel for passing these angles along to us. Let's hear from you again, Roger. EDDIt CANTOR £au< au i£emm£l&»o at Bn*£imy> /ICEWi A IClLMBlA ing is given him. Brown's first was a sack of potatoes. The next was a juicy roast, promoted from the local butcher. The roast was cut on the stage of the theatre. The person holding a number corresponding to one called off from the stage was entitled to the roast or whatever form of merchandise was being given away. This is an angle that may, perhaps, be of some value to you. It might be an excellent Saturday night feature for you and help you build up business somewhat. We want to thank Brown for passing this along and we hope that he will keep us posted on his future work as well. Thanks, Charles. Look At The Stunt Used By Lashley; It May Help You Also When a stunt creates a sensation in a town, it must have good points to it. The gag that H. T. Lashley, city manager for Publix in Burlington, N. C, used recently went over very well for the Paramount Theatre when the house played "Whoopee" with the inimitable Eddie Cantor. We are showing a cut of this page so that you may see what the stunt looks like and how Lashley used it. The residents were supposed to call up the 12 numbers, fill in the names of the firm and the product they dispensed, and mail the completed page to the editor of the Times, with name and address attached. The name and addresses were placed on the mailing list of the theatre. Perhaps you'd like to try a stunt of tins sort. The local paper should be glad to cooperate with you on this angle, likewise the merchants. Give it a little consideration. The question regarding whether any one will make 12 calls to receive a free ticket to the theatre doesn't mean anything. As is the case in a town like Burlington, many persons already know the numbers of the local merchants. They will put down the numbers without calling up. Another stunt that went over well on the picture was that of calling persons on the phone and informing them that the film was playing at the theatre, and also mentioning a special "Booster Matinee," on a certain day, to which persons were admitted at a price reduction for one hour. They flocked to the house on this one. Other activities on the selling of the picture included a novelty "Whoopee" card, made on the order of the "Kibitzer" gag, so well known to showmen, that has appeared on our pages before, stickers were also distributed to local dealers, and they placed them on all packages leaving the stores. The local department store gave the theatre a window for a display of Stetson hats, and also mentioned the picture in their ads. The entire campaign was well doped out, with the result that Lashley profited at the theatre. This is the sort of showmanship that bears out our contention that any picture worth playing is worth plugging. No matter how big the star or the picture is, nearly every film needs some form of exploitation. We are glad to note that Lashley handled this one very capably, and we hope that he will keep us posted on his future work. How about it, "H. T."? 340 474 16 114 899 444 680 312 101 936 457 740 Brown's Merchandise Nights Are Winners With His Patrons Up in Moose Jaw, Sas., Canada, Charles Brown, manager of the Royal Theatre tries to keep them coming up to the box-office window by every means available. He has found out that one of the best ways is to give some form of merchandise away free. His tie-ups with the local merchants are proving extremely profitable. Once a week he visits a dealer and prevails upon him to donate some of his wares, in return for which advertis Sez You! STAFFORD JERSEY says: "Yours for a bigger club. (It can't be better)." Manager, Fox Plaza Theatre, Englewood, New Jersey