Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

December 13 , 19 3 0 Motion Picture News 55 manager*' round table club Prosperity Week Campaign Executed By Ponton Clicked The recent Paramount-Publix Prosperity Week that the circuit houses were featuring not so long ago gave many showmen opportunities of displaying tricks of the trade, and at the same time let them know how they stood along the good-will line in their town. Knowing that good-will building is one of the greatest of theatre assets, W. H. Ponton, manager of the Carolina Theatre in Fayetteville, N. C, contacted the secretary of his local Merchants' Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Fayette Observer, local paper. When the plan which Ponton formulated was presented to the various heads of the local organizations, they all expressed their satisfaction of the generous and mutually advantageous scheme; so it was decided to make Paramount-Publix Prosperity Week a local affair and call it Fayetteville Prosperity Week. The Observer sold 36 merchants the idea and subsequently ran three full pages of advertising — tying in on the prosperity idea. Ponton figured that the only way he could cash in on the local Prosperity Week was to use the Prosperity Dollar stunt — and all the merchants agreed to give $1.25 in merchandise for this particular dollar bill. It was announced in advance on the screen that Buddy Rogers was sending along the dollar bill to be put in circulation to show what a dollar would do if kept in circulation. The newspaper contributed a front-page story about the dollar bill that it was received from Buddy Rogers and was then turned over to the secretary of the Merchants' Association. The story also stated that the holder of the bill at certain times of the day was to phone into the newspaper office in order that a check of its whereabouts could be kept. The dollar bill created a lot of talk during the week and indirectly proved a good medium in advertising the week's attractions at the theatre. As some of our members may recall, we carried a story on this dollar bill angle not so long ago. It must be clicking pretty good in the Middle West and in the South, as many showmen are making use of it. Perhaps it will go in your town, also. Why not give it a trial if it will fit in with local conditions? We want to thank Ponton for letting us in on his work, and we hope that his future contributions will be forthcoming shortly. Just A Reminder Classified Ad Tie-Up With N'paper Proved Profitable for Jacob A good-will stunt that helped boost his stock with the local paper, thereby setting him right in line for anything that he might want to break in the sheet later on, was engineered by A. M. Jacob, manager of the Century Theatre in Jackson, Miss., when he tied-up with the sheet and innovated a classified ad tie-up in conjunction with the showing of one of his feature pictures. A full-page ad on Friday before Monday and Tuesday showings of the picture appeared in the paper announcing details of the tie-up, stars, name of theatre, title of picture and playdates. The following day (Saturday) a quarter-page ad appeared with its make-up identical to the full-page ad of the day before. Notice to Members PLEASE be sure to notify the Chairman of any change of address. —THANK YOU. The picture tells the story. It shows the vast amount of edibles collected by David Silverman from members of the Mickey Mouse Club of the Belmont Theatre, the house managed by Silverman in New York City, when a show was arranged whereby free admission was granted to all children bringing some form of food. The merchandise is to be donated to the needy persons of the neighborhood. Are you doing your bit? The tie-up with the newspaper offered the users of the classified ad page an opportunity of acquiring one or two tickets to see the picture without cost. All that was necessary to win one or two theatre tickets was to place a 25-cent classified ad (and get one ticket) or a 48-cent classified ad (and get two tickets). It was also necessary that the type of ads be "cash" ads and also that no one person could get more than two tickets. Many persons took advantage of this offer, but no matter what the amount of persons receiving passes, Jacob was still way ahead of the game. Indeed, if his house had been nearly all paper (which it wasn't, though) he would have profited by the good-will angle. It is interesting to note that the large amount of space that was devoted to his theatre served to sell the Jackson public on the picture, boosted business a good bit above par. We'd like to have some more accounts of your work, "A. M." /. Manning Dressed Up Gag and Used It As Plug for Picture Again proving that many stunts appearing on the Club pages may be adapted to suit various pictures, Jack Manning, manager of the Paramount Theatre in Greenwood, __^ — — — — — — . Miss., made use of the old wedding ring and pink ribbon gag to turn out a novel exploitation plug for Clara Bow in "Her Wedding Night," the titian-haired siren's latest film. By means of a piece of pink ribbon, the wedding ring (an inexpensive affair which may be purchased from any wholesale novelty dealer) was attached to a card that carried copy on the picture reading: "Clara Bow in 'Her Wedding Night'— Whom Fate Has Joined Together Try to Put Asunder! Come and Tell Clara How to Rid Herself of Two Unwanted Husbands on 'Her Wedding Night.'" A couple of ad mats were also used on the card. Title and play dates of film were shown. When the cards first made their appearance, they were met with plenty of enthusiasm, and long before the world-of-mouth comment had gotten around, the cards were all given away. Manning reported a good business on the picture, and, in no small measure, it was due to this gag. We are glad to see that Jack believes in making stunts fit his pictures and not sitting and waiting for certain films to come along, or, after using a stunt once, discarding it. Keep it up, Jack, and let's hear some more from you.