Movie Age (1927)

AUGUST 20, 1927. PAGE 23 Book Tie-Ups on “Scarlet Letter” In Muncie, Ind. Educational and book tie-ups on a comprehensive scale netted excellent re¬ sults for the campaign on “The Scarlet Letter,” a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pro¬ duction, during the film’s showing at the Wysor-Grand theatre, Muncie, Indiana. Three thousand book marks were placed with the central library and its three branches. The book marks were given out with every book that left the libraries, this being the first time that such a stunt was allowed. An art card was placed on all the bulletin boards, along with a copy of a letter from Ernest Crandall, the president of the Visual Instruction Association of Ameri¬ ca, praising the picture. Two book displays were secured' with the leading book stores of the city. The displays carried art card tie-ups. A baby spot light was placed in a window and a slide made of a large scarlet “A”. The window was situated on the second floor and thereby threw the scarlet “A” on the sidewalk. The location was the choicest, it being in the busiest part of the main street. The Normal school, the only school opened at this time of the year, allowed the management to place an art card and the Crandall letter on their bulletin boards. An announcement was also made of “The Scarlet Letter” in all of the class rooms. Excellent Exploitation on “Fast and Furious” The highly successful Chicago showing of “Fast and Furious”, Reginald Den¬ ny’s newest Universal, are accredited largely to an extensive exploitation campaign under the direction of Jack E. Baker. The campaign covered the entire city and included various forms of press and mercantile tie-ups and neighborhood children’s contests. Among the merchandise houses to co¬ operate were Krause’s Beauty Shop, which ran advertising carrying the title of the picture and photos of Barbara Worth; Princess Pat Co., makers of cos¬ metics and the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company. A contest giving free tickets to the Capitol theatre to those guessing the correct answers to questions broadcast in behalf of the picture by KYW’s Movie Club, was announced daily by Rob Reel in the “American.” Another outstanding exploit was the showing of the picture of Joe Powers, the flag pole sitter, atop the Morrison hotel. “Collegian” Pipes Tie-Up With Universal Series A far-reaching tie-up which started in England with the release of the first series of “The Collegians,” Universal’s two-reel featurettes written and super¬ vised by Carl Laemmle, Jr., has now been brought to the United States with the introduction of the “Collegian” pipe manufactured by Oppenheimer Pipes, Ltd., of London, England, makers of the famous City de Luxe pipes. Universal has made a number of por¬ traits of its popular male stars — Regin¬ ald Denny, Jean Hersholt, George Lew¬ is, Eddie Phillips, Hayden Stevenson and Raymond Keane — smoking the “Col¬ legian” pipe which are available for tieup purposes, while the American distrib¬ utors, A. Oppenheimer & Co., Inc., New York, have prepared handsome window posters and placards for the use of re¬ tail tobacco shops. It is suggested that exhibitors get in touch with their local cigar stores before starting a “Collegians” series and ar¬ range a local campaign. Some exhibit¬ ors are giving “Collegian” pipes as prizes in contests conducted in connec¬ tion with the series. “Twelve Miles Out” Well Advertised at Okmulgee John Gilbert’s latest Metro-GoldwynMayer starring film, “Twelve Miles Out” was put over at the Griffith Brothers’ theatre in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, with a brisk exploitation campaign, devised and put through by Claude Fulgham, man¬ ager, assisted by an M-G-M exploiteer. A trailer was put on ten days before the play date, to Okmulgee. Two fif¬ teen-foot banners were placed on either side of the marquee. Ten onesheet cards were placed in drug store windows, hotels and candy stores. In¬ sert cards were also placed in business houses. Four hand lettered cards, bear¬ ing scenes from the photoplay and star photos, were arranged about the walls of the lobby. A large sign was placed in the lobby with cut out letters lighted by small lights which were attached to a flasher motor. The newspaper campaign consisted of teaser advertisements. Some of these read as follows: “Lost ‘Twelve Miles Out’,” “It was lost ‘Twelve Miles Out’,” and “It was found ‘Twelve Miles Out’.” Although having little connection with the theme of the film these teaser ads so mystified the readers that they came to the theatre in many cases only so that tJiey might solve the problem. Beauty Shop In Tie-up With “Slaves of Beauty” in Qhi. When the Marbro and Granada thea¬ tres in Chicago played “Slaves of Beauty” they used a stunt suggested in the Fox press book. A tie-up was ef¬ fected with the Iris Beauty Shop in Chi¬ cago and the beauty parlor took paid ads on the women’s page of the Chicago Herald-Examiner, using the line “Slaves of Beauty” in bold type with the cut of the star. One ad read: “Women need not be ‘Slaves of Beau¬ ty’ if they use the Iris treatment.” The line under the cut of Olive Tell repeated the title and mentioned the Marbro theatre. Another ad read : “Women, why be ‘Slaves of Beauty’ when Iris permanent waves and Iris per¬ sonal services are incomparable?” Beauty Brings Business The handling by the Balaban & Katz publicity department, headed by W. K. Hollander, of the local elimination con¬ tests to select a “Miss Chicago” for the Atlantic City pageant is regarded as one of the most successful bits of house ex¬ ploitation witnessed hereabouts in a long while. The contests, run in all cjty sections and affording all B. & K. and L. & T. houses their own preliminary sectional winners, improved the theatres’ business from 25 to 100 per cent in every in¬ stance. The contests were handled exclusively by the B. & K. staff under the direction of Hollander. Dave Lipton was instru¬ mental in making the individual angle a success. Business men’s associations, Lions clubs and community chambers of com¬ merce all joined in sponsoring and sell¬ ing the contests to the public. Help Yourself by helping the other fellow — Send Us Your Exploitation Stunts and Ideas Regularly.