Movie Age (1927)

PAGE 20 MOVIE AGE An Extensive Campaign on “Strogoff” Breaks Record's An all-around publicity campaign was promoted by the Schagrin Brothers of Youngstown, Ohio, when they played “Michael Strogoff.” The house catered to all prospects of patronage. A window display tie-up with the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Co., placed sample packages of Sunshine animal crackers in 150 windows. A sign placed in the window stated that Strogoff would have rather met the animal crackers than the animals he met in his thrilling trip through Siberia. This attracted considerable attention. Twelve hundred heralds printed in Slavic were passed out to the congrega¬ tions of the Polish churches at the con¬ clusion of the Sunday services. Heralds were passed out to the chil¬ dren of the public playgrounds. With the cooperation of the playground di¬ rectors every frequenter of the play¬ grounds was reached. An essay contest was promoted with the aid of a local newspaper, the winner of which received passes to the show. Book marks and references in the pub¬ lic library added interest. The house broke all summer records. Loaves of Bread and “Man Power” in Big Tie-up When a new loaf of bread came on the market at Colorado Springs, Col., E. P. Briggs of the Rialto got out a herald which advertised the bread and “Man Power”, Paramount’s picture with Richard Dix. The heralds were in¬ serted with 20,000 loaves of bread daily for three days. Contest value was giv¬ en to the stunt by advertising that a free pass was included in one loaf of bread sold by each grocer. Business was reported good as a result. “Rookies” Advertised By Trailer in Window Carol McPike, of the Le Claire Thea¬ tre, Moline, Ill., set up a transparent screen in a window, and with a portable projector exhibited the trailer on “Rookies”. The stunt advertised a pre¬ view on the picture, and drew a good crowd. An AD-itorial By R. C. “BOB” GARY Advertising and Exploitation are the magic keys that, unlock the gates of theatre prosperity and flood business with new life. They are the two fac¬ tors in this business powerful enough to turn disaster into success. Advertising and Exploitation made great headway durng the world war because they stood the test and made good in helping the sale of Liberty bonds, the Red Cross, the 18 to 45 draft and all the war activities. Theatre owners knew such advertising and ex¬ ploitation brought immediate returns, hence they gained confidence and com¬ menced more advertising and exploita¬ tion of their pictures, thus advertising and exploitation were standardized and promoted to the rank with banking and other high grade business. The government is now a regular user of paid advertising, to help every department that should reach and have the confidence of the masses, and the government also believes in exploita¬ tion. If you want to bring the public to your box office — you have got to ad¬ vertise and exploit your theatre and your pictures. It’s up to you, Mr. Ex¬ hibitor. Read the press books from cover to cover — then bill your town and exploit. The old time inexpensive exploitation stunts are always good. Keep a stock of them in mind and use them again as the occasion demands. For instance, blotters — milk bottle tags — telephone tags — paper napkins — lawn stick-ups — paper sacks — auto tags — misspelled words — heralds — laundry boards — kodak tie-ups. If you do not know what these stunts are — drop me a line and I will be glad to give you full informa¬ tion regarding them in detail. Clinton, Okla., Show Exploits Baseball Film A splendid lobby display was the main feature of the campaign put over by Mrs. Stanfield of the Hamly Theatre, Clinton, Oklahoma, for Metro-GoldwynMayer’s “Slide, Kelly, Slide” in which William Haines has the masculine lead and Sally O’Neil, Harry Carey, Junior Coghlan and a host of baseball celebri¬ ties appear in support of Haines. An M-G-M exploiteer assisted. A twenty-four foot banner was placed in the lobby. Hand painted poster pan¬ els were placed in frames with stills of the star worked into the panels. The entire lobby was redecorated as was the entire front of the theatre. Special hand painted art cards were placed in the frames with the following lettering: “The Home of Master Screen Produc¬ tion,” “The Home of Metro-GoldwynMayer Screen Presentations.” The Walton Hardware company car¬ ried a window on Reach Sporting Goods. The winning team of the Twilight League wras given free tickets for the Saturday night previews. Small teas¬ ers were carried in the local paper five days in advance of the showing. Her¬ alds were given out at the Twilight games and announcements made of the coming of the picture. An Effective Lobby for F. N.’s “Silent Lover” M. M. Clark of the Empress Theatre at Owensboro, Ky., made a very effec¬ tive display for “The Silent Lover,” a First National production. He used two cutouts, easel backed, a double illum¬ inated twelve-foot banner, and a lobby art card, for the lobby. The cutouts were both made from three sheets, backed with beaver board, one being about five feet and the other seven feet tall. The lobby card, about two feet by four, was of black board, the letter¬ ing being in white, and the scene, painted by the house artist, in blue with cactus in gold. Under the marquee there was a long banner in white with lettering in red and black. The tent front was in green and yellow stripes, with the midstrip in dark green.