Movie Age (1927)

PAGE 18 MOVIE AGE l,AiV/£ IEATRJE Campaign Sold Public On Six Pictures Playing Bloomington Theatre Don W. Hoobler, publicity and ex¬ ploitation manager for Bloomington Theatres, Inc., put over a very novel campaign for the Irvin Theatre, Bloom¬ ington, Ill., in which he arranged an ex¬ tensive tie-up with the Purity-Ann Bak¬ ing Co. boosting six pictures played at the Irvin. On six successive days, the baking company placed a slip of paper in each of 45,000 loaves of bread turned out. On this slip was printed the titles, stars, and play dates of six pictures which were to be played at the theatre from November 14 to December 3, two each week. Each picture was numbered and the slips were the same every day. The second week, descriptive publicity para¬ graphs, a different one each day, were enclosed with every loaf of bread. The contents were required to fill in the number of the picture from the des¬ cription. Following is the paragraph used to describe “She’s a Sheik”: “Here she is — a bold desert roamer — the screen’s most popular female star in a satire on many desert dra¬ mas. It’s a long, loud laugh!” Above this paragraph on the slip ap¬ peared the following caption: “Which of the six Irvin pictures does this paragraph describe?” Be¬ low was a note reading: “Fill in the number of one of the six pictures which were listed in Purity Ann.” The third week of the contest, an¬ other set of the paragraphs was in¬ serted with the bread and a newspaper ad was run listing the pictures and re¬ peating the number of each. The final step in the contest was to require each contestant to write 50 words on the subject, “The Picture I Should Like Best, and Why.” Prizes were as follows: First, $50; second, $25; third, $15; fourth, $7.50; fifth, $2.50 and for the next fourteen best an¬ swers, tickets to the Irvin Theatre. 1,000 Youths Get Bloody Thumbs for Exploitation Here is an exploitation stunt which was used successfully by Manager Charley Jones of the Colonial Theatre, Harrisburg, Pa., during the run of Columbia’s special, “The Blood Ship.” Capitalizing on the well-known fact that every child delights in displaying a sore finger, Jones provided 1,000 youngsters with imitation bloody thumbs to help advertise the picture. These imitations were in the form of white bandages smeared with red ink that fitted nicely on any juvenile thumb, and many a mother had a thrill when her best beloved offspring arrived home from school displaying the apparently injured finger. The fun came for the youngsters in disclosing that it was just a joke. Then the mother received the explana¬ tion that it was an advertisement for the current week’s attraction at the Colonial. This method of emphasizing the presence of “The Blood Ship” in town was favorably reflected in the size of the crowds drawn to the theatre and the increase of the box office receipts for the week. Milkmen Go in Band to See “Cat and the Canary” Exploiteer H. P. McBride hit the high comedy spot in “The Cat and the Canary” during its run in Los Angeles. Instead of stressing black cats and weird spooks, he chose a march of the milk men to let the city know Universal’s mystery success was playing at the Cri¬ terion Theatre. It will be remembered that Joe Mur¬ phy, as the milkman in the film, intro¬ duced a lot of comedy relief on his mad ride with Flora Finch in search of a motor cop. Mr. McBride arranged with the Crescent Creamery company to band all the salesmen together and have them march through the main downtown streets in their neat striped uniforms and white caps. The parade was head¬ ed by a large sign mounted on laths an¬ nouncing that the Crescent milk sales¬ men were on their way to the Criterion Theatre to see “The Cat and the Ca¬ nary.” An AD-itorial By E. L. Delaney, M-G-M Exploiteer. An exhibitor — for the sake of am¬ biguity we will call him Hank Smith — writes in, bewailing the fact that he cannot get any co-operation from the merchants, or merchant’s association in his city to help exploit his attractions. He says the local business men will not co-operate with him on advertising tieups, newspaper or otherwise, that they discourage the use of window cards or stills in shop windows and in fact that they consider his “movie” more or less of a parasite in his little commercial world. That it takes the spare money of the community and gives little or nothing in return except a certain amount of entertainment. The local business men who entertain those views are afflicted with a pinched perspective. Their horizon is bounded by the length There Will Be More Exploitation Ideas in the 1928 FILM DAILY YEAR BOOK than in any book of its kind ever published