Movie Age (1927)

MOVIE AGE PAGE 20 ,X,A iVJc IEATRJE rpM/ctU/ Mysterious Teaser Ads in Tie-up for “The Unknown” Mysterious sounding teaser ads on Lon Chaney’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ve¬ hicle, “The Unknown,” were the basis for the publicity campaign on that pic¬ ture when it played the Adelphos Thea¬ tre, Ardmore, Okla. The Rawlins Furniture company had a special window display of a suite of fine bed room furniture, with special handlettered cards reading “ ‘The Un¬ known’ buys our furniture — ‘the Un¬ known’ will buy this beautiful set of furniture for his girl.” The Henly Ladies’ Furnishing store carried a window display on ladies’ ac¬ cessories — cards placed in the window read as follows: “The star of ‘The Un¬ known’ wears the finest of lingerie — Joan Crawford, star of ‘The Unknown,’ endorses our ladies’ furnishings.” The Ardmore Bakery company car¬ ried special windows on pastries. Cards read: “‘The Unknown’ eats our fa¬ mous pastries — ‘The Unknown’ eats our fine doughnuts.” The Herd Hardware company carried a window on bathing suits. Cards were placed in window reading: “Joan Craw¬ ford, star of ‘The Unknown,’ wears a Jantzen Bathing Suit.” Library Gives Out Book Marks for “Sorrel & Son” A model public library tie-up on “Sorrell and Son” was conducted by the Cleveland Public Library in cooperation with the Stillman Theatre. The theatre printed bookmarks 3 in. by 8 in. carrying a list of “father and son” literature compiled by the library. These bookmarks were distributed with every book given out in the circulating department of the main library and thirty branch libraries. Besides, the li¬ brary in its various branches carried a display of still pictures from “Sorrell and Son,” the photoplay, and book jack¬ ets of various titles relating to fathers and sons. ■rrrrrm.fr, ; i.i ::n Jarman BUILD BUSINESS lALb-uHim 1 1 -m 1 1 m m hi Trri 1 1 m Equestrian Stunt Aids Showing of “Ben Hur” An equestrian stunt was one of the many unusual features employed at the Empress Theatre, Sapulpa, Okla., to put over a showing of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “Ben Hur,” starring Ramon Novarro. J. A. Moeller, manager of the Empress Theatre, did the exploitation work on this M-G-M production, aided by an M-G-M exploiteer. Three days before the opening of the attraction the equestrian ballyhoo was put out on the streets. A rider in uni¬ form mounted on a horse, bearing trap¬ pings, lettered with the following copy, “Coming, the mightiest of all photo¬ graphs — ‘Ben Hur,’ ” rode through the streets and distributed heralds on the attraction. The lobby display consisted of a forty foot banner placed across the front of the marquee, and of two fifteen foot banners stretched across either end of the marquee. Five hand painted poster panels, with stills from the production worked in, were arranged about the in¬ terior of the lobby. An arrangement was made with M. J. E. Rogers, Superintendent of Schools, for an announcement to be made before every class of the public schools rela¬ tive to a special matinee for the chil¬ dren. The same announcement was also made in all the rural schools surrounding Sapulpa. Letters were mailed to all the clergy¬ men of the city, requesting them to make announcements of the showing from either their pulpits or before some other religious meeting. Every minister in the city was glad to co-operate with Mr. Moeller on this powerful and dra¬ matic picture of the times of Christ. Song Tie-up for “Speedy” With the release of Harold Lloyd’s new comedy production, “Speedy” by Paramount, exhibitors will be offered a song tie-up with the Lloyd picture as a part of their exploitation campaign. Coincident with the release of the pic¬ ture, Robbins and Company are pub¬ lishing a song based on the story of “Speedy” and the character portrayed by Lloyd. The song will have a dis¬ tribution throughout the country, not only in music stores, but in department stores, drug stores and other establish¬ ments handling songs as a side line. The publishers have representatives in several of the larger cities in the United States who will be glad to cooperate with exhibitors of “Speedy” in regard to window displays and other hook-ups. Three Feminine Stars Sign Warner Contracts Three of their most popular players, May McAvoy, Lelia Hyams and Myrna Loy, received new contracts last week from Warner Bros., who will have their entire array of stars ready in February to start work on the 1928-29 schedule. All three actresses were signed for a period of years and will have prominent places in the stories filmed by Warner next season. The new contract in each case was the result of the player’s work on the program of releases completed when the Warner Studio closed for a vacation period last week. Miss McAvoy came to Warners a year ago and since then has played for them in “Matinee Ladies,” “Irish Hearts,” “Slightly Used,” “A Reno Divorce,” “If I Were Single” and “The Little Snob.” In addition, she appered as feinine lead in “The Jazz Singer” and in the recent¬ ly finished Vitaphoned special, “The Lion and the Mouse.” Lelia Hyams is a Warner Bros, dis¬ covery. Productions in which she has scored recently include two Monte Blue pictures, “The Brute” and “One Round Hogan.” Her last was “The Crimson City.” Myrna Loy also is a Warner find. Her first role was in “Don Juan” and this was followed by “Across the Pa¬ cific,” “Bitter Apples,” “The Climbers” and several others. She recently regis¬ tered in the title role of “The Girl From Chicago.”