Moving Picture World (Dec 1920)

December 4, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 615 Selling the Picture to thejPublic Clemmer Theatre Makes Big Campaign on Farrar in “The Riddle : Woman ” PLAYING the attraction in a strong newspaper campaign of extra size put over Geraldine Farrar in “The Riddle : Woman” as strongly at the Clemmer Theatre, Seattle, as did the Raffles stunt in Boston. The attraction was booked in for a week, and the campaign covered an eleven-day period of persistent effort. The Clemmer opens its attractions on a Saturday instead of Sunday, and this Pathe super-special was scheduled for October 30. The newspaper campaign was started four days earlier when the first announcement was a half of the double seventy lines used by James Q. Clemmer as his usual space. These Clemmer daily spaces carry the head across the two columns and then split the remainder of the space between the current and the coming attraction, if the latter is of sufficient importance to warrant this advance work. A twelve-point border holds it all together. W orked on the Idea This first space struck the keynote of the campaign, which was derived from the title itself, for it announced “A drama of the mysteries of a woman’s soul — from the stage play of the same name.” Wednesday the space was 140 lines deep by four columns, and here a striking cut was incorporated into the display and the selling line was changed to “an exotic drama of a woman’s soul. Geraldine Farrar’s best picture.” It built up on this with “Glorious in her tigeress-like temper as in her tenderest moments.” Thursday the space went back to seventies across two with “What man has not tried to solve the mystery of a woman’s nature? What woman has not wondered at the uncertainties of her own heart?” Getting Larger Friday there was a three-column, 140-line space with a 20-line box for the closing attraction, and the rest given the Farrar opening, still hammering on the title idea with “A searching drama of a woman’s struggle with her own heart?” The Saturday space was not much larger, but the Sunday advertisements tore things loose. There was a red and black 4 by 140 in the Post Intelligencer, which also gave a tint portrait on the front of the amusement -section and a 14-inch story alongside with the theatre’s regular reader in addition. The Times got four fulls. Sold the Idea In no story was there any excess of text. The space was not loaded down with a lot of superlatives. It was taken for granted that Geraldine Farrar would sell to most on the strength of her name. To get the others, each space in the entire campaign played up the appeal of the mystery of a woman’s heart, always with a change of copy. That was the big thing — the riddle of a woman’s nature — and Dr. Clemmer sold this to the limit. The same thing was done in all the press stuff. It offers the premise of the play and then leaves it to the imagination of the reader to do the rest. It does not sell the star on her reputation — which would be a waste. She has been sold on her reputation. It adds to this fame the virtues of a story uncommonly strong, and sells that, as something not yet sold to the reader. T ook 479 Inches In all some 479 column inches were taken to put over the play, using only the three mediums. This was entirely apart from the lobby display and other exploitation stunts. Dr. Clemmer knew that in this case he had an attraction which could best be put over through a newspaper campaign, so he used extra space to get those readers who do not ordinarily follow the pictures, but who would be attracted by the star, who was better known to them than the regular picture players. He made his drive on the star and the play and appealed to a large number who could not ordinarily be reached, and yet his entire campaign rested almost wholly upon the title and ideas derived from the title. Massaud Forms Society to Promote Gump Folks William Massaud, manager of the Orpheum, Reading, Pa., believes in putting over all his show. Recently he took four youngsters, dressed them up as the Gump cartoon family and dined them at the leading restaurant. Then he formed a society with “What is a Gump?” as the hailing sign and “O, Min!” as the response. Twenty thousand membership cards were distributed and the stunt was promoted by means of window cards and speeches from the stage. He figures that he will play the Gump series and it will pay to do all his advertising at the start, the same as a serial. You can build a fireproof theatre, but you can’t build a panic crowd. Guard against panics. Raided a Furrier for Marge O’Doone” Display Evidently the Hippodrome, Joplin, raided a fur store for its lobby display for “The Courage of Marge O’Doone.” It borrowed a couple of deer, a fox and a lynx and with a painted back got a display that held the attention of all who passed the lobby and which probably brought a lot of people down to the house to see what the rest of the town was talking about. That’s the big angle on a lobby display. It can only sell the people who see the display. If you can make the crowd come to see that you can sell tickets to the majority of your visitors. In this case four stuffed animals and a painted set sold more than a full newspaper page probably would have done. Got a Two-Column Head for a Music Cue Sheet A simple and yet effective stunt was worked by the Alcazar, Great Falls, Mont. The Tribune used Goldwyn’s musical cue sheet for “Scratch My Back” as the basis of a Sunday story with a two-column head about music for the pictures. Cue sheets are commonplace to the managers. It never occurs to them that there is any story in such a thing, yet the patrons know little or nothing about the preparation of music for the pictures, and they are really interested in learning about it. And of course their interest extended to “Scratch My Back” and many went down to see how the music would work out. There are lots of stories about the conduct of a picture theatre which will interest the public. Look around and see if you cannot get your own editor interested. Many of them are required to turn in a certain amount of Sunday feature stuff and in other cases they get paid space rates. In either instance they are sure to welcome suggestions for stories of interest to their readers. THERE IS SOMETHING FOXY ABOUT THIS DISPLAY You’ll find it just alongside the sign which tells the playing dates of "The Courage of Marge O’Doone,” the Vitagraph-Curwood production. The lobby is an improvement on the snow clad box office because it is more novel