Moving Picture World (Mar-Apr 1923)

742 M O V l S G PICTURE WORLD April 14, 1923 Tied Film Fashions to Racing Hearts Because the stage of the Palace Theatre, Fort Smith, Ark., is too small to permit the use of models in a fashion show, Hugo Plath put it on a film and ran that off, giving about as much satisfaction. It was a special for Racing Hearts, but only one angle of the campaign. An auto agency sent several new model cars around town for an entire week before the opening as well as during the engagement, and bannered these for the attraction. The week of the showing a car was displayed in the lobby. This had the wheels jacked up and these were given motion by a small electric motor. The car could have been worked under its own power, but the resultant gases would have been the reverse of an attractor, so the silent and odorless motor was used. Mr. Plath can trace a number of direct ticket sales to this feature. He made a miniature road race in the windows of the automobile company, to hook in and to announce that Jim Murphy, the champion race driver, would be seen in the film. For the lobby display he used two-foot hearts, one to each letter of the title. This and the automobile was sufficient to get attention. As the merchants who were represented on the film paid the cost of making it, Mr. Plath’s expense was around five dollars for a decided increase in business, and he shipped the display on to the Palace Theatre, Muskogee, further cutting the cost. Sheiked the Voice Figuring that The Voice from the Minaret was one of those Sheik stories, Frank H. Dowler, district supervisor, used a desert scene in his shadow box for The Voice from the Minaret, and Norma brought him 40 per cent over the normal business. It was an elaborate set, with three striped tents, some rqiniature trees, a couple of painted palms and some genuine desert sand, not to mention a couple of camels which look suspiciously like paperweights. Good lighting made it look like a lot of money. Got Two Windows in Single Store Books brought five hook-ups on The Christian when it was played at the Strand Theatre, Hartford, Conn. One of the windows was in a dry goods store, which had a book department, and here the Goldwynner also hooked a second window on gowns, with stills from the banquet scenes to interest in the local dresses. Along the book lines the Hartford News Company laid off fifth window cards to smaller shops handling a limited supply of books. Hartford officials are fiercely fussy about perambulators and apparently would as soon have the pest wagon parading the streets, so they bannered the windows of the taxicabs on four panes, with an overflow meeting on the windshields. On the same lines 500 hangers were affixed the steering wheels of private cars reading, “Stop,” in large type, with the injunction to go to the Strand. Five thousand letters were sent to an automobile mailing list and there was a preshowing to 250 clergymen and divinity students in a local college. And the store hangers, with “Closed to see The Christian at the Strand Theatre,” were used on Sunday, when all of the establishments were tightly locked. Taken by and large, they got their money back on the picture, plus interest and profit. Dealt in Dope With the entire country talking about the drug evil, one would think that Eddie Collins, of the Capitol Theatre, Galveston, would not take the risk of handing out dope, but Eddie put out 3,000 “decks” of dope in small envelopes printed : DOPE Don’t Open Unless You Use It Inside was a tiny slip reading: “Thi's is straight dope. Reginald Denny in The Kentucky Derby is the greatest romance of fast horses and throbbing hearts ever made.” The signature followed. Jack Meredith, Universalist, helped Eddie out, getting him four windows and building a racing scene for the lobby. It all made for real business. Dressed Cutout to Match the Drapes Charles M. McManus got out of the rut when he made a display for The Stranger's Banquet at the Rialto, one of the Jensen and Von Herberg houses in Tacoma. He used a cutout from a three sheet and dressed it in a new costume to match the curtains used to enlarge the display. The drapery is purple sign cloth, touched up with gold splashes, and the dress is a slightly lighter shade of the same material. It is all held together with a frame and border of compo board, matching the coloring so perfectly that it does not show clearly in the cut. A Goidvoyn Release THE TACOMA NOVELTY Such a display as this does not mar the most beautiful lobby, and at the same time it serves to give the suggestion of richness to the production itself, since the advertisement influences the impression of the thing thus advertised; a poor advertisement reacting against the product as surely as good work helps. Not even the most critical can pick flaws in McManus’ accomplishment. It’s real. Three window tie-ups were landed and a set of accessories, including napkins, toothpicks, bottles, toast books and after-dinner mints, were given each guest at the Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and Commercial Club luncheons the previous week. The mints were the lifesavers, two to an envelope and 4,000 envelopes, each printed for the play. Press Book Display Gives a Lobby Idea It is by no means the first time it has happened, but C. W. Irvin, of the Imperial Theatre, Columbia, S. C., got the idea for his lobby attractor from a one-column advertisement in the press book when he started on Nobody’s Money. He worked this with a one sheet, cut up, and a dollar mark, bordering it with the money heralds. He kept a supply of the latter on hand, because the heralds were lightly attached to the design and the patrons valued them the more because they thought they were putting one over on Mr. Irvin when they swiped them. Irvin just smiled and set ’em up again. He knew that was what would happen. In his off hours the theatre's doorman circulated around the banks and dropped heralds on the floor. Almost every time someone would call his attention to the dropped money and would pick up the herald when he generously told them they could have it. A Principal Release AN APPROPRIATE DISPLAY FOR “THE WORLD’S A STAGE” This was designed by Frank J. Miller, of the Modjeska Theatre, Augusta, Ga. The circular piece is flat compo board, painted to show the continents, with a built-in stage in the center, with real scenery and doll actors.