Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1923)

MOVING PICTURE WORLD 485 December 1, 1923 Loaned a Generator to Get in a Parade Generally when picture exploitation gets mixed up with a parade, the ballyhoo comes at the end of the line, as the people are turning away, but the Strand Theatre, San Francisco, managed to horn into the very center of the Moose parade which was given on the evening the American Legion opened its convention. The Moose wanted lights and M. L. Markowitz arranged for the loan of one of the generator outfits used in the Pickford and Fairbanks studios for night and other work. This supplied the current for four big arcs and a number of smaller lights, and was placed in the center of the big parade, where more than 75,000 persons had to read the huge signs which told that Rosita would shortly be seen. Generator wagons are familiar to Los Angeles, but it was more of a novelty to San Franciscans, and so it interested in a double aspect, and all of the interest was diverted to the coming of the play. Not many managers can borrow picture equipment from the studios, but it is always possible to plan for some sort of an intrusion on a local event if the wants of the promoters are studied. Cloakey Campaign on Green Goddess Appreciating the coloc values of Oriental designs, Oral D. Cloakey, of the Regent Theatre, Ottawa, made a drive on oriental art for the run of The Green Goddess. Jewelry stores were persuaded to parade their oriental and pseudo oriental ornaments for a window display with a card, furniture concerns dug out their rugs for dressed windows and even the drug stores found a way to follow in with incense burners and powder. Oriental backings were painted for department stores willing to use them, the dresses being as much in harmony with the backing as possible, and for a last kick he borrowed the stage dressing for his prologue from 'a concern, insured the goods for the week and got co-operative windows and newspaper ads from both the store and the insurance firm. Fifty Special Cards Fifty special window cards were painted and cut out to suggest the outline of an Indian temple, and in one window he had a temple setting with a large opening down front through which the display could be seen. This was presumably to heighten the realism, but in fact it served to accentuate the green lighting on the display. An oriental attendant kept incense burning and stuck around the window to give motion to the display. A candy store was hooked to the Green Goddess kisses and a drug concern to a perfume of the same title. Several soda fountains handled Green Goddess sundaes, with colorful mirror announcements and the tea hook-up from the press book was shown to have real value. Music stores featured oriental numbers such as Chanson Indouen and even an automobile concern told how much the Green Goddess would have appreciated one of the cars of their make. The prologue was a solo by a man in a costume similar to that worn by Arliss. Spread the Circle Jack Rosenthal got The Hottentot for a belated run. He figured while his Model Theatre was a neighborhood house and the picture had played many other Philadelphia LIGHTED A PARADE TO TELL OF PICKFORD PRODUCTION This generator from the Pickford studios was set into the Moose parade in San Francisco the opening night of the Legion convention and told 75,000 persons that Rosita was coming to the Strand Theatre in a few days. Good work, and inexpensive. theatres, there must be in each territory some persons who had heard of the play after it had left their neighborhood house. His ballyhoo was a pair of boys in silks mounted on good looking horses, so he not only thoroughly covered his own territory but sent the boys far afield. Watching the doors demonstrated the fact that he did draw from new territory. Not only were there many new faces in the crowd, but some people told the attendants that they had come some distance to see the picture they had heard so much about. This is a point city exhibitors are apt to overlook. On a two or three day run, the verbal advertising on specially good plays gets in its work, too late to bring all in, and another house in adjacent territory may be able to pull them in, and possibly bring them back for other shows. If you exploit every picture, you ' are no better off than though you exploited none. Six Day Kiss Poses Help Sell Picture The six kiss poses used on the large sheets for Six Days have given inspiration to a lot of managers. The Capitol Theatre, Dallas, Texas, built a false dome in the lobby with six divisions, in each of which was one of the kissing poses, properly lettered, and lighted at night by concealed bulbs. Taken in connection with the name of the author, this suggestion helped to sell the Goldwyn to exceptional business. But not all of the reliance was placed in a lobby stunt. Good use was made of the news service posters, which the stores seemed glad to get, and a lavish use was made of the heralds which are a reproduction of the 24-sheet. The “How to win a wife or husband in Six Days,’’ copy for which is supplied in Eddie Bonus’ valuable yellow sheets, was also effective. A First National Release A CASE WHERE TWO HEADS WERE BETTER THAN ONE H. B. Clarke, of the Casino Theatre, Greenville, S. C., used cutouts from both the 24-sheet and the six for A Man of Action. The use of the double cutout gives a better balance than where either is used alone, the side frames helping the effect. A United Artists Release