Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1923)

December 8, 1923 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 551 Had Proper Colors for Ballyhoo Stunt Using a jockey ballyhoo for the PapyrusZev race pictures, produced by Pathe, Loew’s Palace theatre, Memphis, was careful to dress the rider in the colors worn by the American jockey. With so much being said in the papers about the colors of the stables, this careful touch helped along the display. The rider was a lightweight and rode with short stirrups to further the suggestion. A Pathe Release THE MEMPHIS BALLYHOO The rider wore a sash stating that the picture was then playing at the Palace and carried a flag which was lettered “Zev wins, see the race foot by foot at Loew’s Palace, now.” This was supplemented by a display of scenes of the actual race and a lettered card in the lobby, but the riding advertisement brought in the most coin. Ribbons for Nags Last year — or perhaps it was the year before— the Paramounteer in Portland, Ore., blanketed all the prize stock at the State Fair with the titles of Paramount productions. This year Chester A. Arthur tried a new tackle. One of the features of the fair is a horse show with one big award each evening, to the value of $1,000 each. Arthur got some purple ribbons, one for each night, Production Hints from Edward L. Hyman Managing Director, Mark-Strand Theatre, Brooklyn After three weeks of heavy harmony the women’s chorus of eighteen is having a rest of one week, during which it will help broadcast the first Brooklyn Mark Strand Radio Concert through Station WEAF. In their absence the ballet, soloists and orchestra are putting on some varied stuff, with four girls at four pianos as an added presentation. The Symphonized Jazz Overture, opening the show for All-Chaplin Week, which was made up of “A Woman of Paris” and his revival, “Pay Day,” was a special arrangement and orchestration of “Love Tales” and “I Love You,” in which the marimbaphone and the saxophones were given the chance to steal a lot of thunder. The lighting harmonies for this, with the draw curtains of the small stage closed, centered on green and amber. There were two booth Mestrum floods of ISO amperes covering the sides and stage, with two amber dome spots on the musicians. The foots of the big stage were green, as were also those of small stage, and the coves were yellow. Although simple, this combination is one of the richest used. For “Just as Long as You Have Me,” from “The Gingham Girl,” a back drop of the front of a general store, with set piece porch and steps, was used. It opened with a dance to orchestra accompaniment by six girls in gingham. At their exit soprano in gingham entered from left and tenor in summer suit from the right. They met at the steps, sat down and the girl sang first verse and chorus, then a duet by the pair, and still another arrangement of duet for another chorus with some business by the girl dancers. At close all were on the porch and steps. At opening three amber spots and one light pink from the side were on the set, with amber foots and borders. A magenta open box lamp from one side and an amber from the other wrere hitting the front of the store. At the duet all lights dimmed off except the two amber and one light pink spots, giving a twilight effect for the close. Jerry and Her Piano Quartette of Girls, using four pianos all facing the side in the same direction, were backed up by a silver cyclorama, with props consisting of two silver floor lamps and a massive chandelier of silver. Pianists were in evening gowns. At opening, playing a few bars of “Morning” of Peer Gynt Suite, two spots of color blend from the dome hit the pianos, using the scallop of the red plush tormer to mask a design above the pianos on the silver cyclorama. X-rays were magenta, and one rose pink and one light blue spot from the sides picked out the chandelier. From “Morning” the pianists went into “Trot Along” and another color blend from the dome was added to the first one, and green and magenta floods crossed on the cyclorama. From “Trot Along” the pianos went into Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude,” and two light pink floods replaced the dome color blends. Girls took one bow after “Prelude” and then struck up “Nola,” the stage going blue with an orange flood on pianos, and two light pink spots on the chandelier. At the close two amber dome spots came out on the pianos as the orange was taken off. Front lighting included light pink and light blue on canopy drapes from entrance spots, with blue coves and light blue floods on the side drapes. The running of this show, with the Topical Review, was two hours and eleven minutes, split up as follows : Duet and dancers, five minutes; Symphonized Jazz, six minutes; Piano Quartette, eight minutes ; “Pay Day,” twenty-two minutes; Review, eight minutes, and “A Woman of Paris,” one hour and twenty-two minutes. and this was announced as a Paramount Pictures Special Award in a full page in the program. Each evening the announcer megaphoned the winner and added that he (or she) had also won the Paramount Special Award. As the crowds ran from 15,000 to 25,000 a night, this seemed to be a fairly good return on the small investment for ribbons, particularly as they were then having Paramount Month all over the State. Gets a Prize Howard Price Kingsmore, of the Howard Theatre, Atlanta, gets another prize. Each year there is held a municipal Christmas party for the poor children in which the entire town is interested. This year it will be given at the Howard, with the Mayor himself acting as Santa Claus. Ran Cartoon Series for Twenty-one Days Extensive use has been made of the Dulcy cartoon series, but the best report comes from Frank H. Burns, exploitation man for the Beacham Theatre, Orlando, Fla. He got the local paper to use the entire set, running them three weeks. This established the Dulcy idea and when the theatre shot out several thousand cards urging the reader to use Dulcy as the synonym for Dumb-bell, the entire town adopted the word and used it even when they did not really mean to call others stupid. Supplemented by window cards and heralds, Dulcy was made a household word and the business was comfortably above the average. A Fox Release THE TWO TABLEAUX IN THE PROLOGUE TO IF WINTER COMES USED BY HYMAN AT THE MARK STRAND The details of this prologue were given in a recent issue. The stage shows a man dreaming before the fire and the winter scene is disclosed in a frame in the back drop eighteen feet wide, showing through scrim. The lights are dimmed and come back on the spring setting, in allusion to the quotation: “If Winter comes can Spring be far behind ?” This was one of Hyman s most successful prologuee.