Moving Picture World (Sep-Oct 1925)

160 MOVING PICTURE WORLD September 12, 1925 A First National Release A NICE DISPLAY THAT COST OSCAR WHITE ONLY $9.50 Greenwood, S. C., is not familiar with such elaborate fronts, so this drew crowds to the Liberty Theatre. It is made mostly from old scraps. The cottage front is 10x6 feet, by 30 inches deep, and is covered with natural vines. It stood all day Sunday in advance. Hunchback Still Runs Up Records Here’s an interesting little tribute to exploitation of the right sort. William Mueller, of the Miller Theatre, Jefferson City, Mo., made more money with The Hunchback of Notre Dame at forty cents top than he has grossed with any other picture with admissions as high as $1.65. For the first time in the two years his house has been open he needed the S. R. O. sign, and with Miller Brothers 101 Ranch for opposition in a town where western stars are the money makers. Maurice Davis, the Universal exploiteer out of St. Louis, helped to put the stunts over. His chief drive was on the churches. Both Protestant and Catholic approved the picture and called it to the attention of the parishioneers, including six Catholic parishes in the outlying towns. A newspaper ran a critic’s contest to help along, but the steady plug is what filled the 1,230 seats. It’s not the age of the picture, but its value, plus the way you sell it. Had Trimmings for Paths to Paradise Anything that moves is a good lobby stunt. Automobiles are of general interest. Montagu Salmon arranged for a demonstration of an automobile snubber in the lobby of the Rialto Theatre, Macon, Ga., during Paths to Paradise, with a sign telling that with the snubber on your car Raymond Griffith and Betty] Compson declared you could ride the Paths to Paradise. The demonstration was with working models, and a lecturer was on the job, with the result that the lobby was packed all day long. A map showing all of the roads leading to Paths to Paradise was widely distributed, and a man in a high hat rode a bicycle all around town for three days. But Mr. Salmon did not rest there. He had a motorcycle back stage to run during the big chase scenes, with a small boy shooting blank cartridges now and then to suggest backfires. It had the more excitable standing up in their seats and greatly heightened the effect of the picture. A Paul Revere Puyallup, Wash., has a population of about 5,000 and 21 churches. After the contribution plates are all supplied there are not many quarters left for the Liberty Theatre, but a Universal exploiteer helped Mike Barovic get them in for I’ll Show You the Town at the Liberty, and a lot of others followed him there. Cooled Them Ollie Brownlee, of the Capitol Theatre, Oklahoma City, put up such a cold lobby on The White Desert that he played to above average on a four day run. Imitation snow on the lobby cards and compoboard icicles on the marquise were the chief factors, saving the cost of the usual snow hut. Local Pride is a Splendid Seller Once, for a little while, Laura La Plante lived in East St. Louis, which is just across the river from the big town. It was not very long, but it was long enough to suit Phil Cohn, of the Lyric Theatre. Maurice Davis, Universalist, discovered the interesting fact and passed it along to Cohn along with the booking for Dangerous Innocence. Cohn started off with single column teasers of three or four inches with such copy as : “Did you know East St. Louis had a new movie star of its own?” “What new movie star claims East St. Louis as Home?” “What East St. Louis girl has just made good in the movies?” “Not the Gishes, not Tom Mix, but a new movie star from East St. Louis. Who is it?” Then the East St. Louis Journal broke a two column cut under a three column head to tell all about it, and ran along with daily stories for the run of the play, while Cohn shot out 8,000 throwaways, 100 block ones, stripped ten 24-sheets with block streamers and whooped up his advertising space. He got the best three-day run he has had in four months. Local pride did it. Orange and Black George E. Brown got the second best receipts in ten weeks at the Palace Theatre, Memphis, Tenn., and did it with a nice colored combination. He gave an orange drink to all persons who came to see Black Cyclone. The horse ran a close second to The Ten Commandments. The drink company bannered their ten trucks, and Brown posted the auto routes out of town. A Paramount Release FREE MANICURES WERE A HELP TO BEBE IN COLUMBUS, GA. George Rea for the display from Athens, and the girl from a local shop, so it cost him little to sell the show at the Grand. He used an auto perambulator for three days to tell about the stunt and to advertise the co-operating beauty parlor.