The Moving picture world (November 1920)

188 MOVING PICTURE WORLD November 13, 1920 Selling the Picture to the&Public Using Every Publicity Angle Sold 1,805 Tickets in House Seating 326 LATELY Lem. L. Stewart has been acting as house manager of the Strand theatre, Asheville, N. C, while the vacation schedule was played off. He is a general manager of publicity for a section of the Southern Enterprises covering the Carolinas, but he took the local job to spell the others. He is back on the general work now, but he went out of the Strand with a record hung up that will stand a lot of beating. The house seats 326. In one day he sold 1805 tickets and he did it with stunts which any house can follow, excepting, perhaps, the ornate lobby. Got Good Pointers Mr. Stewart, like most up-to-date managers, studies the department and remembers what he reads. From Printer's Ink he got the idea of an open letter to some public official, but he could not quite get the lead. He puzzled a couple of days and along came Moving Picture World with Walter Lindlar's Pittsburgh campaign. The letter to the Mayor was not reproduced for text, but merely to give the reader a general idea of the layout of the ad. That did not bother 'em. He had no reading glass handy, but he unscrewed the lens of his pocket kodak and was able to get the text. It was then a simple matter to revamp it to suit local conditions. He ran it as a three tens. It happened that there was a big political meeting on and any open letter to the Mayor got even more attention than it usually would command— it is never obscure publicity. The meeting was held Wednesday night and the letter came out Thursday. It made such an impression that he decided to follow up. Here's Good Copy He had read something in Printer's Ink to the effect that a monument to mothers and sweethearts had never been erected. The copy reproduced on this page came out Friday morning, following a meeting of the other party. It made more talk. Meanwhile the daily paper was giving him a quarter column of press work each day, including a cut. He handed out 3.000 paper napkins to the cafes with "Humoresque," in blue across the face and then he turned his attention to the lobby. With the assistance of Mr. Tipton, stage manager of the Auditorium, a sister house, he planned to reproduce the final scenes of the play. Real sod and gravel covered the floor (on boards laid down) a connection was made for the fountain and vines concealed the stairway to the offices. Artificial vines covered the walls and furniture was borrowed for the setting. Cost But $15 It looked like a million dollars, but the cash outlay was $999,985 short of this figure, for it cost but $15. The house is not open Sundays, but the lights were left full on all the evening, and no stand of paper ever did such work. Monday told the story. They broke the records for attendance and they broke the record for receipts, and the only think that kept Lem from getting pinched for obstructing the sidewalks with his standout was the fact tha he was down at the newspaper office while the cop was at fever heat. And here is one of the points which will solve a problem for many managers and cause them to call down blessings on Lem's wise head. Asheville is one of those towns where the populace goes to the first show. They want to be early and get a good seat. The result is that they pile up in front of the house, see the standout and decide to come back later. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. They meet someone and go somewhere, or they get tired and go home, and the house never gets the money they intended to spend. To beat this, Lem makes a drive on the late shows. For "Humoresque" he ran a time table and played up the fact that you could come as late as 10 o'clock and STEWART'S ■HUMORESQUE" COPY see a complete show. He ran a slide in his own and the sister houses reading: Try This Slide The early evening hours at the Strand are the crowded hours. Yet you can come as late as 9:45 and be in time. Why not visit us when you can be comfortably seated without standing in line? This is followed by slides for the next three attractions. Most managers try to get them out early because the pressure is on the late show, but in an "early" town this slide will work wonders. The result of all the work is that the house records are hopelessly smashed and it was done in the off season when there was no tourist public to swell the receipts and it ran four days instead of three — all they could get. It is all straight stuff and good stuff, and except for the "monument" advertisement, you had the same chance as Lem, for it is all stuff printed in this department, though not all of it for this particular play. No copy ever is tied to any one play. It can all be adapted. Make that "Something to Think About." SEE WHAT YOU CAN GET FOR FIFFTEEN DOLLARS That's all this lobby cost Lem Stewart and the Strand Theatre, Asheville, N. C, one of the Southern Enterprise's string. And the campaign broke every record and did it in the ion-tourist season. Going some! A MONUMENT TO MOTHERS It ia but natural, in the heat of National Political campaigns, that many people should under-estimate the great service* of great leader*. Personality conflicts with our judgment of a leader'* good policies, we are unconsciously prejudiced and apt to depreciate the great good which he has accomplished. But finally history give* him his rightful place. A later generation will erect a monument to WOODROW WILSON. Americans are now erecting a monument to THEODORE ROOSEVELT. History lauds and repeats in emphasis the great deeds accomplished by ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ROBERT E. LEE, ANDREW JACKSON and many other great leaders, to whom monument* have been erected. Biographical articles are starred with the names of men who achieve. But — is a monument ever erected, i* space ever given, does history do justice to the MOTHERS — the Mothers who stood by. encouraged and believed, who inspired to great deeds these youths of our Nation? Yea I Such a monument has been erected. But not a chiseled atone of lifeless beauty. The Monument to Mother* ia a living, breathing monument that time cannot efface. It is a monument to all. comprehensible by all, a monument built of. the world's greatest medium of expression — Motion Pictjres. Thuj Monument to Mothers touches the heartstrings. "HUMORESQUE" This photoplay, a Paramount production of Fenpte Hurst's great epic of modern literature, will inspire you. ll will be shown at the Strand theatre starting Monday. See it 0 a ton or a daughter. And you'll experience a new happiness from this modern monument, a monument to Mothers.