The Moving picture world (April 1921)

488 MOVING PICTURE WORLD April 2, 1921 Selling the Picture to the&Public Linked Attraction to Get the Old Folks in Herbert H. Johnson looked over the list of recent First Nationals and noted that they had Mildred Harris in "Old Dad" and Constance Talmadge in "Mama's Affair." Then he saw a great light. He booked them a week apart and then took special spaces in the newspapers to announce two special nights. Monday, March 7, was "Dad's Night" at his Luna Theatre, Lafayette, Ind. On that evening any dad, properly chaperoned by the children he dadded, would be admitted free to see the Harris attraction. The following week the same children did not have to pay for mother, but dad was off the free list this time. It made a lot of talk and put over both titles. The advertising was jazzy and struck a popular appeal. It went right to the spot. Broke Rule for "The Kid" Proctor's Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, does not feature its photo-play offerings, and it is virtually a rule of the house that the effort made shall all be in behalf of the vaudeville section of the program. Last week an exception was made to this rule and a Charlie Chaplin and a small boy paraded the territory, but spent most of their time in front of the house. Through the afternoon the Fifth Avenue is a dropin house, and the ballyhoo built the receipts to a tidy figure. Usfd Jazz Band for Stage and Ballyhoo Samuel Lesselbaum, of the Stadium theatre, Brooklyn, likes prologues, and as an introduction to "Dinty" he hired a real boys jazz band with real players, one of the juvenile acts booked by Max Ruddick. It made such a hit with the boys in the neighborhood that they started a rival organization and set up a rehearsal room a couple of blocks away, using tin pans, boxes and almost anything else, including a kazoo and a fife. Hyman 's Novelties at the Mark Strand Marking the Easter season, the program at the Mark Strand, Brooklyn, for the week commencing Easter Sunday opens with an elaborate musical production arranged by Manager Edward L. Hyman and employing a double quartet of mixed voices. The scene is the choir loft of a church with a surpliced choir and organist The light through the window at the rear is blue with an amber spot overhead and orange and magenta from the sides. The selection is Gounod's "Unfold Ye the Portals" and is accompanied by the organ and orchestra in combination. The organ is banked with Easter lilies and the opposite side with palms. The scene is fronted with a scrim on which is painted a huge cross in white. The first of the "Adventures of Bob and Bill" follows, giving place to a staged vocal number. This shows a drawing room with a three paneled bay window at the rear. The eight singers are dancing as the curtains part to a waltz. The dance ceases and the four women sing Ball's "Dear Little Boy of Mine," followed by Geibel's "Annie Laurie," sung by the men. The ED If. L. HYMAN last number is "Auf Wiedersehn" from Friml's "The Blue Paradise." As the number draws to a close the singers exit through the windows, the curtain slowly closing in as the last couple leave the stage. The stage is in blue and amber, with a shaft of moonlight through the open windows, but the moon does not show. The orchestra is flooded in purple from the booth. The Topical Review follows and this, in its turn, gives place to a scenic spectacle. On a film-waved sea a small steamship slowly moves across the scene, with ports illuminated and smoke issuing from the funnels. Wireless flashes spring from the aerials as she moves through a storm of real rain, supplied through a perforated pipe in the front of the gridiron and caught in a gutter below. The music for this is "Gobi," written by Alois Reiser, conductor of the orchestra, which is now on the press. This serves as a prologue to "Lying Lips," the feature. During the feature there will be two musical interpolations, "Because" (D'Hardelot), a tenor solo, and "Come to My Garden of Roses," as a baritone solo. The after-feature number will be a boy prodigy; a ten-year-old pianist, who will play a Mendelssohn concerto in a black cyclorama. A pair of spotlights will illuminate the performer, who is a local discovery of Hyman's' and said to be a real find. This is followed by one of the "Toonerville Trolley" series and the "March of the Pilgrims," from "Tannhauser," will be played for the organ postlude. Lesselbaum heard of the organization. Perhaps it would be better to say that he heard it, since it was only two blocks distant, and he was quick to see the ballyhoo possibilities of the organization. He gave them a sign and passes, and a box of candy, and at a small outlay he had a ballyhoo not even a totally deaf man could pass up. That's what real exploitation means. A lot of people could think of a boys' band, if they knew where a band could be had, but it took quick thinking to utilize the impromptu organization to put over the real players. ON THE LEFT YOU SEE A REAL JAZZ BAND AND ON THE RIGHT THE STREET BALLYHOO IMITATION Samuel Lesselbaum hired the real musicians for a prologue to " Dinty." When he found that some of the neighborhood kids had formed a band, with a kazoo and fife for the wood choir, he put them on a pass and candy salary and used them to ballyhoo for the real organization inside the house, getting a double kick from one stunt