The Moving picture world (November 1921)

December 3, 1921 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 571 Selling the Picture to the&Public TALK ABOUT "THE IDOL DANCER"! THIS IS NO IDLE DANCER! The shimmy dancing doll, now carried by practically all of the talking machine stores, might have been invented for no other purpose than to advertise "One Arabian Night." This is how E. I. Weisfeldt, of Milwaukee, pulled the stunt Dancing Doll Makes an Ideal Attractor E. J. Weisfeldt, of Saxe's Strand Theatre, Milwaukee, seems to have been the first to sense the attraction value of the dancing dolls now sold in practically every phonograph store. These dolls are set upon the disc and dance while the turntable revolves, giving something that is a cross between the old-fashioned "cooch" and the more modern "shimmy." Weisfeldt realized that this might have been manufactured especially to advertise Pola Negri in "One Arabian Night" and he hurried to make a hook-up with a leading store, providing a background for the dancer which added to the effectiveness of the store display and at the same time sold the idea of the play. He got other effective windows in various types of stores, but this one stunt was worth all of the others put together because it was apt and had the necessary motion. Probably hundreds of others saw these dolls on display, but evidently Weisfeldt thinks in terms of exploitation and he saw the value of the stunt. pasted on a six sheet board and finished off with airbrush work, making something even better than the printed sizes while the other design was used for a lobby display for the week before the showing snd during the playing dates. Hooked the Marines to "Great Impersonation " W. G. Kaliska put over "The Great Impersonation" at the Rialto Theatre, Atlanta, recently, to such good effect that they were sorry they had not taken the Paramount production into the Howard. Kaliska served in the U. S. Marine Corps during the war, and he hooked in with the recruiting service on his lobby display and they also co-operated to swell his advertising spaces in the papers. The photograph cannot give the proper effect because the colorings of the rug in the centre of the display seem to make this a part of the tiger cutout in front of the box office, whereas there was a considerable space between the two. The photograph also lacks the brilliant colorings of the native dyes. A Jungle Set A cyclorama jungle set was built, with a box office worked up into a native hut with dried grasses. On the walls of the hut are some African dresses and fishing tackle. To the left are some cooking utensils and in front, on the table the native rug, bark cloth, knobberries, baskets and other objects, all genuine African exhibits brought back by the Marines now stationed in Atlanta. At the right can be dimly seen the recruiting placard. The soldiers from Base Hospital No. 48 were treated to a de luxe matinee, with subsequent newspaper write-ups and the picture not only went over with a rush, but it pleased the patrons. For Armistice Day Mr. Kaliska used a suitable production act with the marines and two girls, showing it only on Armistice Day, as was proper, and not for the entire week. On November 11 this was a tribute. On a full week it would merely have been a theatrical attraction. Mounted a Three Sheet on a Six Sheet Board For "After the Show," in Memphis, Thomas G. Coleman, of the Strand. Theatre, used a card in the best window in town suggesting that the readers get their candy and soda there "after the show." That particular window was worth any five others, because of its location, so Mr. Coleman let it go at that. For his lobby he used a ceiling lattice design of red and orange paper with the streamers hanging down far enough to show and not far enough to be in the way. With lighting to match, and pumpkins added on Hallowe'en night, he made a striking appeal. Two of his best pulls were cutouts from the three sheets. One of these, of Lila Lee, was KALISKA TOLD IT TO THE MARINES AND THEY HELPED The manager of the Rialto Theatre, Atlanta, got a wonderful lobby for "The Great Impersonation" through an exhibit of African curios loaned by the Marine recruiting service because of his own former service with the corps