The Moving picture world (November 1921)

962 MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 24, 1921 Selling the Picture to the Public 8y EPES WINTHROP SARGENT Sold 1,400 Seats in Seventy-two Hours Sometimes when we have spoken of writing jazz copy some manager has written in to ask just what we meant. It may interest others to see what was used to sell out a 1,400-seat theatre at a two-dollar top in less than three days. It was written by the editor of this department. This was printed on a letter size sheet with a proper heading and was signed by the officers in cut signatures. The "Drop whatever you are doing" and "Now memorize this" were set in 18 point display and "Our big Shrine party" to "December 7" was set in ten point bold. The rest is in eight point Roman without effort at display. Dear Noble: When you get this DROP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING dig up your Shrine card and a little money and HURRY down to the Apollo Theatre, 219 Forty-second street, just west of Broadway, and get your seats for Our Big Shrine Party to Noble Louis Mann (Mecca 8770) Wednesday Evening, December 7, who has just opened there in a play that is going to please you perhaps even more than did "Friendly Enemies," and you know what that was. The new show is "Nature's Nobleman." That's a rotten title. It doesn't suggest three hours of solid fun, but it is the moniker of one of the best little combinations of heart throbs and ha-has that has been brought to Broadway in many a weary month. One moment the tears start to trickle down your cheeks and before they can drip off your chin Mann says or does something that brings a gale of laughter to blow the brine clear back into the tear ducts. It's not just a comedy, and it is not a monologue for the star. It's a real play, with a gripping story that holds your interest for four acts and leaves you wanting more. It's one of the REAL plays of the season and you are going to get a chance to get seats without enriching McBride or Tyson. You just walk up to the box office and get the best in the house, but the sooner you go the better you get. Do it now — this minute — don't even wait for lunch time. Seats are $2.20 for the orchestra, $1.65 and $1.10 for the balcony and $2.75 for the box seats. These prices include tax. The box office is open at 9 :30 a. m. and closes at 10 p. m. You get your tickets any day this week between those hours except for an hour before the regular performance. To get "seats for this night, you must show your Shrine Card. For the convenience of the Nobles, seats will be on sale at Carnegie Hall in the corridor from the time the doors are opened until nine o'clock during our ceremonial session, November 30, but DON'T WAIT UNTIL THEN if you can possibly get down to the Apollo before, for the sooner you do it the better seats you get. NOW MEMORIZE THIS Apollo Theatre, 219 West 42d street, Wednesday evening. December 7, at 8 :20, to see Noble Louis Mann, 8770, in the best play he ever had. Wear your fez. Take our tip — Go to it. This was put into the mails to be delivered Monday morning, the date of the opening of the sale. When the box office closed Monday night the entire orchestra was practically sold out, and Wednesday night there were only about 200 balcony tickets to be offered and those went in a couple of hours. Between then and the night of the party, one week later, more than 500 applications for two or more tickets had been received which had to be turned down and more were turned back at the box office the night of the performance. It is not an accidental hit, for a somewhat similar letter helped to bring an attendance of 6.000 at a ball two weeks earlier, and last year we sold out the lower floors of the Century theatre so quickly that a lot of the members charged that the theatre was holding out the tickets on them. If You Get All We Wish You It Will Be A Merry Christmas Unemployment Stunt Aided 11 Old Nags Most exhibitors saw only men out of work in the unemployment stunt launched in Omaha for "Experience" and since widely copied for that Paramount and other productions. F. H. Faitchild, of the Curran Opera House, Boulder, Col., saw deeper, and he switched to eleven old horses to carry the banners. The first named the Curran theatre and the last added "It's a Paramount Picture." In between were the nine letters of the title. With the gradual spread of the Ford car it has come to pass that there are as many horses out of work as there are men, and Mr. Fairchild not only made a lot of laughs but he had a procession more than a block long, and when you come to think of it, it is not often, even in the towns, that you see eleven horses in a row, outside of a race or a circus. There are always new angles to the old stunts, if you take time to think them out. Used "Over the Hill" to Combat Censorship When Fargo, S. D., recently was oppressed with a demand for . censorship, the Strand Theatre booked in "Over the Hill" and obtained an advance showing. The ministers were not only invited to attend this performance, but they were called on the telephone and urged to come, with the result that most of them did. They were so well pleased with the play that they wrote strong opinions, which were not only used in daily advertising work, but in herald form were sent to the rural mailing list. It did not completely stop the demand, but it had a very material effect in lessening the outcry, for the ministers and others felt that they were too inclusive in their outcries and moderated their demands. Escaped from Atlanta Gerald B. Gallagher, one of Lem Stewart's finds, has been transferred from the publicity work for the Howard theatre, Atlanta, to the Texas branch of Southern Enterprises. Gallagher seems to be a coiner and Stewart's pride in his protege's advancement is somewhat tempered by sorrow at the loss of his services in his own territory. Gallagher will take charge of the Palace theatre, Dallas, according to present plans, replacing "Buddy" Stewart. Brightened His Comer Ernest Weldon, of the Jewel Theatre, Rusk, Texas, cannot afford big publicity stunts, but he figures on doing what he can for the big pictures, and' he dug out the log cabin box office for "The Girl from God's Country" and flanked this with northwest scenes. Then he cut out the grizzly from the six sheet and made that carry his billing. It was not much, judged by his big town standards, but it was big for Rusk and it brought the business even from out of town. UNEMPLOYMENT AID IS EXTENDED TO HORSES NOW F. H. Fairchild, of the Curran Opera House, Boulder, Colorado, figured it out that there were a lot of horses in need of a good feed of oats, so he hired nineteen of them to make a ballyhoo parade for Paramount's "Experience"