The Moving picture world (May 1922)

May 13, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 185 Selling the Picture to the^Public Amateur Artists in Big Poster Contest Stimulating interest in "Forever," the Strand Theatre, Portland, Maine, offered the art classes of the city a contest for the best poster for this title. Ten dollars went to the winner. Some twenty-six members of the school art classes felt their work good enough to submit and seven of these were adjudged by the jury to be in the money. For a week before the shtowing, they were displayed in a window into which no theatre advertising had ever before been introduced, but the store felt that this was an attraction and not an advertisement. The newspapers gave considerable publicity to the work of the local artists, and keen interest was felt in the decision, which was made by the audience at the Thursday night showing. The decision was not stated in the report, but we are willing to bet on the girl under the apple tree as the winner of the first unless the house was packed by some other contestant. Want a Dog Story? Here is a dog story from Birmingham, Ala., good enough to be copied into your home town paper. Change the names and hand it to your editor. He'll run it and be glad to get it. Stuff like this does the house good ; more good than the usual clip stuff. Here it is : It was a fine example of honesty a youngster of Birmingham displayed yesterday. After a great deal of fumbling between knives and fish hooks and a varied assortment of other things, he dug out of his pocket a few small coins and bought a half-price ticket to the Strand Theatre. With the delight of anticipation shining in his eyes he marched in and handed the ticket to the door keeper. "Sorry, kid, but you're too old to have a half-price ticket." The door keeper laid a detaining hand on the child's arm just as he was about to enter the realm of the flickering lights and shadows. The boy turned about with a long drawn out, "Aw, I ain't neither." Paramount Picture. THIS IS FROM PORTLAND, MAINE, INSTEAD OF OREGON Mostly it's the Oregon Portland that hustles, but this time the East horns in. Ten dollars ivere hung up in prizes for the best poster for "Peter Ibbetson," and seven were found worthy of being shown to the public in a nindoiv "Yes, you are," was the answer. "Give your ticket in at the window and the cashier will give you your money back." The boy was about to disdain the proffered ticket and walk out when the manager walked in and inquired into the matterLloyd Towns, theatre manager, looked at the boy with a smile. "You are too old, son, for a half ticket," he said, "but FU make a bargain with you." "All right, sir." The young man was -very business like. "Since you have only a half-price ticket, FU let you go in if you promise to keep one eye shut." The child looked doubtful. He covered one eye with a small, dirty brown hand and proceeded to look about him. "Sure," he agreed happily. "I can see with one eye." Towns laughed and told him to walk in. Half an hour later the usher informed him that there was a kid down there watching the picture with a hand over one eye. When Towns reached him he was laughing heartily of some antics of Snooky, the famous humanzee. A few minutes later he was looking at the screen with two gleeful eyes, and Towns was still chuckling at his honesty. How A Pathe Picture. WE KNEW THAT HAROLD LLOYD WAS A BIG ATTRACTION But we didn't think he icas 22 feet fall. He is bigger than Max Roseniield's "Golem." It was the second-run exploitation at the Strand, Atlanta. The head is taken from a three-sheet and the rest is done by hand. It played to capacity in a rainy week 'Come On Over" Made Record Sales Playing up the Irish slant to Goldwyn's "Come on Over" helped the Milwaukee Record Shop to get rid of most of its stock of Irish records when the picture was played at Ascher's Merrill Theatre. A lavish display of Irish scenes from the play was made the basis of a window show, with green ribbons leading to a set of records on the floor of the window with a card stating that all-Irish melodies would be played at the Merrill during the run of "Come on Over." As this was done the week in which St. Patrick's day falls, the appeal to Irish pride nearly cleaned the store out. For the house front a large painting was used showing Shane on one side of the Atlantic, posed with the Statue of Liberty, while in Ireland Moyna, with her bundles, stood ready to respond to the call of the title, which was stretched over the ocean. St. Patrick's Day is over, but you can still make a drive on the record idea if you use |)lenty of green ribbon and shamrock cards to announce the various titles.