The Moving picture world (May 1922)

286 MOVING PICTURE WORLD May 20, 1922 Selling^ the Picture to the^Public Hooked a Big Bank to "Back Pay" Stunt Evert R. Cummings hooked the Peoples National Bank and the People's Trust and Savings Bank, Rock Island, 111., to the Vort Armstrong campaign on "Back Pay." He was willing to give the banks half the advertising for the sake of the free publicity he got. The trust company got the front of one of its regulation pay envelopes and the other bank got the back. In the space left for the name of the employee and his time record was a red overprint "Back Pay" and the text on the envelope worked right in with this. The other bank advertised the value of a checking account. Brand New Penny Inside was a card for the Paramount picture, with a new penny pasted in one corner. Part of the text announced that the penny, with 39 cents more, would admit to see the Hurst play at the Fort Armstrong. It cost nothing and the bank hook-up carried a certain moral weight. You can work it on your bank, for banks are working like ordinary advertisers these days. It no longer considers it undignified to go out after business. Real Store in Lobby Is Old But Effective Oscar White, of the Rex Theatre, Sumter, S. C, goes in for miniatures in his lobby displays, but he had a full grown store in the lobby for "Peck's Bad Boy," and a cutout of Jackie stealing red apples from a real barrel, while a cutout policeman with a real club made a pinch. Upending the barrel reduced the number of apples required. Club a Real One The club was borrowed from the Chief of Police, but the rest of the display came from the stores, with everything from ham and cabbage to cigars and cigarettes. It made a lot of talk and interested the grown-ups just as much as it did the kiddies. There was a gallery all day long. The counter was two by ten feet and was attended by a real clerk who knew all about Jackie and his play and was willing to tell the world. As most of the material was borrowed, the chief cost was for the cutouts. Sold "Four Horsemen" to Race Followers Sidney B. Lust, of the Super Film Attractions, got out a very neat idea for the Leader Theatre when it played "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." The nags were running more or less rapidly around the track at Bowie, and Mr. Lust fixed up a fake "information" sheet that looked very much like the alleged racing dope purveyed at the track. It was even stapled together so that no one could read it without paying the price, but the slips were handed out free. Jaszy Language Inside the text was in imitation of the jazz writing the tipsters aflfect, a section reading ; "We saw this one canter home recently in a field of eight and he was so fast he had to run sideways to keep from flying, actually was so fast that an aviator got out of his machine to see if he was anchored." There were about three hundred words of this sort of talk and the title was not mentioned until the end, which held the reader interested. This is good only where there is a race meeting, but it would appear that stapling any interesting looking throwaway will cause people to open and read it where they would not take the trouble to read an unfastened sheet. Why not try it ? It's good for once. It was a winner for "Luck" because it fitted in. Teased the Sports Charles McFarland, of the Capitol Theatre, Houston, played it low-down on the sporting bloods when he put two game chickens in the lobby for Bebe Daniels in ' A Game Chicken." The chickens were on opposite sides of the lobby and the doorkeeper had special instructions to see that they stayed that way, but the sports cast longing looks at the two birds. One ballyhoo angle was the fact that the cocks were constantly challenging each other and kept the lobby in an attractively noisy state. This and some window cartoons of local types of human chickens cost McFarland $3.75 and brought him a twenty per cent increase in business. It was a lot more profitable than buying marks. Hal Whitfield, of the Liberty, Beaumont, beat this. He had five chickens and three roosters, paid nothing for them and got about the same improvement in business. Chaplin Paymaster for Poli "Pay Day" Charlie Chaplin himself was paymaster for Poll's Capitol Theatre, Hartford, during the run of "Pay Day." James F. Clancey installed a cashier's desk in the lobby, hired a Chaplin impersonator, and stood him back of the grating. It was pay day for everyone, but the wages were stage money with an advertisement for the comedy. Ten thousand bills were distributed and practically none of them were thrown down after being read. People carried them away to try and fool others with, but this couldn't be done, for most of the folks had similar bills and they also were looking for victims. These attempts to sting added materially to the advertising value of the stunt. Expanded Everything about Lem L. Stewart has been expanded — except his head. He still wears the same sized hat. Because of the remarkable success attending his efforts to obtain real exploitation in the .\tlantic section of Southern Enterprises, he has had the Texas territory added to his cliarge, and with competent assistants in Atlanta and Dallas, he will alternate between the two points. William C. Johnson has been moved from Atlanta to Dallas, to be second in command. C. M. Watson, of Columbus, Ga., will be in Atlanta. Mr. Stewart will retain his Atlanta office as headquarters but will make frequent visits to the South. All ideas will be interchanged. Before Stewart took hold, the Southeast was the deadest territory in the United States as far as real exploitation and advertising was concerned. Now the managers are up on their toes and are making real records. Just as a sample case it might be noted that wherever the Stewart campaign on Peter Ibbetson has been followed, the picture has been a big money maker. Where the general plan book has been followed, the results have not been as good, because Mr. Stewart adapted his exploitation to appeal to his particular clientele— most of whom believe that Wallace Reid is an automobile agent in disguise. Playing up the literary angle and the times of starting got the crowds, and big ones. Telling "Saturday Night" Because of the many stunt ways to work the title, "Saturday Night" has been given a variety of advertising. The Orpheus Theatre, Halifax, used the title across the front and then ran four legs down from the cross piece each one lettered with one of the days of the week from Monday to Thursday; the four days the picture was run. This is a clever adaptation of the newspaper idea to a lobby front, and is simple enough to be copied even by the smaller houses. JhL\ t,/uH/:A') STORE HELPED SELL "PECK'S DAD BOY" It was rigged up by Oscar White, of the Rex Theatre, Sumter, S. C, who borrowed real wares from the merchants to get attention in the lobby. Over on the left the apples Jackie is stealing are as real as the policeman's club Try This Good One "The Rosary" and unemployment have nothing in common, but they were linked in the exploitation of that First National at the Empire Theatre, Syracuse. Morris Fitzer advertised the stunt for a week in advance and during the run of the picture, a clerk in the lobby received the applieations of the unemployed and the demands of employers. Good jobs were found for several men ; though the applications for work were far in excess of the openings, and the general idea took hold so strongly that the newspapers gave the play a lot of publicity in handling the news story of the bureau.