The Moving picture world (May 1922)

396 MOVING PICTURE WORLD May 27, 1922 Selling the Picture to the Public 5^ EPES WINTHROP SARGENT Edgar Hart Presents Hundred Per Cent Babies to Prove Matrimony No Failure SEVERAL clever stunts were worked by J. M. Edgar Hart, of the Palace Theatre, El Paso, on "Is Matrimony a Failure?" He figured that babies would be the best means of proving that matrimony is not a failure, and to get the very best babies he hooked into the Public Health Centre, which gives medical care and nursing attention to "out" cases not requiring hospital facilities. Child culture is a most important part of the centre's wcjrk, and the volunteer organization is glad to ^ the publicity which will bring it not only patients but the financial support of new members. It was very glad to promise Manager Hart that some of its finest babies would be loaned, for one day each, and provided a graduate nurse to look after the little charges. Built a Nursery Next Hart tied up a furniture store to a lobby display of cribs and all the fixings that the heart of the most finical child might desire. There were cribs and carriages, swings, toys and all sorts of trimmings, and the store went the limit to make good for the large credit card posted to one side. Next, in the same line, he persuaded a local dry goods store to present every child born in El Paso during the past year with a "Don't Kiss Me" charm. There were 3,020 of these charms, because there have been that many babies born and 1,620 marriages celebrated; facts Hart obtained from the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Mixed It With Milk Then he found and advertised that a certain milk company suijpHcd 250 gallons of certified milk daily for infant feeding, and the dairy came back with an advertisement for "Is Matrimony a Failure?" and added tiiat it was not if you could raise your babies on their milk. All of this was worked into a special herald, done on a ready print colored cover, with two pages given to press book cuts and talk, one to the statistics and one to the Health Centre. It won immediate interest in the comedy and as the lobby babies were .changed daily, a lot of women came down each day to see the star infants and a good proportion saw the comedy a second time ; which made the matinee business better than usual. Others brought their husbands in the evening, and all of them told the rest of their acquaintances all about the picture. Cost Very Little The stunt cost very little, for the Health Centre looked after the children, the store provided the charms, the furniture man fixed up the lobby and a florist dressed it with potted plants and flowers. Hart got out the herald and did the thinking, but he did not add the thinking to the expense bill. That's what he gets his regular salary for. It had all the pull of a circus parade with the cost of a small printing job. Connecting Up Giving as much to the store as you get for yourself is the trick in getting repeat orders on window showings. And it is easy to get the connection if you think a little. The Idle Hour Theatre, Milwaukee, hooked the nearby drug store to a window on "Fool's Paradise." The back of the window was covered with four one-sheet posters. In front were potted palms, to suggest I""lorida or Siam or Texas. Three baby alligators occupied a tin pan in the foregroinid along with a display of one popular size of cameras. The selling card: "Even with this little camera you can take pictures of your trip to Morida, the woods or the zoo that will continually bring back fond memories of your animal friends." "Fond memories of your vacation trip" would be better, but the idea is there, and you can work the same stunt on any picture with an unusual locale. Made It An Extra Getting the story of the double scandal in high life as related in "Saturday Night," sent out as a special section of the Cumberland Evening Times, was the stunt Manager Tom Burke worked when that Paramount played his Liberty Theatre in that Maryland town. He sold a number of merchants on the idea of taking two pages of the four-page section, which was made a regular part of the Times, and their advertising more than covered the cost and left the newspaper a profit. The front page was given to the story with screamer heading, with press book cuts for illustrations, and the back page was the house display, which was a free gift to Burke. Broadcasted a Song for "Smilin' Through" Credit John Lovcridgc, of the Capitol Theatre, Davenport, la., with having been the first to broadcast a plugger song to put a photoplay over. He hired a Chicago soloist to sing the plugger song on "Smilin' Through" into a radio apparatus both in advance of the showing and through the playing dates, and took a lot of "bugs" away from their receiving apparatus to go and see the picture. Announcement of plays has been made before and it has even been worked that a star supposedly addressed an audience of radio enthusiasts, but this seems to be the first use of the plugger song. And .someone tied up the Ampico piano with a sign which started off "Through the courtesy of the Smith Music Co., the Capitol Theatre presents the world's only musical photoplay Immortalized." Apparently this is a film attachment to some Ampico record. It sounds interesting. IIIROUGH IS DA\ l:M'Ol<r. 1,1. A First National Release BROADCASTING A PLUGGER SONG TO PUT 01' BR •.V.U/L/.V This seems to be the first instance of a musical ballyhoo Ihroujih the air for a t'icture. though it has been worked as a straight aniwunccnu'til for other plays before this. The other picture shows a hook-up with the Ampico in which an imaginative agent announces as the worlds only musical photoplay." Apparently a film made to be run ivith an Ampico recording