The Moving picture world (October 1922)

October 7, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WO RLD 489 If you cannot get the use of a camera, you can at least show slides of the leaders,, and the stunt will put the picture over for excess receipts. A First National Release THE SORT OF HATS THEY WEAR AT THE CROSSROADS Ruth Wright, of the Cozy Theatre, Topeka, persuaded a milliner to make a display- of the last word in fall hats with a background of tall buildings. The street does not look like New York, but the window looks unlike any other in town and it SOLD. That's the idea. The Lieher Raffles Picked Good Winner Ralph Lieber, of the Circle theatre, In- dianapolis, put on a Raffles for Guy Bates Post in "The Masquerader," pinning it to one of the local papers. The reward for the discovery of the masquerader was at first $50 but was advanced day by day until it reached $100 when the identification was made by the wife of a service man whose husband had just been discharged from one of the military hospitals. This not only gave a blow-off story of unusual interest, but was good for a second day human interest story as well, which made a ten-day run for a hundred-dollar stunt which not only gave the newspaper a good circulation feature but which pro- vided the house with columns of free ad- vertising. The stunt was worked along the familiar lines, save that in all the stories care was taken to explain that the story of "The Masquerader" was not that of a Raffles, which lugged the Circle prominently into all of the newspaper work. the newspaper back of the made good reading. idea, and it Painted a Big City ^for a Display of Hats New York and the fashions are firmly linked together in the feminine mind. The manager of the Cozy theatre, Topeka, is a woman, Ruth Wright, and she was quick to see- the value of the connection. , ' ' She persuaded a leading millinery con- cern to make a display of the very latest styles in hats and contributed a backing supposed to be New York to carry out the idea of "The Crossroads of New York." The painting is not going to be framed for preservation, and, to say the least, it is crude, but the big point is this: During the showing it was the most prominent window in the entire city, and it sold both hats and theatre tickets. The moral is that it does not pay to hang back because you cannot equal the work of the best scenic artists, but to go ahead and do the best you can. If it makes money for you it's good, no matter how poor it may be, and this simple window stunt did more to sell this First National attraction than would a half page in the newspapers. A Big Diana Contest Helped Cosmopolitan Howard Price Kingsmore has adapted the beauty contest to "The Young Diana" in the Kansas Ci(y territory in which he is Paramounteer. When he worked it for the Electric the- atre, Joplin, Mo., he interested both local papers in the voting contest. The leaders were given tryouts before a motion camera for the three nights prior to the showing of the Cosmopolitan picture, three of them registering a complete set of emotions each of the three nights, and the entire set of nine were run off as an added attraction to the showing of the Marion Davies feature. Gone Above John D. Howard, Paramounteer in De- troit, has been brought into the New York office as assistant to Harold B. Franklin, manager of theatres. Leon J. Bamberger, has been called in from Toronto to assist Claud Saunders, vice Walter Lindlar. Norman Dixon, of Cincinnati, has been made manager of the Empire theatre. New Bedford, which is in the nature of a pro- motion, though we don't believe we should like to be promoted to New Bedford, even from Cincinnati. Oscar Kantner replaces Howard and Harry Swift goes into Cincinnati in place of Dixon. Both are playing return dates with the Paramount exploitation. Prizes for Doubles Helped 'Masquerader' When Guy Bates Post in "The Mas- querader" appeared at the Stillman theatre, Cleveland, the manager pulled a clever stunt to tie up to the title and the idea of the story. All persons who imagined that they looked like some prominent man were in- vited to send their photographs to the Con- test Manager without naming the person they were supposed to suggest. . If tbe rnanager recognized the picture as looking like that of some well known person, the entrant was given a pair of tickets for the performance. Some really striking likenesses were turned up and these were made the basis of some newspaper stories which pulled about 100 inches of space; about five columns. To help out, the Press ran a dog story to the effect that a double for Tris Speaker got out on the ball field and ordered the men around before the impersonation was discovered. This was a simple matter with A First Xaliiinnl h'ri. JACKIE MUST OWN MORE SUITS THAN A STOCK ACTOR This is the 27,749th "original" suit to be used for advertising purposes. This time it bobs up in Marshalltown, la., where it made good business for the Strand Theatre with "Trouble." It was not Trouble at all to make them come in once they saw the suit. Note the cutout.