The Moving picture world (November 1922-December 1922)

November 11, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 167 Selling the Picture to the Public EPES WINTHROP SARGENT Fred Hathaway Hooks Town Merchants to Anniversary Week for Oneonta Theatre Crying for It FRED HATHAWAY, who has contributed an unusually large number of sound exploitation schemes'during his stay with the Alhambra theatre, Utica, N. Y., has taken over the general exploitation of the Schine chain of ten theatres in central New York state. He made his debut with a smashing stunt in Oneonta in which he was very materially aided by C. J. Rose, manager of the Strand theatre; indeed Mr. Hathaway declares that widespread popularity of the local manager is the prime essential to the successful working of the scheme, since it is largely a capitalization of that popularity. Some Familiar Angles In some of its angles the scheme has a familiar ring, but the combination is new. It is partly the dollar day idea, with a dash of the Farmers' Matinee as well as the special week stunt. He called it "The Strand and Merchants' Anniversary Week." The Strand has the anniversary and the merchants had a big week. Sixty-eight of the merchants in Oneonta were brought into the scope of the 'scheme and agreed to pro rate the cost of decoration of the streets as well as to decorate their own fronts. Special printing was done for shields proclaiming the week, and for pennants along the same lines. Because this was a general affair and not merely a theatre stunt, these shields and pennants were placed all over town, on telegraph and telephone poles, lamp posts, trees and fences. It was a town event, and the town was plastered. Advertising was taken out into the country to get in the Ford patronage, and to this end special bargains were offered in most of the stores to make a shopping carnival. You could tell the co-operating stores by their decorated fronts, but they were not difficult to discover, for practically all of the shops were in the stunt from the Citizens National Bank to the Oneonta Bottling Works. The affair opened with a tag day when everyone was presented with a tag, serially numbered to make it look interesting. The newspapers took up the idea for a week ahead and all through the run of the celebration, and on Saturday the town looked as though the circus had come to town, for they all drove in for the "Balloon day." Prizes From the Air Each of the stores contributed one or more prizes, none of them being of smaller value than three dollars. These were represented by baggage tags attached to gas balloons, the tags being printed up "return this tag to and receive ," the blanks being filled in with the name of the merchant and the prize he offered. These were turned loose and iheir captors rushed off to the stores for their prizes. If you ever threw out some ticket balloons, you can imagine what happened when nearly a hundred tagged balloons were let go, each representing a gift. Makes Real Business The theatre did practically capacity the entire week, and even the bank reported new accounts as a result of the stunts, while the retail merchants were delighted. From every angle it was a moneymaker, yet it cost comparatively little to pull off. It worked so well that Mr. Hathaway will repeat it in other towns on the circuit. Dan Roche, Chicago Paramounteer, encloses a letter from one of his exhibitors in an Iowa town which reads in tiart: "One of our newspapers here is anxious to put over a double truck on one of our coming attractions," and asking for a suggestion, which, of course, Dan at once put over. Dan sends the letter to the home office with the remark that "it certainly marks a milestone in our efforts." It assuredly is, but newspapers are getting wise to the fact that it means money to them to work in with the thetres, and here is one which even urges the management to get busy. Aerial Advertising Something new along the lines of display work was the aerial tractor planned by Harry Needles, of the Princess Theatre, Hartford. He hired an aviator to trail a banner, 30 by 7 feet, in the rear of his boat. The stunt was worked, but they will have to hire another aviator next time, as the trailer, which was dragged about 250 feet behind the tail, acted as a drag and made steering a matter of extreme nicety. Having invested the banner with interest through this stunt, the manager put the sign in front of his house with a card stating that this was the same banner which had been floated over the city. People had to read about "Hurricane's Gal" when they looked at the banner, and the newspaper stories made them look at the banner. A I'ardmou Th bus birds A SPLENDID DISPLAY ON THE OLD HOMESTEAD FROM W. E. DRUMBAR, OF KNOXVILLE is is the lobby of the Riviera and the corn box office. It cost only $35 to erect and was in part responsible for the smashing iness done on this picture. Mr. Drumbar lists thirty-eight items used in its construction from a stuffed 'possum to two black picture. . _ The local paper gave seven days of big publicity for th e privilege of inviting men and women over sixty to be its guests and the guests did not come alone. The family paid