The Moving picture world (November 1922-December 1922)

762 MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 23, 1922 A. Fox Release THEY TOOK SHEBA FOR A BUGGY RIDE IN MONTGOMERY H. C. Farley, of the Empire Theatre, in the Alabama town, masked in an old bug^ with compo board and did it up with purple and gold for "The Queen of Sheba" and .it got a chariot attention at a much smaller cost. Keep this handy and adapt the idea It Was Botsford's A. M. Botsford, of the Paramount publicity, writes that the Grauman advertisement in the issue of December 9, which was praised as a plan book advertisement in cut and layout, and adds that the copy credited to Ralph Ruffner was also from the campaign book. He adds : "I realize that it is impossible for you to determine which of the ads your corresponding exhibitors send in are taken from the press sheet, but maybe you could establish it as a general rule that the best ads they return to you are the ones furnished them by us." We don't know that this modest suggestion could be made a' hard and fast rule, but the Paramount ad layouts are almost imiformly good (except for some of the line cut portraits), and exhibitors would do well to follow the suggestions as to layout and cut placement. Sectional Flasher Major I. C. Holloway, of the Rialto Theatre, Columbus, Ga., more than doubled the attention value of his lobby sign on "To Hame and to Hold," by wiring it to a flasher in such a manner that on every other flash only half of the sign would light up. That would get attention in the belief that something had gone wrong, and then the full sign would flash. Major Holloway and his staff made the cutout letters, wired them and painted them up without outside assistance. He also used the contest hook-up page and gave out 500 passes. All through the South the receipts on this picture have been in direct ratio to the number of passes won. The more passes distributed, in proportion to population, the larger the cash receipts. Teasers for the title and the out-of-town postcard stunt, with a personal guarantee, were the other methods used to put the picture over to a 35 per cent, increase. Pinched Four Times Max Rosenfield, who usually is accurate except when he is measuring Golems, says that Walter Lindlar, Paramounteering in Traverse City, Mich., managed to get himself pinched four times for disobeying traffic regulations. Each time he was booked on the records as "Uncle Josh" and by the time he had reporters writing '-idding stories about the old farmer who could not master the traffic regulations, Frank Anderson, of the Lyric Theatre, sprang his "Old Homestead" advertising. It reads all right, but in the first place we do not believe that Lindlar can make up to look convincingly like a hick and in the second no newspaper man would fail to smell a rat when a theatre manager bailed out a rube character four times in succession, with "The Old Homestead" in close view. If this keeps on we shall have to put Max under oath each time he brings in copy. Grand Dads Now Grandma matinees have made a mint of money for "Grandma's Boy. " and now comes Ben Levy, of the Hippodrome Theatre, Joplin, Mo., with a Grandpa's Matinee for "Remembrance." A local paper issued an invitation to all grandfathers to attend a specified performance as the guests of the publisher, each accompanied by his favorite grandchild, provided the youngster was under fourteen. Grandpa himself had to be over sixty, but the doorkeeper was nearsighted and a couple of years did not matter much. It brought in five pure reading stories and most of them were on the front page, where the house stuff never gets. Also it made verbal advertising worth many times even the newspaper publicity. Take a Crack at Our Own Contest Not to be outdone by exhibitors who are staging misspelled word contests, this department is staging a contest of its own along similar lines, and a fine grade pure rubber cigarette will be given each person who marks the misspelled words in this poster. A Paramount Release THE CONTEST POSTER For the guidance of contestants, it may be said that this is a six sheet poster advertising "Fool's Paradise" and "The Sheik," at the Imperial Theatre, Tokio, the first time in nearly two years that this house has been opened for motion pictures. Mark the misspelled words and write out the proper spelling. The contest will close January 1, 1925. For You, Too Tying all the drug stores in town to a slogan sold a play for the Rialto Theatre, Lakewood, N. J. Every large store in town urged "Don't be afraid of chapped hands or cheeks. They are only 'Skin Deep.' " Then they sold remedies. A First ^ationa, Release A SIX SIDED PAGODA WORKED AT THE MELBA THEATRE This three-story pagoda is the box office of the Dallas Theatre, and is made of compo board painted in yellow and ornamented with dragons and other emblems. The letter* are also cut from compo board and are in vermilion and gold