The Moving picture world (January 1923-February 1923)

Selling thePioiiRE to the Public EDITED BY EPES WINTHROP SARGENT Worked the Familiar Treasure Hunt to a Magnitude to Make the City Front Pages EXPLOITATION is more or less what you make it. You can make it a giant or produce a dwarf. Louis K. Sidney, manager of the Isis Theatre, Denver, took the time-honored treasure hunt and ran it into a local sensation which made the front pages of the daily papers for unsolicited publicity. Sidney took the stunt up to the point where it became local news and not just an advertising feature. He started early and stayed with it, but the starting early chiefly accounts for the remarkable success of the scheme. He had "The Village Blacksmith" coming, and he recalled the opening line : "Under the spreading chestnut tree," so he made the stunt a chestnut hunt. First of all he arranged with the city authorities to stage the hunt in the public park; the most available open space in the center of the city. Then he induced the merchants to co-operate in the giving of prizes. Each merchant to contribute naturally became a plugger for the idea and consequently for the picture. Gave 2,500 Prize* More than 2,500 chestnuts were numbered and hidden in various parts of the park, at the foot of the trees, in the leaves under the shrubbery, in the forks of the branches and wherever else they could be hidden. To make it interesting 10,000 chestnuts were used. Of the prize nuts, one thousand numbers were each good for 2 admissions to a special matinee and others were good for tickets to any performance of the play. Supplementing this, merchants and others whose commodities did not lend themselves to prize-giving bought tickets in blocks and their guests were taken to the theatre in bannered trucks, providing a second day ballyhoo. The other prizes ran all the way from a bicycle to small trinkets appealing to childish desires. More than this, every child participating in the hunt was given a story book and a noise maker by one of the leading department stores. This was entirely apart from the regular prize distribution and included every child in the park. Brought the Orphans Through arrangement wth owners of cars, the children from the various orphanages and other institutions were brought to the park in a body to participate in the hunt, school classes were formed into treasure hunting clubs, and it is safe to say that 99 per cent, of the children of Denver were represented in the hunt. Because the merchants were generally advertisers, the local papers printed columns of news stories on the hunt, mentioning the donors of the prizes, and this section looked like a business directory of the retail dealers. The space won was reckoned by the page rather than by the column. It was the same old treasure hunt, worked in pretty much the same way, but through preparation elevated into a local event instead of remaining just an exploitation stunt. It brought page after page, it brought mention in most of the merchant advertis ing for a week before the showing and it brought nearly every kid in town. And it brought an entire new equipment of house records to the Isis, which is what Sidney was after all along. The Four Hundred Altoona has discovered a new use for the pup matinee. F. K. O'Kelly, publicity man for the Silverman Brothers, of the Strand theatre, staged a bring-your-dog-and-seethe-matinee-free stunt for "Brawn of the North." He pulled four hundred dogs, more or less, but mostly more. And in the bunch was a valuable hound which had been lost for some days. The enterprising owner hung around for the matinee and when his pup was offered in evidence, he claimed property and paid the kid a reward. And as the kid saw the show oa the pup, he was willing to let go. They well a third of a column news story in the paper and no end of verbal advertising, putting the First National Strongheart picture over with a bounce. Clean Exploitation Given ''East Is West*' An exploitation tie-up which gives a majority of the drug store windows in a town or section has been effected by First National with the proprietors of Packer's Tar Soap on "East Is West." In this picture Ming Toy is shown handling an unspecified tar soap, and the hookup is based on this somewhat slight foundation. The soap company supplies samples and prizes; the latter being given for the best essay on why the author likes the soap, and jobbers and agents have been instructed to assist the theatres in everyway. As an example of how it works; the Strand Theatre, Waco, Texas, got eighteen out of the twenty drug stores in town for windows and window advertising, and similar results have been reported from alt sections where the co-operation has been tried out. It is ready-made advertising from its basic angle, but the more the theatre does to help the scheme along, the greater the assistance the theatre derives, and the wise manager will not be content with what is given him, but will work with the stores in putting the scheme over in a larger way. "Missing Millions" Has Hook-up Lobby Evidently the Paramount lobby suggestions which are given their first presentation in this department, are making money for the exhibitors. Some have been widely copied and all are generously used. Pleased with the results obtained, the Paramount Exploitation Department has got a hustle on for "Missing Millions" and offers two good stunts. One is the rifled safe, shown in the illustration as a cutout. It will be even better if you can borrow an old safe and take the door off its hinges. Generally you can get hold of an old safe for trucking charges and a credit card. A real safe will be worth all it costs. The other stunt is a strong box, the card stating that the combination was given in the local paper the day before. The first person to open the box gets the season pass it contains. The combination is sunk into a co-operative page or failing this can be laid off tothe newspaper for a circulation stunt. In any event care must be used not to make the combination too easily read. It will hold the lobby crowded all day and part of the evening if you work it right. Note that the entrance and exit doors are masked with wall board to suggest the vault doors of a bank. On the same lines you might make the box-office window that of the receiving teller, and put a sign over the ticket box reading: "Make your deposits here." The marquise is redecorated with alternate hearts and dollar signs. OPEN TIWE "MISS/NG NV/LLfOiVS " bOX A^D OBTAIV FREE PASS Alice Brady's Newest Paramount Picture B \mmm A Paramount Release TWO GOOD LOBBY IDEAS TO SELL "MISSING MILLIONS" Th'e (afe is always a paying: stunt and the strongbox is a hook-up with a co-operativepage used the day before, in which one or two pages of display are used to advertise the lobby attraction. You cannot ask for more than that.