The Moving picture world (July 1924-August 1924)

August 2, 1924 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 391 Countrywide Ads in a Drugstore Window This display in a drug store window in Kansas City for Jack Dempsey in the Universal series picture, Fight and Win, is one of the most far-flung appeals in the history of exploitation, and so far as we know, it is the only one. The display was made during the first week in June, when the sessions of the Imperial Council of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine were being held. For four days Kansas City housed some 60,000 visitors from every part of the United States, including the Canal Zone and Hawaii. During their waking hours — and most of them were awake about twenty hours a day — they were milling around in a space only a few blocks square, with nothing to do but to watch the crowds and look into the store windows, and it is safe to say that fully seventy-five per cent of them saw this window with its suggestion to "Ask the manager of your home town theatre when the Jack Dempsey Series will be shown." Another stunt was sending a car around town with a news camera for pictures to be shown at the Liberty Theatre by Manager Lee Balsly. One of the occupants of the car carried a small suit case lettered with the title of the picture, and under pretense of lining the Shriners up to pose for a picture would give each one a shock from the batteries contained in the case. So many stunts were being worked by the Shriner visitors that this additional stunt was all a part of the game. But Balsly's best bet was wholly unplanned. He was showing Blind Husbands, and a Texas delegation lined up in front of the house. Evidently the title gave the official song writer an inspiration, for he suddenly broke out into a new verse of It Ain't Going to Rain No More. It ran: "There are no wives with us. There are no wives with us. There may be wives with some of these guys, but there are no wives with us." Ten minutes later it was being sung four blocks away, and it remained popular to the end, with the theatre front as the best place to give a kick to its rendition. A Universal Release ADVERTISING TO THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IN ONE WINDOW This is a drug store window in Kansas City during the session of the Imperial Council of the Mystic Shrine, attended by some 60,000 men and women from all parts of the country with nothing much to do but look at this display for Jack Dempsey. So far as we could see — and we saw most of it — Universal was the only picture company with special advertising, and they were at it all the time. Record Enlargements Made forBrummelRun Special colored photographs were made for Beau Brummel for the run at the Aldine Theatre, Philadelphia, and it is asserted that these are the largest of their kind ever made. There were three eight by ten foot pictures and others running eight to ten feet high. The standard sizes of paper were too small for the twelve foot enlargements and the paper had to be specially cut for the Kraus Manufacturing Company, which filled the order. The paper is treated to render it impervious to the weather as the material was desired for outdoor work during a run and had to be mounted so that neither rain nor wind would affect the surface. It very successfully stood the test. Few of these show pictures are required to last more than a single season, but we have in our home a similar enlargement, made for us eight years ago by the Kraus Company, which is as fresh as the day it was delivered, though of course it has not been exposed to the weather. Both the photographic surface and the gilt frame are as good as ever. We believe that the record enlargement is a picture of Harold Lloyd 22 feet high, but this was not colored. A "Warner Brothers Release THE PICTURE OF BEAU BRUMMEL IS EIGHT BY TWELVE. This is declared to be the largest colored photograph ever produced for theatrical advertising. It was done by the Krauss Manufacturing Co. for the Aldine Theatre, Philadelphia, where the picture enjoyed a prolonged engagement. Vivaudou Helped Gain 15 Windows Working the Vivaudou hook-up arranged by Metro-Goldwyn on Thy Name Is Woman gave Howard Price Kingsmore fifteen fine windows for the Howard Theatre, Atlanta. The Jacob Company not only contributed the dressed windows, but it paid the cost of printing the envelopes in which were enclosed samples of the Mai d'Or powder and perfume, which were distributed to the Howard patrons the preceding week, printing the face for the theatre and the powder and the back with the store advertisement. It gave Kingsmore a valuable boost without any cost. It's only four zveeks away. Get ready to open the fall season ivith a regular whizz-bang. Get them started right.