The Moving picture world (November 1925-December 1925)

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Selling the Picture to the Public This Department Was Established September 23, 1911 Edited by Epes Winthrop Sargent Hammer slough Qets Two Big Weeks For A City Helps Sell Beauty Contest for Paramount Camera ONE of the most profitable beauty contests ever worked by a single house recently was engineered by Charles Hammerslough, of the Broadway Theatre, Newburgh, N. Y. It gave him a week of big business, following a ten-day newspaper campaign, and then gave him a second good week when he displayed the results of the first week's work. It was an inexpensive stunt, so far as money is concerned, but it gave him some of the best business the house ever enjoyed. The Lobby Display Moreover, it was framed so that there was no comeback. There was no promise of a studio engagement, and he had the stamp of Paramount back of his campaign, for the basic idea was that Paramount, following the Betty Bronson discovery, was looking for new faces. Because of his connection, he was able to get the services of a Paramount cameraman from the Long Island City studio. Tied the Newspaper The first move was to tie the Newburgh News to the announcement that in its search for new faces Paramount was sending a lighting outfit and a cameraman to Newburgh to make tests. The first and second prizes were visits to the Paramount Studio, but with the newspaper back of the scheme, it was easy to get local merchants to contribute other prizes. The first prize winner was given a hat box, with toilet accessories, and there •were shoes, hats, purses and other articles for the runners up. All of these were on display in the lobby of the Broadway for a week in advance of the tests. A committee of solid citizens was appointed to eliminate from the contest the hopelessly unfit, but a sufficient number of local girls were selected to ensure two or three tests at each performance, and this, even without the contest feature, was found to interest the audiences. A particularly good lobby appeal was a question mark formed of circular photographs of Paramount's women stars, with a blank for the period in which was a question mark with "What Newburgh girl's photo will fill this space?" This was put into the lobby ten days in advance, when the newspaper publicity first broke. A somewhat similar panel carried stills showing the making of pictures, mostly underlined pictures. The tests brought out crowds that completely filled the house each evening, for the draw was not solely from the friends of the contestants. It was of general interest, and the same people came in several times through the week. Girls Get the Tests After the tests were made, a second week was devoted to the screening of these films, after which each girl received her test with the compliments of the theatre. It was the announcement of this fact which brought out so large a list of applicants. Even those who did not feel they could win at least felt certain that they would receive something worth while, and each time these tests are shown to admiring friends the Broadway gets good advertising. Ten Commandments city officials in London, Ont., materially aided the campaign on The Ten Commandments at the Capitol Theatre. Tom Logan got permission to stencil the sidewalks and post the traffic tower while a large banner faced the entrance to the Fair Grounds, where most everyone in that section of the country saw it. The Chief of Police sponsored the ten cfnimandnients for traffic regulation, making it the ten commandments of public safety for fair week, and these were widely thrown out. The copy was taken from the elaborate press book on this feature. This was built up by a newspaper prize contest for the best ten commandments on any subject and the entrants covered a wide variety of subjects, all of which interested the newspaper reader. With heavy lithographic billing and an enlarged newspaper campaign covering three weeks' advance, the picture was put over nicely against the opposition of the fair, or more correctly, the advertising got business from the attendants at the fair, which then helped rather than hurt. More Bottles Eddie Collins used the herald in a bottle idea for The Ten Commandments at the Queen theatre, Galveston, Texas. One thousand vians were thrown from boats on the incoming tide to be captured by bathers at the local beach. It's a good stunt unless you get your feet cut on the broken bottles. A LOBBY DISPLAY OF THE BEAUTY CONTEST PRIZES Charles Hammerslough, of the Broadway Theatre, Newburgh, got a week of big business out of a beauty test and another big week when he ran the screen tests made the first week, working the stunt ir. conjunction with the Paramount Theatres Department.