Modern Times (United Artists) (1936)

FIVE-DAY CUT-UP CONTEST The rage of the ages—cut-up puzzles—are represented here with a specially pre¬ pared puzzle made of stills from the latest Charlie Chaplin hit—“Modern Times.” You, the local newspaper’s city editor, his readers and all their children will get a great kick out of cutting out, pasting up and assembling the contest pieces each day for five days. Each day the entire ‘block’ should be cut out by the contestant-readers and pasted on cardboard. The individual pieces are then to be cut out, assembled and pasted down on a sheet of paper. After five days, when all the five ‘blocks’ have been printed, readers send them in to the Charlie Chaplin Contest Editor ac¬ companied, if you so desire, by a letter telling why the contestants would like to see the latest Charlie Chaplin production, “Mod¬ ern Times.” Letters should contain a maximum of fifty words. Finished contest pieces can be easily recognized as each of the individual ‘blocks’ are complete stills. Prizes should be passes to the Chaplin feature, with cash for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners—if you can afford it. The one-column illustrations below are reproductions of the two-Column Contest Mats, Numbers 23A, B, C, D and E—$1.00; Cuts—$2.50 per set. Order them NOW at your local exchange! ''"t WINDOW-WIPING The windows of nearby empty stores provide ideal spots for that free ad painted on the window with Bon-Ami, obtainable at the nearest grocery store for a few cents. To give the latter idea a novel twist, look around your town for a build¬ ing that’s under construction. Idea is that the window panes in such buildings usually are decorated with a cross of Bon-Ami to make sure the window- cleaners contracted for the job will clean each and every one of the windows. Get in touch with the building contractors and ask for permission to decorate the windows with “MODERN TIMES’’ ad copy. Point out that it will save him time and labor in decorating the windows with a meaningless cross and also that your ad copy on the window will get passersby interested. • • • A LA REUBEN Reuben’s, one of the largest and most popular restau¬ rants in New York City, has a novel method of promoting various types of sandwiches by naming them after different popular stars of the stage, screen and radio. Try this in your town with the biggest and most popular eatery around, using the name of your feature, rather than that of the star. The sandwich should be novel in composition and the restaurant should plug it in their ads, windows and menus, with credit to your feature and house. LAUGH BOND You can’t lose a cent by giving your patrons a “laugh-satisfaction or money back” guarantee on “Modern Times”—it’s a sure laugh-getter! Your ‘guarantee’ should take the form of a huge compo board ‘bond’ made up by your house artist, to look exactly like a real cor¬ poration bond, with designs in gold, fancy black lettering and a green background. Copy is to the effect that you guar¬ antee a fill of laughs to all patrons of your theatre who see Charlie Chaplin in “Modern Times” or they receive their admission price back in full. The bond may also be made up in minia¬ ture, at the local printer’s, to be used as an advance throwaway, with distri¬ bution at the town’s center spots. FLASH OPENING Make your opening of “Modern Times”—Charlie Chaplin’s first film in four years—the most notable occasion of the new year. In other words, give it all you’ve got! The film deserves it! Your patrons have been waiting for this Charlie Chaplin film for so long that they’ll expect something unusual at your opening. Let ’em have it! Stars! Notables! Officials! Politicians! Bands! Lights! Photographers and polite! The works! • • • PHOTO FEATURE An interesting special feature can be arranged for your local newspaper, which, if run in advance of your opening, will not only be publicity for your opus, a circulation builder for the paper, but a civic plug besides. The newspaper’s morgue must certainly contain old-time photos of the city along with modern photographs of the same sites. If the paper hasn’t got these photos, there must surely bd some such illustrations or drawings down at the City Hall. Paper runs these photos in pairs—old-time and modern, with a head like: New York—in 1776-—in ‘Moderrf Times.’ The article accompany¬ ing the photos plugs the improvements made on the city, then makes mention of progress Charlie Chaplin has made in his films, as a comparison, with an additional plug for “Modern Times.” HflPLM (VL imODERD TM1ES CANVAS BURGEE VALANCE mODERIt rrniis Cfaahlie CHRPLin mODIMI TimEl WALL BANNER PENNANT jprr CHRPLin HIODERH Timis FLAC NEW SMASH BANNERS are illustrated above that will give your front and street campaign the right Charlie Chaplin motif! They’re in the spirit of your ad campaign and will tie in directly with your posters! Attractive and strikingly new in design, these banners are worth double their cost. Burgee is made both in canvas at 50c and in silkolene at 65c. Marquee silhouette at the special rate of 90c apiece. Reasonable rental rates can be arranged on the valance, wall banner and flag. Order direct from MORRIS LIBERMAN, 320 West 46th Street, New York City; 1018 So. Wabash Ave., Chicago; 1630 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles. MARQUEE SILHOUETTE