Tess of the Storm Country (United Artists) (1922)

Various Ways of Reaching the Children Balloon Exploitation for Children While “Tess of the Storm Country” is not merely a picture for children, Mary Pickford always have a tremendously big appeal for the youngsters and in none of iber more recent productions is this appeal to children stronger than in this picture. Hence, it is up to the exhib¬ itor to get to the boys and girls of his town and let them know what he has in store for them. As every exhibitor knows well the appeal of the small balloons to children is big, so big that ninety-nine of every hundred youngsters will drop everything else to get hold of a toy balloon. There are a num¬ ber of manufacturing firms that make these toy balloons for strictly advertising purposes, and their business has developed enormously in the last few years. All sorts of manufacturers have adopted the toy balloon as an advertising medium—sellers of coffee and groceries; bakers advertising bread; shoe dealers; hosiery makers; ice cream and candy makers, and they all testify as to the success of this balloon as an advertising medium. If the toy balloon works so well in selling foodstuffSj it certainly will work equally well in selling (this picture to the exhibitors’s public. A few hundred of these little rubber balloons, easiLy and quickly in¬ flated, will cost but little and will start a lot of excitement among the youngsters and get everybody talking about “Tess of .the Storm Coun¬ try.” The exhibitor can have printed on them whatever he wants— presumably the name of the star, picture, theatre and play date. For the information of exhibitors small balloons of the type needed for this kind of picture exploitation are manufactured by the firm of Richard D. Bakrow & Son, Bakrow Building, Louisville, Ky. They advertise that they will furnish these balloons, printed on one side, round in shape and inflating to seventeen inches in circumference, for SI 1.10 a thousand. If printing on both sides is wanted the price per thousand goes up $2.25 a thousand. This firm makes these balloons in almost all sizes and shapes. A few dollars’ worth of toy balloons cer¬ tainly will get every youngster in any ordinary sized city interested in Mary Pickford and “Tess of the Storm Country.” Bicycle Exploitation Exhibitors who play “Tess of ;the Storm Country” undoubtedly will be able to put over a mutually beneficial tie-up with one of their leading stores, or with a chain of stores if there is a chain-store system in their cities, by which the production, as well as the merchant’s goods can be advertised on cardboard discs to be attached to bicycles of chil¬ dren in families served by the particular firm. This plan has been worked out with excellent results in other lines and should be readily and easily applied to motion pictures—especially such a feature as this new Mary Pidkford production. Lettering sim¬ ilar to the following can be printed on each side of the disc, which should be large enough to fit rather snugly inside the bicycle frame: “Buy at the. store and see Mary Pickford in ‘Tess of the Storm Country’ at the. Theatre next . Fasten this to your bicycle.” Exploitation of this type will prove of special value in cities where the picture will be shown for a week or ten days or more. Arrange¬ ments for the campaign should be worked out with the general man¬ ager or the advertising manager of the business house, and distribu¬ tion may be made direct from the store to the home through the store’s delivery system, the idea being to get one cardboard disc out with each order delivered. The only expense to the exhibitor will be the cost of supplying and printing the cardboards. Another Tie-Up to Get Children Heres’ another plan for getting to the children of your town. Have a placard printed, about eight by ten inches, announcing “Tess of the Storm Country” and have this displayed in the windows of stationery and book stores and lunchrooms in the immediate vicinity of your pub¬ lic schools. This placard should be surrounded by black and white stills from ithe picture or the beautiful eleven by fourteen colored dis¬ play cards issued with the production. A pair of tickets to the propri¬ etor usually is all that is needed to gain consent for this play. Your placard can read something like this: Every Child Wants to See MARY PICKFORD in her Newest and Most Endearing Picture “TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY” Now Playing at the Blank Theatre This or a similar display may be used to advantage at any place where children may gather. Exceptional Lithograph Paper The posters made for “Tess of the Storm Country”'were designed with the idea of bringing out all the melodrama and thrilling action possible from the story of the photoplay. They also show Mary Pick¬ ford as a girl again with her wonderful, audience-drawing curls and her never-to-be-forgotten smile. Orders for this paper should be generous and every exhibitor should plaster his entire territory with these posters. Use them wherever you can get the space. They tell the story and they 11 sell the picture to your people. Essay Contest for Children Tie-up with one of your local newspaper and put over an essay contest on “Why I Like Mary Pickford” among the children of your town, especially playing for the youngsters in the public schools. This will bring you a lot of publicity through the newspaper handling the campaign for you, and won’t cost you a whole lot of money, for the prizes to be offered need not be expensive. This campaign should be planned to start a week or ten days prior to the play date, and should carry the announcement that the names of winners will be made public and prizes awarded from the stage of the theatre or an evening after the picture opens. Make a Strong Play for School Children Nearly every child of school age has heard of “Tess of the Storm Country.” No motion picture star in the world makes the appeal to children that Mary Pickford does. Here the exhibitor has the greatest star in her greatest picture, and that picture one that appeals to chil¬ dren. Get the school teachers interested and get them talking about the picture, and you’ve made a big step toward reaching the children. Get the parents interested and you will have finished the job of getting the children. Help the Teachers Help You The teaching force in your public schools is one of your strongest allies. Teachers talk among themselves; talk to their pupils; talk to the parents, and with mighty few exceptions their talk is listened to and carries a lot of weight. Their position in the schools give them a standing in the community that is hard to beat. The exhibitor should give public school teachers a chance to see this picture as his guests at the earliest opportunity; if possible the leaders should be given a preview. This could be arranged at very small expense and could be fixed to fit in with teaching hours. An attempt should be made to induce some of the teachers to write their opinions of the picture. The best of these will be found of value for advertising and exploitation purposes. There is news publicity in your invitations to the teachers to see the picture as your guests; another story when they do see it, and still another in their general expressions of opinion. You can take the best of the letters they write giving their views and put them up in your lobby with this caption: “THIS IS WHAT SCHOOL OF THE STORM COUNTRY.” TEACHERS THINK OF “TESS In this folder will be found copy for a letter to the principals of your schools extending Miss Pickford’s invitation for the teachers to see this picture. Your Lobby Display Never have there been more beautiful lobby display cards than those issued with this production. And they are just as strong in their attention-attracting qualities as they are in beauty. They show all the high-light scenes of the picture and also tie up in every way with the lithograph paper. There are eleven by fourteen cards and also twenty- two by twenty-eights. These cards, together with judicious use of the one, three and six sheet posters, will enable exhibitors to lay a foundation for a most at¬ tractive lobby display. Don’t try to see how many posters or cards you can use and don’t litter your lobby, but study your material and see how attractive and how strong in attention-attracting you can make the display. While the posters are exceedingly attractive in themselves they often can be made more so by turning them into cut-outs, or by mount¬ ing them on cardboard and placing them in suitable frames. All the posters were designed, also, with the idea of their being made into cut-outs. Look them over and take your choice. Squatter Shanty for the Lobby At small expense and by the use of compo board or beaver, board exhibitors can have erected in their lobbies a squatter shanty similar to those in the picture in which Tess and her fisher-folk friends lived. These shanties as shown in the picture are picturesque in’ the extreme and reproductions of any of them will stand out strong in the lobby as one of the very biggest of attention-attractors. This shanty can even be built up around the ticket booth and tickets sold through the door or one of the windows. Black and whi.te stills that are issued to exhibitors with the picture can be studied for an idea as to the design for the shanty.