The Hallelujah Trail (United Artists) (1965)

OPENING BALLY REALLY TURNS YOUR TOWN ON! At practically no cost you can set locally what United Artists did on a national scale: an all-out opening jamboree, replete with bands, buckboards, buggies and a barbecue! Here's how: First, tie in with a charity, the chamber of commerce or some local fund-raising group — or work directly with a radio station or newspaper. Start your project by arranging to rename your main street or the route to your theatre THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL. Then set a torchlight parade of horses and wagons and at least one marching band with baton-twirling drum-majorettes. Be sure to publicize the event well in advance. The more local talent and civic officials you tie in with, the more newspaper space you will get. Invite radio personnel to do a remote broadcast “along the trail’ and have station personalities riding one of the wagons. As it passes your theatre, the “wagon train” can be “attacked” by local Sioux Indians, who charge out from behind your theatre front, which is decorated with tepees made by your local sign shop. Boy Scouts or any properly organized eroup of kids make great Indians and will attack the wagon train with tremen dous enthusiasm .. . and they don’t feel self-conscious about wearing war-paint. Other Ballys You Can Set AWAY FROM THEATRE: e Stencil a trail to your theatre, reading This is THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL. e Use the map (see page 11) to make window cards which you place in store-fronts for a block in each direction from your theatre. A big arrow points to your theatre and copy reads: You're On THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL e Send a horse-drawn wagon through town (buckboard if you can’t actually rig a covered wagon) driven by pretty girls in brief costumes and wearing six-guns. Copy on wagon reads: __...... We're On THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL TO The Bijou, and We're Going To Head Burt Lancaster Off At The Bijou Theatre e Vary the above stunt with a flat-bed truck on which you recreate the scene in Still HT-7. Instead of dressing the women in period costumes, however, you can dress them in short buckskin cow-girl outfits. Sign still reads: Women Can Remake The World Add: Find Out How in THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL Now at the Bijou Theatre. AT THE THEATRE: eSet up a stand where patrons are requested to check their guns. A pretty girl is in attendance, wearing two-guns and western outfit. e At a table, or in a glass case, display a ten-gallon hat full of cartridges. Offer guest tickets or promoted prizes to the 25 people coming closest to guessing the correct amount of bullets in the hat. * Set up a display of two or three rifles, with copy reading This ls The Gun That Started Custer's Last Stand and This ls The Gun That Started The Great Sioux Uprising. Then display a bottle of champagne with the cork popping. Copy reads: This is the "Gun" That Started The "Battle of Whiskey Flats'"!! You Won't Believe it Until You See How The West Was Almost Lost in "THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL." e Contact local plumbing supply houses for the oldest bathtub around. If you come up with a real relic, display it in your lobby — or on the sidewalk out front if you can. Nearby, of course, set a blow-up of Burt Lancaster in the tub—mounted and cut-out— to tie-up the stunt. PAGE 1 O Promote the use of a parking lot near your theatre (if you operate a drive-in, you have it made!) and set it up for a huge barbecue: chicken, corn-on-thecob, hot-dogs, hamburgers, french fries ... the works. This is where your parade ends... and the publicity begins! Admission to the barbecue festivities is by ticket only, and there are several ways to handle this. If you are tied-in with a radio station, tickets are mailed out by the personality whose program is being used. This person is host at the barbecue. If you work with a newspaper, let the editor handle distribution of the tickets. If this is to be a fund-raising function, arrangements are handled by the group you tie in with. Entertainment at the barbecue should include a small western band and a few girls to demonstrate whatever current dances are in vogue. A new dance should be featured. Call it, of course, “The Hallelujah.” Any party favors you can promote or get at cost should be included, such as cowboy hats, Indian feather headdress (one feather is a headdress), pennants, souvenir books, comic books, paperbacks or records (see below). Double Book Tieup for Trail THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL ROR PREONYS CATES ih th She was Genet Ragstinl ullely ak fatiex ia 8 peaneg, ley: ABE of the WES : Hew a seesatinext weve Hlattiag Sixt Laneasiae ORES : Prsdeeed Hs Graces by: fobn Sterges “WAL HVIOTATIVH 3H Lee Remick ‘Fix Hatton Pamala Tiin Popular brary FOR TEENERS AND ADULTS: Popular Library has published a movie edition of the novel by Bill Gulick, upon which the screenplay is based. Contact local dealers and distributors and work with them on displays and tie-ins with radio personalities. Use the books as giveaways and contest prizes and don't forget to banner the delivery trucks with ]-sheets and other poster paper. FOR THE KIDS: A 32-page, full color comic book that tells the complete story in pictures. Cover features photos of Burt Lancaster and Lee Remick, with art and credits on page 2. Book sells for only 12 cents in outlets all over your city. For more info, contact local Dell dealer, or: Don Arneson, Dell Publish ing Co., Inc., 750 Third Avenue, New York, N. ¥. 1@01 7. ROUSING MUSIC RECORDED ON SOUNDTRACK ALBUM AND SINGLE United Artists has issued both a 45 rpm dise and a 12” long-playing record of the original motion picture soundtrack. The album cover features full color art from the film and is your key to window and in-store displays. Contact distributors and dealers for their cooperation in setting these displays in record stores and music departments. And don’t forget other ways to use this exciting music: e On-the-air plays. Back up the national mailing already made to program directors and DJs across the country. Be sure they have promotion ma terial and the records. e Set displays in record stores and music departments. e Use the records as door prizes and for contest prizes. ¢ Use your lobby to broadcast the music. Play it in your auditorium during intermissions. If you operate an open-air theatre, play the album before show time, with announcements on the PA system that it is available at whichever music store you make your tie in. * Combine your book promotions with record tie-ins, wherever they are all sold together (department stores, shopping centers, etc.).