The Birds (Universal Pictures) (1963)

Here's a basis for a special direct-by-mail promotion, with possibilities for its permanent use. You print a special letterhead, reproducing Alfred Hitchcock's head and with copy reading: "THE BLANKTOWN HITCHCOCK SOCIETY ... AN ORGANIZATION OF MYSTERY LOVERS." You contact book sellers and important people who love mystery fiction in books and on your screen to help form a local organization like "The Baker Street Irregulars" (Sherlock Holmes fans). You get permission to use their names on the letterhead as officers of the new group. The purpose of "The Blanktown Hitchcock Society" is to NOTIFY MEMBERSHIP WHENEVER A TOP MYSTERY COMES TO TOWN, WHETHER IT BE ON YOUR SCREEN OR AT THE BOOK SELLERS (like a Mystery-of-the-Month Notification Plan). The reason the book sellers are included is because it makes your club more legitimate, gives LOCAL HITCHCOCK SOCIETY. . an idea for a special mailing! DINVS Io & ING! THE wider coverage and is therefore apt to be of greater interest. (You might even get a send-off for the society in the columns of local book reviewers and drama critics). Book seller or sellers you tie in with share the right to utilize the Society and its stationery to promote good "who-dunits". They pay for their mailings. You pay for yours. FIRST MAILING IS, OF COURSE, ANNOUNCEMENT THAT YOUR "ADVISORY COMMITTEE" HAS CHOSEN "THE BIRDS" AS A TRIBUTE TO THE MAN FOR WHOM THE SOCIETY IS NAMED, ETC.) .Second mailing plugs Dell Publication's paperback of ''The Birds." There is no cost for membership. All it takes is an interest in the year's biggest suspense thrillers on film and the printed page, plus a return card which states that the addressee wishes to receive notifications of same. TELL IT! LL IT! SE SELL IT! TELL IT! MODEL TOWN A more-or-less ambitious undertaking but worth every cent you spend on it! For display at least three (3) weeks advance is this model town in a corner of your lobby. This is done easily enough with cardboard houses. In the foreground they are three-dimensional. In the background they are simply ''flats." Windows of colored gelatin with small bulbs behind. The half circle background (like a miniature cyclorama) is a blowup from stills of the flying birds. A round yellow gelatin-covered hole in the background with bulb behind, simulates a moon. Copy across top of background reads: WHY DID IT HAPPEN and HOW? THE TOWN NEVER KNEW AND NEITHER WILL YOU! The Birds is coming! SIDEWALK & LOBBY “BIRD TRACKS’ ¢ t Pees = &@ 4“ The birds is coming! Ae on 4 -«—~ ¢ Z a @ ee The birds is here! This familiar stunt is particularly adapted to your teaser cam paign. Your sign shop cuts out two stencils as indicated in the sketches above. You stencil the sidewalk leading to your theatre with advance teaser line "THE BIRDS IS COMING!" After opening you substitute the new line ''THE BIRDS IS HERE!" This time the bird tracks lead right in and across your lobby. FOR CAMERA BUFFS ..a bird contest Sit down with a group of leading camera dealers and map out a city-wide contest aimed at camera fans (and there are plenty of them). Award prizes (camera, camera supplies and complimentary tickets) for THE BEST COLOR SHOTS OF BIRDS. Tie in dealers for windows and ads. SEE SECTION OF SPECIAL TRAILERS AND SPOTS FOR THEATRE, TV AND RADIO! The birds is here! Simple silhouettes of cutout cardboard birds made of cardboard can be hung from marquee and or lobby ceilings and may also be hung in store windows. It is a simple enough proceedure for your sign shop to make a stencil for a bird silhouette and reproduce a quantity of birds similar to the illustration. Using this stencil first, the birds are painted a solid color. A second stencil with copy is applied over this. Strings or colored ribbons added, you have a fine accessory. “WOODPECKER” BANNER Here's a nice little touch for an advance banner in your lobby. The banner is made of soft wood. The teaser phrase ''THE BIRDS IS COMING" is punched out with holes. In other words, spell out your copy with a punch or any small hole-making tool. The idea is to make it look like a woodpecker made the sign. Then attach a stuffed woodpecker to a corner of the banner. In larger towns, taxidermists can supply such birds . . . or cotton stuffed birds can be had from novelty dealers and specialty dealers. As a last resort, the woodpecker can be simulated in the round by a clever sign shop man. BIRD THRU DOOR! NEXT STARTING TIME FOR | “THE BIRDS ‘eee ee ae STORY TO OTHERS!" Page 37 One of the memorable scenes in an unforgetable film is the crashing of birds against the door of a house (bit by bit splintering the wood with their beaks!) You can dramatize this sequence by building and painting a compo board door with frame, door knob etc. Wedge a bird half way thru the door. If you can't get a cotton stuffed bird or a taxidermist's bird, perhaps your sign shop can fashion one out of painted modeling clay or papier mache . . The door is set on a stand and placed in the center.of your lobby SO COPY ON BOTH SIDES CAN BE READ. On the side facing the street use copy indicated in sketch. On the reverse side facing outgoing audiences the copy reads: PLEASE preserve the Mystery! . .°. For the full enjoyment of those who have not seen it . . DO NOT DESCRIBE THE I SE