Happiness Ahead (Warner Bros.) (1934)

ADVANCE TRAILER IDEA BOOSTS TOWN’S CELEBS From the M & P Theatres Bulletin we pluck this suggestion for a novel advance trailer. Give a private showing of the picture for a number of your town’s celebs, including the Mayor, local officials, leading clergymen etc. A sentence or two from each indorses the film. Then theatre artist draws a series of slide cartoons, picturing each indorser with a balloon from his mouth, voicing his opinion of the show. It’s just different enough to make’em sit up and take notice . . . and then having the big shots of the town O. K. the picture, will put it on the ‘must’ list for the rest of the citizenry. —Are You Using Vitaphone Shorts ?— G. E. SARGENT USES PRESS BOOK COVERS G. E. Sargent, of Dover’s Strand Theatre, up in Massachussets, seems to be a manager who’s always on his toes, looking for costless ideas. His latest find is press book covers. He mounts them on window cards cut to fit, and places them at vantage points in the lobby. Look at the cover of this book! Isn’t it a honey! Hand it to your artist, and watch what he can do with it. A scissors, paste and a little ingenuity will do wonders! And don’t forget this stunt with future pictures! —Send One Of YOUR Stunts In!— HOUSE STAFF MAKES Epes Sargent FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE in Variet y writes about the surburban manager who used to snicker at big theatres labeling their service staff— until he had a change of heart. After several requests for names, he put a sign on his ticket window “Miss .................... is now on duty,” with a slot for the insertion of the cashier’s name. A similar sign appears over the doorman’s head. Manager finally admits that this seemingly unimportant stunt has a real cash value. Patrons greet the doorman by name when entering and seem to take satisfaction in knowing him. Stunt works both ways in that the doorman is trying to remember all steady customers, giving a personal touch to the contact. It’s little things like that which add to business! —There’s A Swell Warner Trailer On This Picture— PATRONS INSPECT REEDER’S THEATRE When Manager Fay Reeder held the 10th anniversary celebration of the Fox Senator Theatre in Sacremento, he held open house every morning from 10 to 12 for patrons and the general public. With plenty of newspaper ads, publicity and special trailers, he invited patrons to make inspection tours of the house. Surprising to even Reeder, about 4,200 people took advantage of the invitation, inspecting backstage, the cooling system, poster art department, projection room and other departments of the theatre. Stage manager demonstarted stage lighting apparatus, screen, sound producers ete., explaining the workings of each. Manager Reeder reports added good will and a more friendly feeling among his patrons. Are you planning a celebration in the near future? Why not try the stunt during Fall Festival Week! —Are You Set For The Holidays?— DEALERS COOPERATE ON THEATRE’S PASS’ IDEA Epes Sargent again tips us off to a clever advertising stunt used by a wideawake showman. Exhib offers free passes to a dozen people listed in his theatre ad. Idea is that it gets more people following his ads. Now, he’s making a profit from the stunt, by having the stores in town pay for the passes. Each day, three different stores pay for them, getting a mention in the ad, with “Jones & Green, Babbits and Freeheisen Co. are the hosts to the Strand Theatre today. The guests are... .” Showman says that shops in town are just begging to he allowed the privilege of being hosts! Any Old Cutouts ? If so you can put them to additional use. Especially if they’re of gals. Set them up around town with a sign reading: No I’m Not In Another Picture— Just Dropped In Town To Tell You That There’s ““HAPPINESS AHEAD”’ at the STRAND. Classified Contest ‘*There’s Happiness In The Classified Ad.’’ That’s the basis of a contest you can suggest to your editor. Idea is that the letters of the word ‘Happiness’ are scattered through the ads, and the first ten to find the entire word are awarded passes to the picture. Be sure to get your picture plugs in the contest announcement box. Happy People You’ve probably run lots of popularity contests. Now have one for the happiest person. Run one in local department store for happiest salesgirl, with customers casting ballots. Run contests for the Happiest Policeman, Happiest Fireman, Happiest Conductor. There are plenty of opportunities for the contest. See if you can plant at least one. For a Parade An item in the Happiness Week section of this merchandising plan gives you the dope needed to smash through with a big parade. Even if you don’t use the Happiness Week idea, the parade information is adaptable to any other angle on which you are working. Take a look at it! Happiness Songs Keep after radio bands to plug the songs from the show and also old ‘Happy’ songs, as ‘‘ Happy Days Are Here Again,” ete. Suggest that studio play all ‘Happy’ songs as a contest, playing records of all songs with ‘Happy’ in them, and asking readers to identify them, offering passes to the guessrighters. Songs should include, ‘‘Happy Days Are Here Again,” ‘‘Happy Feet,” ‘Happy as the Day is Long,’’ ‘‘Sometimes I’m Happy,”’ ‘‘I’m Happy,’’ and of course, ‘‘ Happiness Ahead.”’ Theatre Groups Holiday Dates Josephine Hutchinson has had a remarkable career despite her youth. Before her debut in Happiness Ahead she was the prodigy of the world famous Eva Le Gallene. This information together with the playdate of film should be of great interest to amateur theatre groups, students of acting as well as other people whose interests lie in the theatre. Start writing them letters. If you’re fortunate enough to play this show during any of the forthcoming Holidays, don’t let ’em go by unnoticed. There’s Election Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Use all your standbys, including special matinees, midnight shows, etc. Plug the dates in advance with ‘‘There’s Happiness Ahead... Thanksgiving and the new Dick Powell film ‘Happiness Ahead’ coming soon.”’ Have you set the date for our special TRAILER? ? Special Program For Local Radio Station Get hold of the phonograph records of past songs from Warner musicals. Plan so that they will run for a scheduled period, to be set by local radio moguls. Call program MUSIC HITS FROM PAST MUSICALS. Allow time for the title song of this film, adding a plug for ‘‘Happiness Ahead”’ as the follow up hit to the other great Warner musicomedies. If it’s possible to secure the services of an orchestra instead of using records, so much the better. N.Y. Strand’s Month-Ahead Lobby Flash Here’s how the Strand Theatre plugged the was set up in the lobby, at the entrance to the theatre. You can take our word for it that it made a swell advance flash. Why not tr picture a month ahead of playdate. Display y something like it? Page Twenty-three