Purchase Price (Warner Bros.) (1932)

EXPLOITATION STUNTS THAT ARE “NATURALS” Torch Singers In co-operation with your newspaper, run a Strand-Daily News Barbara Stanwyck Torch Singer Contest to discover the best singing talent in town, male and female. Make it possible for everybody to enter. Don’t have any complicated rules. Anybody who thinks he ean sing is eligible. Run the entry blanks in the newspaper and get publicity and photos of the different entries, together with photos of Barbara Stanwyck. Do not run lyrics of the song sung in the picture by Miss Stanwyck in the newspaper. This is against the copyright. ‘‘Take Me Away’? is the first number Miss Stanwyck has ever sung in a picture. Merely advise contestants that this song will be played for them at the various music stores and that they are under no obligation to buy it. Promote a variety of prizes from local merchants for the winners of the Barbara Stanwyck Torch Singer Contest. Have the audience decide the winners, tying in with your radio station for daily announcements of the contest. Have the station put the winners on the air in a special broadcast from the theatre after the contest ends. If possible, promote fare to and from the nearest large key eity for a ‘‘big time’’ station audition for the winners. Be sure to see that all contestants use ‘‘Take Me Away’’ as their sample of torch singing but don’t let it become monotonous by having more than two or three entries smg it at any one performance. Don’t neglect any of the details of advertising, merchant co-operation, exploitation, publicity and other arrangements necessary to make this contest a definite business builder. Patron Letter Stay away from any suggestion of rural atmosphere in exploiting ‘‘The Purchase Price’’ to a city clientele. The following letter embodies the sales angles on the picture: Dear Following her great hit in ‘‘So Big,’’ we are proud to again present Barbara Stanwyck in her latest picture—‘The Purchase Price.’’ You will see Barbara in the kind of role you love to see her play. She ts back again as the young, vibrant, entrancing charmer of ‘‘Illicit’’ and “*Night Nurse.’’ You will see her as a torch singer with a past, hot from the night clubs, who has three men of different types madly in love with her and who mar ries @ man she has never met defore.. You won’t blame her lovers when you see how tantalizing, alluring and beautiful she is. One of the men is handsome George Brent, the latest screen sensation. I’ vouch for ‘‘The Purchase Price’’—it’s the best picture Barbara Stanwyck has made. I urge you not to miss it. See it at the .................. PNOGITE Ret. 5c.., oe Very truly yours, Manager Word Contest Take advantage of the current craze for word games. Run a contest offering prizes of passes, or promoted gifts, to the winners of a newspaper contest to find the greatest number of four letter words in the letters forming ‘‘ TH BE PURBCHASE PRICE.’ The contest can also be conducted from the theatre, a large lobby frame announcing the contest and referring to the daily contest publicity in the news paper. Page Twelve Star Doubles Gag Take advantage of the innate urge to go into the movies by instituting a Barbara Stanwyck George Brent Doubles Contest. If possible, work it up as a screen test idea and arrange to show the winners on the screen during the playing of ‘‘The Purchase Price.’’ If it is impossible to work the screen test idea, apply straight doubles awarding the prizes to the entries Its Ase contest, judged to resemble the stars most closely. Run announcements and entry blanks in the newspaper, making no conditions except that the contestant must think he or she looks like the star, must fill out a blank and mail or bring it in to the box office or newspaper office. Promote . various prizes from merchants for the winners of the contest, winners to be determined by either popular applause at your theatre, or by a board of judges selected by you and choosing the winners at your theatre. Tie up with a photographer to make portrait pictures of the entries for posting in the windows of cooperating stores and your lobby. Display the prizes in windows Give the Doubles Contest a big splash in order to get andlobby. Stanwyck and Brent before the public in an additional way. If possible, make it a Singing Danhles Onnts-4 “ng this idea on . aa “Stanwyck’s,sui@@@2""nd characteray— tion as a torch singer in the picture. Song Tie-Up Barbara Stanwyck sings on the screen for the first time! Make capital of this fact by a thorough tie-up with all possible music connections: stores, orchestras, radio stations, ete. The number Miss Stanwyck sings is entitled ‘‘Take Me Away,’’ a peach of a number. It is published by Harms, Inc., 62 West 45th St., New York City. The publisher will furnish you with title pages and other available display material. Write to them advising how many music stores you will have in on the tie-up. In connection with the ‘‘torch singer’’ angle, be sure to have orchestrations and professional copies of ‘‘Take Me Away’’ in the hands of singers and orchestra leaders well in advance of your showing. Arrange with them to announce that the number is sung by Barbara Stanwyck in the Warner Bros. picture ‘‘The Purchase Price’’ which will play at your theatre. Contact your radio station for similar credit on the song and the picture, stressing the point that this is the first time Stanwyck has sung on the screen. Have your organist or musical director make the same announcement when the number is played for your audiences, in advance of the showing. The trailer on the picture opens with shots of the star singing the number. Get it started as far ahead of your showing as you ¢an. Mention in everything that goes out of your. office the fact the’, rbara _ Stanwyck sings. It’s a rea. _ gument! DIRECTIONS Cut out carefully with scissors the letters above spelling the name of Barbara Stanwyck. See if you can arrange them to form the head of this gorgeous star who plays the leading role in ‘The Purchase Price,”’ in which she is sup ported by George Brent. H. MAYER, Originator. Idea Rights Protected. Here is a novelty that you can be sure will be taken into the home, with a whole family working on it. Ingeniously designed in the form of a jig saw puzzle, it plugs the star, the picture and your theatre’s showing. The object of the stunt is to arrange the letters to form the head of Barbara Stanwyck. It's interesting and will appeal equally to grown-ups and kids. The ways of distribution are unlimited. You can hand them out as giveaways, use them as special mailing pieces, conduct a contest for thé neatest solution, etc. . . . Size over all, 614 by 5% on good stock. Price, including theatre name and imprint on back, $6.00 per M; $5.50 per M over 3M: $4.50 per M over 5M. Order direct from EXPLOITATION PRINTERS, 20 West 22nd Street, New York City. Catechline Contest Paste a catchline picked out of this merchandising plan on a card on which you have explanatory copy and information about the picture and the play date. Offer a pair of tickets to anyone who sends in a better line, following the catchline suggestion. Spot the card in a store window. Use several of these cards around town. You won’t have to give out many passes and will get a lot of attention for your own advertising copy on the picture. Post winning catchlines in the lobby, crediting the author. If possible use winning catchlines in your ads. You can continue this stunt after your showing of ‘‘The Purchase Price,’’ using it for several weeks as a standard tie-up stunt. Definition Contest Run a newspaper contest asking the question ‘‘What Is A Torch Singer?’’ and awarding passes as prizes to the best 50-word answers or definitions. Although ‘‘torch singer’? is a common term applied to vocalists, @ majority of people do not know exactly what the phrase means. For your information, the accepted meaning, which you can use as a basis for judging replies submitted in the contest, is ‘‘A man or woman who ‘carries the torch’ (whose heart is breaking) for someone who doesn’t return his or her love, and sings about it in the ‘Moanin’ Low’ manner.’’ Also, use the definitions in connection with the ‘‘Barbara Stanwyck Torch Singers’’ Contest. Neighbor Identity _ eral stunt which you can apply to ‘‘The Purchase Price’’ with good publicity results. Get profile photos of several prominent civic and social leaders and black them out, leaving just the silhouette of the head. Run the silhouettes in the paper under the ‘Know Your Neighbor’’ heading. Explain that the silhouette is of a prominent local personage and that the first five persons identifying each silhouette will receive a pair of passes to ‘‘The Purchase Price.’’ Make it a condition of the contest that identities must be made at your theatre. At the end of the contest, ring in silhouetted heads of Stanwyck and Brent, telling readers that they will be their neighbors beginning with the play date of the picture. You can change the stunt by having identities made in your lobby, if the newspaper is already running a contest. Essay Contests You have an opportunity to run a variety of essay contests based on questions suggested by ‘‘The Purchase Price.’’ Offer prizes for the best 50-word answers to such questions as ‘‘Should A Girl Tell Her Husband About Her Past?’’; ‘Can A Girl Live Down Her Past?’’; ‘*Would You Marry A Man You’ve Never Seen?’’; and ‘‘Can A Girl Love Three Men?’’ Be sure to tie in directly with the picture by explaining that Barbara Stanwyck has to choose between three men, one of whom (George Brent) she meets through correspondence, another of whom (Lyle Talbot) she fears, and the third of whom (Hardie Albright) wants to marry her. Tie-Up Stills The following stills are especially suitable for window displays. Order directly from the home office if unavailable at your exchange. J OWN. SLOPG). 5. gh ee ML42 Mackinaws ML35, ML36, ML37, ML58 Railway and travel agency ML70, ML75, ML76, ML81 High: Cut Bootes... 3. MLPubT Evening gowns..BS174, BS175, BS178