The Crowd Roars (Warner Bros.) (1932)

ONCE IN A LONG WHILE DO YOU GET A PICTURE THAT LENDS ITSELF AS DOES THIS ONE TO EXPLOITATION e e Special Opening In order to set up “The Crowd Roars” as a big attraction and get reviews in your local papers one day earlier, open this picture with a midnight preview on the evening of your opening date. There are two ways of handling this opening. You ean either make it a special invitation, reserved seat premiere, or run it as an additional show after the last showing of current picture. The most impressive way is to have a special invitation opening. Prepare invitations for the im portant social and civic leaders in your town. If there are any local drivers of fame, make them the guests of honor. If conditions warrant it, you can increase your prices for this special preview. No matter how you put this preview on, it is important that you give it plenty of publicity. Start —___ atleast four days in advance and ye send daily notices to your newspapers giving them the names of the important people who have accepted your invitation. Tack an announcement of this special preview on to the regular trailer. Advertise it in your lobby. You can be definitely sure that every newspaper review on “The Crowd Roars” will be great. It is, therefore, important that you get these reviews published at _ the earliest possible moment. If this special preview serves only to get these reviews into the papers one day in advance of the usual publication day, it is worth the effort. Lobby or Radio Stunt Tf you have a radio tie-up, you can arrange to broadcast the racing scenes of “The Crowd Roars.” In the picture there is a scene of a radio broadeaster announcing the thrills and crack-ups of the race exactly as they happen. By placing a microphone behind the screen, you ean pick up the roar. of the motors and the announcing of the radio man and send same over the air. We can think of nothing that would be more effective in establishing the thrills and excitement of ‘The Crowd Roars” to the public. Many radio stations have facilities of broadcasting sound from film. If your local station is equipped with such facilities, let them borrow the reel containing this’ broadeast. Please bear in mind that the broadcasting of dialogue by the stars (not the announcer) is prohibited. If you have no tie-up with a local radio station, you can, by the use -of a public address system, pick \up the running description of the \race by the radio announcer in the ‘film and broadcast same to your ‘lobby. Tuonty-five SELL ’EM FROM THESE ANGLES ACTION-THRILLS! The most exciting racing sequences ever put on celluloid. Real crashes! Real races photographed at 125 miles per hour. Cars driven by internationally famous racing drivers. CAGNEY-BLONDELL TEAM! Individually they have proven their box-office power .. . Cagney in “‘Taxi”’ and Blondell in “Union Depot.” Now they’re to gether again after knocking ’em over in “Blonde Crazy.” LOVE INTEREST! There is a double love story in “The Crowd Roars.” Ann Dvorak. AUTHENTICITY! drivers. No faked scenes. Nine crashes! Cagney-Blondell and Eric LindenDon’t overlook the romance! Fourteen famous Seven injuries! They risked death to film this picture! HOWARD HAWKS! Patrol.”’ Wrote and directed Now he brings his thrills down to earth “Dawn in a similar author-director capacity with ‘The Crowd Roars.” IMPORTANT! How you bill Cagney and Blondell dedepends entirely upon how these stars perform at your box-office. Don’t make the title small. It carries plenty of sales appeal and should be given plenty of display. DON’T sell the brother-against brother-angle. DON’T compare it with “Taxi!”, it’s not that kind of a picture. Marquee Display From the Duesenberg Company, which is directly associated with Auburn and Cord cars, the New York Winter Garden promoted a racing car for marquee display. (See illustration of the Winter Garden lobby in this Merchandising Plan.) You can get a racing ear in your locality, put it on your marquee. <A motorcycle motor should be substituted for the regular racing motor and the cutout should be wide open. If you cannot promote a real automobile, make a cut-out of the 6-sheet and put a motoreycle motor behind it. This should be properly spotted with flasher lights in order to give the effect of motion. Cagney WiseCrack Contest Inasmuch as James Cagney is known for his sereen wise-cracks, conduct a contest with the cooperation of your newspaper for the best wise-crack that would be suitable: to James Cagney. Exhibitors throughout the country have used this contest with exceptional success on previous Cagney releases. If you haven’t tried this one yet, now is the time. Lobby Attraction From your local toy or department store you can borrow a miniature racing track with small automobiles and drivers. These cars run either electrically or by means of clock springs. Arrange this display prominently in your lobby a few days in advance of the showing and leave it on display until the last day of “The Crowd Roars” engagement. In arranging this miniature race track, label the drivers, or the cars with names of the drivers used in One should be Billy Arnold, another Harry Hartz, another James Cagney, Erie Linden, etc., etc. the picture. You can get their names from page 2 of this Merchandising Plan. Cover All Sporting Events Wherever there is a group of sporting fans, such as at baseball games, football games, hockey games, or any other sporting events, be sure to distribute heralds among the crowds. oe e Gasoline Station e Tie-up A contest that is sure to arouse plenty of discussion and get plenty of interest in ‘‘The Crowd Roars” is a tie-up with your local gasoline station. Have them put on display an automobile the rear wheels of which are jacked up off the ground. The stunt is to guess how long the wheels will continuously run day and night until the gasoline has been exhausted. The gasoline station, where the car is on display, distributes contest blanks, as does the theatre. Prizes for the correet answers should be admissions to see “The Crowd Roars.” The following cards should be prominently displayed in connection with this stunt: “HOW LONG WILL THESE WHEELS ROTATE? On (date) 15 gallons of gasoline was put into the tank of this car. If you can guess what hour and what day the gasoline will be exhausted, you will win the following prizes: Ist prize — 15 gallons of gasoline. 2nd prize — 10 gallons of ‘ gasoline. 3rd prize — 5 gallons of gasoline and 25 tickets to the next best answers to see James Cagney in “The Crowd Roars” a thes Theatre. You will find gasoline dealers who are anxious to promote a special brand of gasoline, will be more than willing to give you full cooperation on the above stunt. se Newspaper Tie-up By arrangement with your local newspaper you can put over a stunt whereby their news photographer visits baseball fields or other places where large crowds gather and photographs a small section of the grand stand. The faces of two, three or more in this group are circled and the picture published. Prizes of one or two single admissions to the theatre to see “The Crowd Roars” are awarded each day to those whose faces are circled. This gag is a great circulation builder for the newspaper, because the contestant has to purchase a copy of the paper and present it at the box office with proper identification to receive the tickets to see “The Crowd Roars.” This tie-up has wide-spread reader interest and creates worlds of advance talk. It is conducted at no cost to-the theatre. It is a natural for this time of the year when large crowds will be attending the baseball games.