The Petrified Forest (Warner Bros.) (1936)

“ea or “THE PETRIFIED FOREST” COPY THE RIVOLI'S CAMPAIGN Exploitation @ The Rivoli Theatre, New York, went to town on their ‘Dangerous’ campaign. The — leading ideas are told on this page, aot because we want you to read about another theatre’s campaign—but because each and every idea is adaptable to this film. FLOAT COMBINED WITH CONTEST IDEA COSTS YOR ROTHING T6 ERTER An original float idea was sponsored by the Rivoli boys — which not only consisted of the plug via the float, but included a contest idea at the same time. Illustration shows how it was done. Rivoli offered $50 to the “‘girl with the most dangerous smile.”’ Photographer, stationed on float, snapped all the gals who wanted to step up and be photographed — at no cost. And there were plenty of femmes who took advantage of the contest offer. Gals were snapped in smiling poses ... and judges, consisting of leading N. Y. film critics, picked the winning photos. Truck toured the city, stopping at spots where crowds of the feminine sex were bound to gather — favoring schools, department stores and factories at lunch hour and office buildings at closing time. Announcements of the stunt broke in most of the dailies, thereby garnering additional publicity. Think you can work something along similar lines on this film? No reason why you shouldn’t be able to — changing your offer to find “‘gal with smile most resembling Bette Davis’ . . .”’ HOLLYWOOD PROGRAMS All programs that featured a Hollywood gossiper were contacted, and many of the gentlemen who spieled on the film city added an interesting item or two about Davis or the film, telling the folks at the same time about the Rivoli engagement. If you can reach any local film broadcasters, some interesting items can be taken from the publicity section of this book. DAVEGA AD TIE-UP You’ve worked ad and window tie-ups before, but anyway we’d like to tell you about the one worked by the Rivoli. Using stills of Davis and Margaret Lindsay in skii and winter sport cos . tumes, they tied-up with the Davega Sporting Goods chain, which operate 28 stores in New York City. Davega used stills of the stars in large ads in many of the N. Y. papers, which included a big break for film and theatre. They also used hundreds of stills like the one illustrated in window displays in every one of their 28 stores. On another page of this book you'll find plenty of tie-up stills, which you can use along the same lines. CONTEST ON THE AIR The Rivoli even tied-in with Radio Station WNEW, which runs a program of records all night long . . . to a large listening audience. For a week, five times nightly, announcer offered passes for best letters written on ‘Why I want to see ‘Dangerous’.” All in all, 70 single passes were handed out only good during the second week and fifty free plugs were received in return. A darn good bit of promotion for any man’s theatre. Judging by the number of answers to the contest, there must have been plenty of people who heard the plugs. Step around to your station and see if they’ll do something of the sort on their programs. PHOTO HANDOUTS Five gentlemen in the benevolent guise of Santa Claus toured the city’s streets during Xmas, handing out autographed photos of Bette Davis. The back was inscribed with copy telling the donee that this was a Xmas gift from the Rivoli Theatre, etc. An autographed photo has been made available on this film, and it occurred to us that you might try something of the sort, if you’re playing the film on Washington’s Birthday, during Easter Week or any other holiday, by offering the photo as an Easter gift, or having a few gents dressed as Geo. Washington hand ’em out. GAL ON AMATEUR HOUR We don’t like to rave, but the lads at the Rivoli pulled one stunt that’s worth raving about — because it was original, reached a tremendous amount of people with a picture plug — and was practically costless. They planted a gal on the WHN Amateur Hour, master-of-ceremonied by J. C. Flippen. Gal, an amateur actress, learned a few speeches from many of Bette Davis’ past hits. She stepped up to microphone on night of broadcast, and said she was an impersonator. When asked who she impersonated, she said Bette Davis, one of the world’s finest actresses, etc. Then she went into the various impressions, and when she finished, she ad libbed with J. C. Flippen, and said she was going to try to be first on line to see Bette’s new picture, sneaking title and theatre name in. If there’s an amateur hour in town, why not try something along the same line. Gal could do Bette Davis, or lad could do Leslie Howard. But we think it only fair to talk it over with station impresarios before working it, so that you don’t get into any hot water. SLIDE FLASHED ON B'WAY Balioptican machine flashed Rivoli’s sales message on a Broadway skyscraper visible to thousands of strollers. Think you can work same gag locally? BEAUTY EDITOR'S COLUMN Antoinette Donnelly, beauty editor of the Daily News ran a column on Bette Davis and beauty make-up, illustrating a still of Bette with story. Maybe your beauty ed would do likewise. PLANT WITH WINCHELL Newsy items on film were planted with local columnists for some mighty fine breaks. Friendly with your local gossiper? If so take a peek at the publicity section and you'll find plenty of items that are worthy of inclusion in a column. USHER INTERVIEWS Illustration shows how Rivoli Theatre plainclothed an usher for patron interviews. As they were waiting, boy asked "em if they thought Bette Davis surpassed her ‘Of Human ‘ S Bondage’ _performance. Uniformed usher worked along with him, jotting down answers. Idea of stunt was to impress upon those who saw film and those who were hanging around that Bette had registered with another big role. Result of tabulations were placed on lobby board, changed daily to show that 81% of all interviewed agreed that Bette did a better job in this film. Furthermore, story broke in papers. Same stunt could be worked in your theatre, by changing the question to include Davis and Howard. Page Five is