Publix Opinion (Aug 3, 1929)

PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF AUGUST 3rp, 1929 GOOD FOR CHECK YOUR A NEXT YEAR! | FILMS VERY The boys of the Metropolitan Theatre, Houston, never let a public | CAREFULLY! holiday go by without crashing the papers in some way or other. Publix-Saenger Theatres have OOOO OO +O D105 O° OOH OF if D T IPS ee Se eR ELEER, Mark Twain . went to church and the preacher pleased him so MUCH that he made up his mind right away to give the church $400. But as the sermon This time, they jumped at th 1 ime, the e chance of ularizi i front” men, Lou Forbes, band leader, and phan coher Maasai b si the i 7 2 Ad Fone, rete inmates of St. Anthony’s Home for the Aged a Thesday; June 18; 1929 ta ° aie: ‘ BE "gE itr F ' o ot . # , light am4 colors BP Wg Pe "possil iis caplet ecm a : “fe orange In observance of Father's Day, | sented h i i st a aFia oa 3 # a neckties followin; Syehow. in tie picture tne gue times aS ave oe gentlemen from Sain An| matine rformance pg Dyer] ¢ the theatre are shown with Corpag ek Home were ef tertained at | Life,’ talkie starting Richard|melius Maffie, organist; Lou or green. tropolitan Theatre and pre-|Dix, and “Cheerio,” the stage|¥orbes, new band leader, and girls utes i e show chorus, contrast | pict ne ‘ PT sanene iS =| Wattage = Lamps *Means Flashing z No Size Usual Recommended z | tenet 200 60 12000 12000 =) Bebestesess 200 40 8000 4000* = wee ewne 400 10 3000° 3000* z Rime wees sss 200 25 500¢ 5000 = | : Cost of Operation o-iP.M 1-5P.M. 5-11 P.M 11 A.M.-11 P.M Lf 3.36 5.04 10.08 = 2.88 4.32 8.64 : 1.08 4.32 5.94 vuaytaneneennth, yanenannnnenctpenevenntane ages i444 To illustrate in a practical manner the relative cost of oper-| ation of a sign, the following} example is given: The house under discussion, is | “} a 3000 seat house having an average admission price of 50¢, al20 ft vertical sign with two ft. letters, 1000 lamps in the displays operat ing from 11 a.m 11 p. m. and | with current costing 3¢ per kilo| watt hour These figures may be leasily adjusted to your own con-| ditions The charts reproduced above show the necessary data with regard to these displays. Let us analyze these figures and see what they mean to the box office. > Is it ‘reasonable to expect that the only possible customers at 11 o’clock in the morning are those who set out with an intent to visit your theatre? It hardly seems shee oq possible and yet a dark theatre ; won’t attract anyone in the vicin‘ replace ity becaue they won't know that — Reyou are operating. Even if your) the | displays are all on one circuit it will cost only about $1.50 to tell \ these people you are open until lafter the dinner hour—you will | only have to get three people into the theatre through your displays to even up, but if your displays | are circuited as they should be, it | will only cost about 50¢. There) is needless use to burn lamps which do not show in the sunlight, land recireuiting will take care of that. | The period from 1 P. M. to 5 P, M. is capable of the same treatment. By recireuiting it is cer; tainly good business to operate the i e i 2 i in| pright portions of the display, and | ‘been wired.| after dusk the whole display. On wired, | cloudy days the complete display to ar-| should be operated. | circuiting of the ion of the vertical | e letters and the | quee from 11 isplay ld be to L on because «jt a x nr With proper signs and operat sign and marque underside of the mar to 6, and the complete 4d from 5 to il, the cost wou 5.94 and would gible for attrac \to the theatre to bre would do this, and muc ting twelve people ak even. h more. | ane have to be respon-} CONTEST GETS FOUR FOLD RESULTS By staging a translation-contest for “This is Heaven” with Vilma Banky when it played his >\theatre, Manager M. A. Baker, of Publix Colfax Theatre, South | accomplished these | thea Bi nd, four Ind., results: (1) Got valuable publicity before the general public for his picture; (2) impressed upon the 6,000 Hungarian population of the town the fact that Vilma Banky is a Hungarian and speaks both in her native tongue and English in the picture; (3) effectively ascertained his propor tion of foreign-born trade; (4) did the paper a.favor by helping it increase its circulation among the Hungarian population, which it had been endeavoring to do for some time. soya nuungbantivAnuENAMBRONAREOUAROTAUERAAREDEDRETARLEROSEALSCREUUERTITIRETT Cull your file of old PUBLIX OPINION Honan ean RUA DERTURRREL AUENO NEEDLES = = = = for reminders! 5 issued a bulletin to all their theatres stressing the necessity of checking films to prevent loss of money, business, time and public good will. The bulletin quotes two glaring instances of carelessness on the part of managers in not following instructions to check films on ar-| |rival and in failing to wire the | Booking Department a day ahead of playdate that their next day’s show had not arrived. | In the first instance, First Na| ltional Pictures sent two boxes of | ‘film one of which was supposed to contain ‘““Two Weeks Off.” In| stead, it contained ‘“Saturday’s | | Children.’”’ The film was never | checked inasmuch as the Chief | Operator, who started to do the| checking was called away by the | Electrical Research Service Man. | The manager drove to the ex-| changé to get another picture and | returned at 6:15 p. m., an emerglency show being run in the meanltime. Failure to follow instruc| tions in this case cost a consider| able loss of business and an un| | warranted amount of expense. | | In the second instance, a new | lman working at the theatre failed | to report that a film had not ar-| rived and a miss-out resulted. Managers all over the circuit | would do well to be warned by these two instances against a re-| eurrence in their theatres. The | first duty of a showman is to see that his show is at hand before he opens the doors of his theatre. | The films should be checked and re-checked to make certain that everything is in order in sufficient time to correct any errors. More feostly than the loss of money and time involved, is the bad impres|sion left. with the public which inevitably begin to lose eonfidence in a theatre run in such a slipshod | fashion. ‘LONG EDITORIAL "BOOSTS HIS SHOW | Such are the amicable relations | built up by Manager T. W McKay, | ‘of the Publix-Stfand Theatre, | |Rutland, Vt., between his theatre | land the local newspaper that the} editor devoted practically an en-| tire column in an editorial boost| ing his show. At the end, he adds | the following: “Why so much about the talk| ies??? not unreasonably asks a/| gentle reader. Well, if there’s | any other single thing that more | people are interested enough in to | pay their good money for, I'm | ready to write about that.”’ : SR et aerevannt eveuenertaentooneeas4uutvaenterng4deaeeUteeeene ter cay HEREIN ville, Fla., on his with Corinne Griffit a ae eee TERE ge al & Corinne Griffith In Corinne Griffith’s new picture she has to can Jive on $40 | yelp of a broom, tice Saturday. theatre Strips were marked out der scattered on them. Trying to These girls were given ‘A contest was held by the sweep the ene A BOX OFFICE BOOSTER! Be anes Manager Al Weiss Jr., of the Publix-Florida Theatre, Jacksoncrashed the newspapers for several stories and pictures broom-sweeping contest to publicize h, when it played his theatre. Street Sweepers—and_! a week She has to do it with the on the street and talcum “Saturday's Children,” JACKSONVILLE JO } } | Ca Seeding ete 3 : Virginia, Scarborough, ¢x z contest, from left to right, are: Ferguson, Juliette Plurafoy Elizabeth St. Crooks, Florence and Kathiven Johnston. reap he ee | oo ~~ : ;ous story, | paper-man, explained his experi | staged |newspaper campaign to boost his and Won a prize. oe jand pictures were devote Canova, Marion Chap| Johns, Dixie | of the-show, unit by unit. oR | dition, needless to say, a favorable jimpression was created for the itheatre in the community. grew LONG the humorist’s enthusiasm COOLED. He decided to cut it down to $300, then to $200, then to $100—and he wound up, he says, by STEALING 10c from the contribution plate. Which is a great LESSON to. ple who write advertising and CAN’T STOP. There are all too many of us who never seem able to quit when we have told the story. Why keep PILING it on. We think of another argument that ought to be added, another point to bring out. And we keen on ewriting — and RUINING the story! It is so wrong, so unnecessary, so destructive, so COSTLY. And it is the hardest thing in the world to stop. Its effect is to weary the reader and make him think that we must be terribly AFRAID we can’t sell those particular goods. William M. Singerly, who was the brilliant editor of the Philadelphia Record in the old days, used to say that no story -was good enough or important enough to run over a column—and it made him FURIOUS when Presidential messages exceeded that length. The story of the CREATION is the greatest story ever written or printed — «and the Perera eee ee ie ee ce ie | ; . ; Bible tells it in TEN WORDS exactly. The COMMANDMENTS that to this day actually do govern the world take up less than a quarter of a page in the Book. Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg address in TWO MINUTES. The Battle of Lake Erie was reported in NINE WORDS. Havelock when he captured Secind sent word ‘‘Peccavi”’ (1 have sinned). That, of course, was a GESTURE. Great things require few words. Let us make our advertisements short, simple, convincing and keep them in proper mediums where they will do us good. : ¢ ? ¢ ¢ e ¢ é ¢ ¢ ¢ s ; ¢ ¢ ¢ 9 . ? 3 ¢ ¢ é * ? : ¢ : ¢ ¢ , é ; . 4 s ‘ e é e ; : , ‘ é ‘ ¢ ¢ ¢ : é ‘ é ee es ee ee ee el ei lel OF OOO OE OO O11 -O1Os OOOO SOs O18! SOs O E> Pervert a te at te et fe te ee ee eo hee © -0--2-0--2-0+ S-O-0--O-O--S OOOO +0 @ 0-0-8 CRASHES FRONT PAGE WITH FUR COAT GAG Manager’ W. F. Brock, of the Publix Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville. crashed the front page of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, powerful Scripps Howard paper there, with. a double column story and picture boosting his cooling plant and show by having one of the newspapermen photographed in a fur coat, the caption explaining that he was on his way to see “IN OLD ARIZONA” at the “Tennessee.” Beneath the picture. a humorwritten by the newsthe ence on his way through | sweltering streets in his fur coat, land how comfortable he felt in his i\heavy wrap at the theatre where he enjoyed the show immensely. Credit was given to the furrier for the use of the coat. TAYLOR SCORES AGAIN! Charles B. Taylor, Director of Advertising and Publicity of Publix-Shea’s Buffalo Theatre, Buffalo, an unusually . effective show by using a special 11 o'elock ;matinee for Crippled Children as an excuse. For three consecutive days before the show, the Buftake Evening Times carried a double column story and a double column picture everyday on the event. This. publicity was particularly beneficial because both the stories d, almost entirely, to a minute description In ad