Publix Opinion (Nov 22, 1929)

A Re in AS ah a ett Rain <5 e Cr MR. KATZ’ WIRE MAKES A GOOD ~ LOCAL STORY q Following the advice of PUBLIX OPINION to localize and plant advertising and publicity stories sent out by the Home Office Advertising Department, Manager| | GT. Perrin, of the Publix Sterling ' and Rex Theatres, Greeley, Colo., ' planted Mr. Katz’ telegram on _ “SWEETIE” and “THE VIRGIN_ IAN” in the local paper, thereby getting a valuable advance plug for these pictures. Under the heading of ‘‘Publix President Wires Perrin on Pictures Pxpected,’”’ the story goes on to say how Perrin received the telegram from Mr. Katz and the _ entire wire was re-printed. The last paragraph stated that the two pictures, giving the cast, are slated _ for the Sterling Theatre with the date and ends with: ‘“‘What a week of entertainment this promises, to be for Greeley!”’ “4 personal wire from the presi_ dent of such an organization as ' ours,’ Manager Perrin corrobo" rates “means quite a great deal in this community. It is also real news, appreciated by the news_ papers and keeps our theatre in the ‘light’ as well as giving added » publicity to these two productions. The same telegram was also used in the opening day ad.” BIG PARADE FOR ‘GOLD DIGGERS’ ' Guy Kenimer, manager of the _ Publix Victory, Tampa, Fla., stageda lengthy and colorful parade through the business district of his town, to ballyhoo “Gold Diggers of Broadway.” A high school band furnished the music, marching at the head of the parade, with banners. ‘More than 200 boys and girls, car“tying picks, shovels and money pags, and carrying banners with copy about ‘“‘the ancient gold dig-. gers and the modern ones,’’ fol‘lowed the band section. Twenty “new model cars, piled high with “sold dust,’ were furnished by local dealers to bring up the rear ‘of the parade. The police departj ment furnished motorcycle policemen to. escort the entourage ‘through the crowded avenues. h ig q SALT LAKE ITEM Harry David, division manager of the Publix Marcus theatres in ‘Utah has assigned Earl Baugh‘man to the Capitol and Clarence ‘Lees to the Paramount as assistant “managers. Both of these houses are in Salt Lake City. W. J. Mur“phy is now in the Salt Lake Di‘yision office as publicity director. — —rcoceerrrrit te tt tt ttt SMART TRAILER COPY! When you’ve written and produced a locally made trailer that sold a lot of tickets for you ——have your local trailer maker clip a single NEGATIVE frame out of each division of it, and paste it together and then print it on sensitized photographers-paper. Then send that picture to PUBLIX OPINION. If it’s usable we'll print it, with due credit to you—and the whole circuit is your debtor. We want it sent to us as described above, instead of a simple type-writen copy, because we can thus show EXACTLY 1 what you did as to layout, itypography, contrast, illus = = atime 273 it Sew eeeeeeeeeeeeees==s, See eeeeeee==== ii eeaincies ne ein 5 Ss 7S Pr \tration, etc., as well as words. Please do this FREOUBNTLY. It is one of the biggest helps you can GET Noir GIVE in Publix. Se ee ee eee eee | PUBLIX OPINION; WEEK OF NOVEMBER 22np, 1929 THEY'RE HUNGRY FOR THEATRE NEWS! | Once again PUBLIX OPINION’S contention that the newspapers are anxious to print all available theatre NEW’S that IS news is proved. The page reproduced below appeared in the Minneapolis Evening Journal because the astute newspaper editor realized that his readers are hungry for theatre news, and that if they find it in his paper they will not be forced to su story was planted by the publicity director of the Minnesota Theatre, by the ring. bscribe to national weeklies and fan magazines for it. Of course, the as evidenced by the credit line indicated THE JOURNAL MAGAZINE This “Naughty Baby” Hoyden of the Films Must Watch Her Step in Private Life, Under — Terms of Her Signed Agreement, Or It’s All Off With the Fat Pay Envelop ona Saturday Night } Alice White Has Been Much “Preferred” by the Public Since She Became a Blonde, Above— but Doin; . “tat By MERLE POTTER fluttery glances, her collegiate Sq Was Alice White ina ND now Conscience, that StTut and her tricky dance steps Viola Sedate Pose From : 7 She must continue to improve her 1olae se . eon? A vastly over-rated guide techniquevof wolting “uaughty oniat ‘The Big Noise’ through the mazes of be havior problems and life's vicis| That, any motion picture direct Her situdes, has got itself recognized. or could tell you, is Alice's art. Contract Poets have written odes to con__But—and here is where the le 1g Uning important. To do or not to acience, vaudeville wise-crackers ®! terms come m—when Alice 1s do, that Is thé question.. You know have derided it, defense lawyers "Ot engaged in perfecting this art Made very well what my contract says, nave appealed to it, but never beof hers. she must be good CompliWhat I want to know this minute fore has a sensitive well develTo make certain that her con * is this Can I please go out to a cations night club without a chaperon? oped conscience been a party to @ contract, a legal contract. duct will be irreproachable, Alice’a conscience has been placed om prodation duty And all the while. Alice is doing her best to look as wicked as possible in the lingerie costumes most of her pictures seem to be arranged about, Alice’s conscience must be on duty to see that the role is only skin deep What ts behind the most unusual contract made at Hollywood in a decade? Some will see behind ft the Machiavellian cleverness of 2 that masculine Mrs. Grundy. Will % ‘ Hayes, the czar of movie land, who ing. Alice White. the smart it and newest movie interpretor %* saanenes Gee cow ion te Of Canine youth wAaenCRaA Oe on ee Ce ee such gay abandon in “Show cit ! nll look further back and Point iat ie Minnesota andl Whoaé start= 71, they PORMENty 1k ) cutatan i # stars that vanished over night, be lng adventures in borrowed plumes # pause Of & seaside, FOne golded took her straight to the ar wee é # haired darling who saw her “nN, Baby,” i ‘3 anny Ne gu testy ope peat worldwide popularity fade because kind of 4 girl at all She Jfis so remarkable a conscience-that moof newspaper, stories | implicating ion picture pro‘ have laid al is about it, hedged her with the unexplained murder f of a great director A once Pop) a it with legal red tape, and devoted three clauses of a long-term con ular comedian who can never make tract to insuring its continued op Would that be wrong?” “Well, now. Alice, wouldn't tt be better if you stayed home and took your reducing exercises?" And so on. ‘The possessor of the first conscience to get itself written into a legal document ts a wide-eyed hoydenish young person. with a mop of synthetic blond hair and a grim that matches her eyes. Picture Alice coming into the offices of her employers to break down and confess some fault at the behest of “the small voice within.” Under the terms of the contract. this might happen. "And suppose she does make some such admission, and suppose the producers decide she has brok ,en the contract. What then? “What shall the retribution be? But, more than that, suppose her employers decide to have a lawsuit about it, with judges and lawyers and juries and verdicts. Can you conceive of the Supreme Court of the United States going over the evidence and hear ing the pleadings of counsel to determine whether one Alice White, screen actress, address Bury bank, Calif. has been guilty of guch conduct as should distress any reasonable feminine conscience under similar and like cir cumstances? Improbable, yet it Is among the possibilities of this conscience contract. \ But appearances, especially appearances that are created in Hollywood, whose magic transmutes society girls from our very nicest families into screen vampires and Talking It Over With Her “Conscience” she must look naughty—and be which she may have done anynice. thmg or committed any act in Here are the unusual terms of violation of the-dictates of her the contract to which Alice has conscience, the same shalf be @ fixed her signature default hereunder, and the artist ‘ shall forthwith report the same to epee ee Sass the producer and take such steps 4 2 as may be prescribed by producer ees eaeatae &° to cure said defect and-reestablish tist's representations that she is eee ie beipord blind a possessed of a sensitive and well be ey 1f. ey P developed conscience, it is agreea PUTT S°Utbetween the parties heretofore as another picture, and was even eration—in their behalf! barred from appearing in vaudeville in Minneapolis not so long ‘The spotlight of public attention was focused on Alice’s conscience “ yecently when First National Pictures, Inc. made public the terms ago. There is still another answer, and a more plausible one If Alice White. the girl who was So you see, does Alice want to stay out late tights, maybe smoke follows a cigaret, eat starchy foods that ry 7 given a contract before she had ea canon count inte ta Syma genes | A Charac1 Aci ages tat const el anehr Ste nee MECC crt ee o i us a ie oO em ye iy that’ Alice, cxtists pis bal counnels gesmir™ Oct maser avout ey teristic Pose site Po Ce Cg a ee ee ate sae d that, although Alice is a bru4 her producers assert, she must “ Ployment, under 4 wear such or such, use forbidden “It® tay thouEn slice; with her conscience and follow its 64, on being the innocent lookFrom “The contract, she will COntgnguage, or do anything else that et with natural (betta Te A dictates in all her private, personsel? stantly consult and + x . would not amount to a breach of ing little girl with the reckless Show Gir! 1 tipedeoisbalonite hee might possibly be construed.asunot te che appeared as @ becoming to a picture star and a lady. she must first talk the thing over with her conscience. ‘ Imagine this conversation between the chubby Alice and her bothersome conscience” “Now see here, Conscience, old thing, you and I gotta thrash this out, I don’t care if you do have an appointment, come right over here and sit down. This is some #l, public and professional life a Js this right-about-face for the rouna-eyca Alice? blonde, but “by and with the consent of the producer” But the “conscience clause was the most important clause in the contract. ‘That and the one concerning salary. So today, all Hollywood ts won~ dering—and waiting. How will Alice White get along with her conscience? eyes. Innocence and brass is the mark of the modern girl, according to authorities. The flapper wears sophisticated clothes, talks conscience and will in good faith and to the best of her ability follow the dictates of her conscience snd better $elf both in her private and personal and public and professional life and conduct. Does it mean that she must discontinue the dancing lessons which served her so well :n “Show Girl?" Must ber blond curls reqeme their natural auburn hue?" Not a bit of it. Alice is to go right on developfrig her baby ingenue-isms, her sophisticated patter The ingenuevampire eombination is the last word in smartness. Round-faced little girls, who would have had hair ribbons a quarter century ago, wear bleek waves and sleeker gowns today But somehow they still retain the hair ribbon look, or at least they do in our better alleges. And that may be one teason why farsighted producers have put Alice’s conscience on guard over her behavior. If Alice is to continue to interpret Miss 1929. “2. Artist agrees that im every imstance in PAGE THREB the stadium, it was an excellent bit of contact work, employing high grade salesmanship, that allowed the distribution of 34,000 team lineups and score cards at the _Minnesota-Indiana contest. Copy about ‘‘Sweetie,’’ the theatre and playdate, dominated the entire 4 page complimentary program. The University Band played the hit song of the picture and between quarter periods, the radio broadcaster announced the picture. |FOOTBALL TIE-UP BRINGS RESULTS A successful tie-up with the University of Minnesota was engineered by Gene Fox and Harry Watts of the Publix Minnesota Theatre in Minneapolis, in response to repeated reminders in PUBLIX OPINION. Inasmuch as the University officials are set against tie-ups within 0 AU TO ALL DISTRICT MANAGERS! | _ Each week I notice in your weekly letters or advertising reports, special sturits and tie-ups which you had either put into effect or plan to carry out. I am disappointed, however, in reading PUBLIX OPINION to see so little comment in regard to activities of theatres in-our division. . Are you failing to report special exploitation of this nature to Mr. Serkowich? Whenever you have a good idea, it should be passed on thru the medium of PUBLIX OPINION to your fellow managers who are doing the same for you. Arthur L. Mayer, Division Director ‘Posting Post Readers With Theatre Market To take the best possible advantage of the advertisement of ““The Virginian” in the November 2 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, R. P. Allison of the Texas Theatre in San Antonio, had 2,000 special markers inserted at the appropriate page by the local newsdealers. The magazine went on sale Thursday, October 31. The picture opened Friday, November 1. The marker carried the name of the picture, of the theatre, and the playing dates. Football Atmosphere Attracts Big Crowds Goal posts placed beneath the marquee of the Publix Egyptian, Greenville, S. C., by Manager Guy Lryson, with the permission of the city officials, aided in advertising “Salute.” A football was suspended from the crossbars. ' Banners, trophies, ‘helmets, etc., were displayed in the lobby. A miniature gridiron was also placed in the;= | lobby. te El ULL fe TURKEY TIE-UPS WILL BOOST ~ BOX OFFICE An effective Thanksgiving contest, with newspaper, school, and show window tie-ups, has been devised by District Manager Tom Ronan of the Great State Theatre Circuit. It can be used all over. Have the teachers in every classroom in both grade and high schools, announce that the star of the picture at your theatre on Thanksgiving Day will award cash prizes as well as tickets to the students drawing the best looking turkey, whether in pencil, ink, crayon, or paint. Make arrangements with your newspaper for publicizing the contest, get a prominent dry goods store to offer you an opportunity to display the best pictures five or six days before the announcement of the winners, and get three prominent local people to act as judges. Suggested prizes are $10.00, first; $7.50, second; $5.00, third, and passes for the next twenty-five. Stress the point that the winning drawings and the winners will be shown on the screen—in addition to being announced in the theatre. Have the photographs of the first three winners and their pictures worked into your trailer and show it Thursday, Friday and Saturday. DOPE | Jack Roth, of Des Moines Paramount flooded the town with druggists’ capsules containing a tiny herald on Dix ‘‘Love Doctor.” Capsule distributed in envelope reading ‘“‘The Love Doctor” prescribes for you. CAN YOU READ IT? Unless you are familiar with Gregg shorthand, this announcement about Gloria Swanson’s first talking picture, “The Trespasser,” at the Publix Paramount Theatre in Omaha, won't mean much to you. But the blotters on which this message was printed caused a lot of comment among stenographers and their friends. : GIRLS Here’s a Thrill! bee sDain Ce ais rea. Ye bye ae a Ee ey. jae PA a a Pose 7 Le yee Ma As ye Ce t~ )-7,G, Cae aeegee 4 sy. —_—oT, oo 6“ ot Thursday, Oct. 3rd PARAMOUNT Theatre