Publix Opinion (Dec 27, 1929)

i if ih with a shop early injunction, and 10 PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF DECEMBER 27tx, 1929 | School Rallies Pack Illinois Theatre There’s lots of ticket money in high schools and colleges and it’s not very difficult to get it. Here’s how city manager R. W. Lawler of Bloomington, Illinois, did it during the Thanksgiving season. Before the end of the football season, pictures were taken of the local football teams in action. Then three nights were set aside as pep nights, at the Majestic Theatre. Monday night was for Normal University, Tuesday for Wesleyan, and Wednesday for the four high schools. A week previous, ads were run in the school papers acquainting the students with the stunt. The ads announced that football pictures would be shown, and urged all students to join in the PEP rally. In addition to the ads, letters were sent to the two most popular members of each fraternity and sorority, asking them to attend and urging to pass the word on to the others. They were sent complimentery tickets to make their part of the work easier. The colors of the school presumably sponsoring the program were displayed on the front of the house, and in the lobbies and foyers: the appropriate colors and | flags, of course, for each of the three nights. The most popular cheer leader in each school acted as master of ceremonies and led the audience in cheers. Talented students were called upon extemporaneously to do a song or dance and many responded in a spirit of fun. = It is enough to say that the receipts on each of the three nights was more than double the usual intake and that school officials expressed their approval of the rallies. HELP POPULARIZE FILM SONG HITS There are many ways to popularize a song. The most constantly resorted to means is that of getting local orchestras to play it. In this respect the many employees of the Publix theaters can be of much assistance by requesting the leaders of orchestras in whatever restaurant or ballroom they might be present to play the song hit from a Paramount picture, This result can be usually accomplished by a card with the request forwarded to the orchestra leader by the waiter, or by a personal talk to the leader. It should be remembered that the more popular a song is, the more~publicity the picture gets. HAPPINESS WEEK HELPS IN BROCKTON Is everybody happy? They ought to be in Brockton, Mass., from the mayor down. When Manager 5. S. Holland of the Rialto Theatre of Brockton learned that this theatre would play Ted Lewis’ “Is Everybody Happy,’ he thought it would be fine to give the merchants of the city a chance to ask that question of their patrons. So he promoted a Happiness Week, which the Mayor officially proclaimed together got the merchants to run a COoperative page featuring their special happiness Wares. Of course the theatre got a big chunk of the page gratis, and was thus enabled to send the picture off to a flying start. ————— CARTLEDGE TRANSFERRED James Cartledge, formerly manager of the Publix Fotosho, Miami, has assumed the management of the Publix Strand, Knoxville, relieving Paul Crubb, who became assistant at the Publix Riviera, Knoxville. Graham Jeffries suc | Publix NICK’S POS TER SINGS This singing poster of Nick Lucas was used as an advance and durrent display for “Gold Diggers of Broadway” at the Publix Paramount Theatre in Detroit. A dynamic speaker was attached to the back of the beaver board figure and the sound came through the white cloth in the shirt front. phonograph playing Lucas records. GLORIFYING ADS NET FREE SPACE Manager Ellis Brodie of the Paramount, Haverhill, Mass., used the title of his picture to effect a co-operative merchant’s page in the local paper. On Sunday prior to the Monday opening of ‘“Glorifying The American Girl,’ this co-op page appeared with ten merchant’s ads displayed, containing such lines as; ‘Gorgeous Jewels That Will Glorify Any American Girl,” “Good Milk Glorifies The Beauty Of American Girls,’ etc. Brodie estimates that 82 inches of free space was obtained, in addition to the top of the page, which was devoted to theatre name, attraction, playdate and stars. STAGES PARADE ON ARMISTICE DAY Silvin Goldfinger, manager of Publix-Balaban & Katz Chicago Harding theatre took advantage of the Armistice Day celebration in his neighborhood by tieing in with the American Legion Post for a night parade throughout his district terminating in front of the theatre where the band played for a period of fifteen minutes. Manager Goldfinger used the Publix Sound truck to lead the parade followed by two ex-sailors in uniform carrying a banner tieing in with the current attraction. SHIPLEY IN TEXAS The speaker was wired to a New Orleans, as director of publicity, is succeeded in Texas by Mr. Shipley. 0-9 0-9 OeOO O-2O0-O-1O9-O© 1 O-O-2O+-O-O2-B+ 0+ DO? OO+ GO SO SOS 10 O-+ 0-0-1 02-O-+0+-O+ O+-O-+O-O-101-O10!-OOOO" S100 O DOS Oe DO e-S-2O2-O-2O-O-O-O-OOB G92 SO" GS SS Se SOUND CHECK! Go eo : ees t Forcibly bringing to the °¢ attention of his managers ; the importance of constantly $ checking up on sound repro¢ duction, J. L. McCurdy of the } New England division has $ mailed to each of them a ; eard, printed in red, as fol¢ lows: STOP : 4 If this card reaches you in ; the morning, arrange to 3% sit thru the first after$ noon show. : —If it reaches you in the } afternoon, drop whatever ? you are doing and sit thru : the show, from beginning ¢ to end. ; ¢ NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PRESENTATION OF SOUND IN YOUR THEATRE. $ é Keep up the high stand: ard that you have set for 4 your house. You can only ¢ do that by personally sat; isfying yourself that the } sound is right. ; Keep notes of your obser¢ vations and hold a check¢ up meeting immediately ; afterwards. @ } ¢ J. L. McCURDY. : 00 e-@-+80-@-10+-O-+ +--+ O+-O-O+-O+O'-O1O:-O-1O+-D-+0+-O+O+-@--6+ i Organist Sold At No Cost To Theatre Manager Silven Goldfinger of Balaban and Katz Harding theatre Chicago, with the assistanee of Al Birks, who has charge of the ad _vertising and publicity of the Pub lix—B. & K. ‘‘Sound Houses” in the Windy City, put over a neat stunt for that theatre with very little cost, which brought real re-} sults at the box office. The stunt was called ‘‘Hddie Meikel’s 5000th Anniversary Performance.’’ Meikel being the popular organist at the Harding. A contest tie-up was made with the Chicago NOR’WESTER, a local paper with a circulation of 27,000 in the immediate vicinity of the Harding. The contest was of the puzzle variety, using a pic Pictures Best Medium For Song Sales According to a consensus of music publishers’ opinions, compiled by ‘‘Variety,’’ sound pictures are rated first as a medium for exploiting popular music. Radio is rated second, but has been found to be less effective because of the quantity of other songs _performed. Sound pictures, on the contrary, are effective because they cause audience concentration on a few musical numbers which are often repeated until they are remembered. When a theatre patron leaves his seat after seeing a picture that has a song hit, he is half sold on purchasing a copy of the song or a phonograph recording of it. It takes a bit of good psychological advertising and salesmanship to actually sell him. An important sales factor in this respect is that of reminding him of the melody by playing or singing it in the lobby or:-at the main exit as he leaves the theatre. It is a well known fact that a theatre patron who _ sings, whistles, hums, or plays a song hit from a sound picture unconsciously provides a sure-fire advertisement for the picture, because the source of the tune. is’always mentioned or thought of in connection with it. It becomes necessary, then, for theatre managers to boost the sales of sheet music and phonograph records and procure this free and. comprehensive exploitation. ture of Meikel cut into twenty pieces and placed in individual ads throughout the paper with prizes to those who successfully pasted the pieces together and for the best letters on ‘‘Why I Like Eddie Meikel.” The paper undertook the sale of the ads, and promoted the prizes which consisted of merchandise from merchants who participated _|in the contest, in addition to sey eral pair of tickets to the theatre, Two hundred window cards were also displayed in shop windows calling attention to the anniversary celebration and to the contest running in the paper. NEW ORLEANS WELCOMES CAR Here is a picture of the official welcom In the foreground, reading from left to right, are Semmes Walmsley, acting mayor of New Orleans; E. Tillotson, Publicity Director of the entertainment special. | eS ee e accorded the Publix sound car at the city hall in New Orleans. Gus Coats, manager of the Publix Saenger Theatre; T. Jack Meredith, division advertising manager, and Harold R. J. Jones, who has been transferred as manager of the Metro eeeds Cartledge. politan, Houston, to the Saenger,