Publix Opinion (Jan 24, 1930)

SCHOOL TIE-UP! FOR NATIONAL HOLIDAYS Here is an excellent school tieup for Lincoln’s Birthday, Washington’s Birthday or any national holiday. It should meet with a hearty welcome on the part of public school officials because it is planned with the most advanced educational practice in mind. Educational principles. and methods have undergone a radical change in the last decade. The whole movement may be summed up in the statement that the educational ideal has changed from the belief that school is a preparation for life to the belief that school is actual living as one does in ordinary life and doing what one does in ordinary life. This has resulted in the classroom in a method of teaching known as the ‘project method.’ Under the project method, pupils ee PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF JANUARY 24rx, 1930 NEW YEAR’S FROLIC DRAWS Very effective ticket-selling stunts were employed by Louis St. Pierre, manager of the Publix Coronado, Rockford, Ill., in connection with his New Year’s Eve show exploitation campaign. The layout below shows an attractive lobby display; bannered trolleys which ran thru nearby towns as well as Rockford, and heralds, which were mailed and handed to patrons; placed in merchant packages and at tached to menus in restaurants. tackle a real life problem in all] its phases from start to finish. They originate and create something that has practical value and ean be put to use. The theatre manager can take advantage of this by enlisting the services of an entire school in a Lincoln show project. The co-operation of a teacher active in student affairs would be essential but in every school there are two or three that fit the requirements. The school will present a Lincoln program at your theatre in an entirely _ business like manner. — First, the English department or the literary society will find a playlet that can be presented on the stage. Of course it must be brief, have dramatic value, and be appropriate to the occasion. The dramatic society then gets busy preparing for a performance. Costumes are necessary and this means that the sewing classes or interested pupils turn to the matter of designing and sewing garments. Stage sets must be designed and built. This will be done, where the union regulations do not prevent you from placing | the sets on your stage. You will have no difficulty at _ all persuading the authorities that eertain practical aspects must not be forgotten. The art department will set to work preparing posters and lobby displays while the literary society will write stories to be placed with the local newspaper. If there is a printing club in the school, and many schools have them, artistic programs and heralds will be printed for the occasjon. In addition, the school orchestra will rehearse a program of patriotic music (union conditions may make it impossible for the ‘orchestra to play in your theatre but by all means suggest that it do its share in the project). On Blue Monday provision on Make Monday and art department in the preparation of a lobby display. And you will find that teachers will be thankful for the chance to do something out of their routine and will be willing to assume the burden of all the detail work that is incidental to a tie-up of this sort. Who will be the first to come across with reports and stills of a successful school tie-up? Publix Poster Artist Wins Two Prize Awards Recognition of the quality of man power to be found in Publix ; came recently with the award of two prizes to Emile Paulsen in charge of poster art for Publix in Springfield, Mass. : Paulsen won a $500 prize in an art contest run by the Springfield Daily Union and a $250 prize given by the Photoplay Magazine. TELEGRAMS AND BROADCAST CLICK A “Theatres Hour’ broadcast, arranged by C. T. Perrin of the Publix Sterling, Greeley, Colo., is | proving to be an effective means of heralding coming attractions to his theatre. The hit songs of the coming pictures, as well as current features, are played as part of an organ recital on this hour, with mention given to picture, playdate and theatre. A stunt which immeasurably aided the receipts for ‘“‘The Trespasser,’ when it played at the Sterling, was the sending of a descriptive telegram to _ forty women clubs, inviting the secretary and president to a Friday night showing of the picture. These telegrams were read before the members of the clubs and iacted as a stimulus for attendance. O98 0-OOe @-$O0-B-1O+O82 O--O1-S-9OOO S986 S8° G8" SO °8° e “SERVICE STAFF HOLIDAY SHORTS The Music Novelties Department is preparing two special three-minute soundon-film shorts for Lincoln’s and Washington’s Birthdays. The cost for these will be determined by the Home Office Booking Department for each theatre individually. Managers are requested to send their orders for these through the district bookers. ; : ; ; : t t f Music Campaign to Stimulate Song Sales BD 0D1 O2-QD-0G9-D5 Oo -B-9D e-DH0-D 1 Oe-P-0B2G0 G¢-<DP-0 GF sG2 H:FD A special effort to plug certain Paramount songs is being undertaken by the Publix Music Department with the start on January 24 of a drive on “Sweeter Than Sweet,” the sensational ‘Sweetie’ song hit published by the Famous Music Corporation. Realizing that this activity will increase sheet music sales, the Music Department is prepared to aid theatres with organ slides and novelties, special arrangements for bands and orchestras, exit and trailer records, and non-sync records. It is expected by Boris Morros, director of the department, that radio plugs will be included by those theatres having time on the air, and that music store tie-ups will be made where ever possible. This will be followed the week of February 7 with a drive on “TI Have To Have You,” the song hit from the picture ‘‘Pointed Heels,” published by Spier and Coslow. The same activity is expected in exploiting this song as has been outlined for “Sweeter Than Sweet.” WINDOW CARDS -There are window cards and window cards, and places and places to plant them. Exploiting “Paris,” Bert Hanson of the California Theatre, San Francisco, got out a special card so attractive that it found its way into a generous majority of the beauty parlors in the city. SELLING ‘HOLLYWOOD REVUE’ Les Kaufman of the Publix-Balaban & Katz Advertising and Publicity Department and his associates waged an elaborate exploitation campaign on “Hollywood Revue,” which covered Chicago very thoroughly. Cards reproduced below were part of the material displayed in 100 Victor record dealers’ windows, barber shops and 1,000 florist shops. night, February 9, for a program | to be given when attendance is weakest. Just what kind of a program can be presented will depend, of course, on local conditions. But you can rest assured that entire families will come to see their Johnny on the stage or else to see the posters their children have drawn or the costumes they have designed. In addition, many of the pupils who did not take part in the project but who have been hearing about it for a month will be on hand to see their classmate’s efforts rewarded. The stunt will be good for several newspaper stories, especially if you can get the principal to attend the show, some excellent window tie-ups perhaps arranged by some of the pupils as part of the project, and an extraordinary amount of word of mouth comment. The impossibility of presenting a stage show may prevent some theatres from attempting anything quite as elaborate as the project outlined above, but it should be a simple matter to enlist the aid of the high school history society Singh Blo seQrange wPindins tein For YOU. A aget A ee ~ Says : ? {ne a a e Way Flom’ a arve Heat and Mi jpatabt > ? ’ m * yu Dows ov t : fare te ction Go .geous produ this \ g Kote HEATER Boar waaise® an ie 1,300 YOU WILL SEE A PERFECT MELANGE OF Gorgeous Girls and Gorgeous Flowers = When You See The “*— “ORANGE BLOSSOM TIME” Number of the Sensational Singing, Dancing and Color Production “THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE" with Over 25 Popular Screen Stars _se NOW PLAYING -Balaban & Katz BADISON McVICKERS THEATER = “Say. ee S e n d F l O Ww e€ ¥ S To d a o EFFICIENCY INCREASED A successful effort to increase the efficiency of the service staff is reported by Manager Homer R. Skillion of the Indiana Theatre, Indianapolis. “Realizing that a smiling and efficient service staff is one of the greatest assets that any theatre can have,” declared Skillion, ‘“‘my staff and I have constantly tried to effect improvements. A project we used in December turned out to be an immense success. “On the first of the month, we promised the ushers that if they improved their ‘smiling’ fifty per cent, we would give them a dinner party for Christmas. We were the judges and! they were not to know the result until such time as they received invitations, or failed to. The dinner, which we paid for ourselves, was given on the night of December 23, after the last show, and forty ushers, executives and their wives attended. The improvement in the morale of the service staff was so marked that we feel amply repaid for our efforts and expense.’”’ It was decided to maintain the fine quality of the service by using additional methods of stimulation. One that will probably be used indefinitely is, according to Skillion, as follows: “Every week each usher contributes twenty-five cents to the Usher’s Efficiency Fund, and, at the end of every six weeks, we will use this money to send the most deserving usher to Chicago or some other large city to inspect the service staffs in the leading theatres there. We will use the Usher’s Efficiency Rating Cards as a guide for the selection of the men. Various other things will be taken into consideration such as length of service and ability to learn so that old and new ushers will have an equal chance, and those basically suited for promotion will have an opportunity to learn as much as possible of the theatre business. “The principal purpose of this project, however, is to improve the —— = the service staff by ing the ushers a definite obiective to work for.” Spee 77 Stars Contest Helps Plug ‘Show of Shows’ Publicizing “The Show 6 Shows,” C. B. Taylor promoted “ contest sponsored by the Buffalo Times which netted him quarterpage space for three successive days in advance of the gala midnight opening of the picture at Publix-Shea’s Century, Buffalo. ‘The paper ran a group pic of the 77 stars in “ihe Show of Shows,” with each face numbered. Contest was to identify the 77 stars pictured and write a fifty word essay on “My Favorite Movie Star.” Cash prizes were offered by the paper, and the twenty-five runners-up each received a pair of tickets to see the picture. Results were gratifying, and open ing business exceeded all expectations. Special Section for Bathing Beauty Stunt A special co-operative newspaper section on the Bathing Beauty Contest staged by the Fort Worth Theatre and The Fort Worth Press helped Manager Marsline K. Moore get a lot of free publicity during the dog days of December. The eight-page section carried the story that a representative from Fort Worth was to be chosen to participate in the Miami National Bathing Beauty Pageant. Local entrants were sponsored by Fort Worth institutions, all of which took space in the section running pictures of their selections with an ad. The theatre ran nothing more than the usual display ad. riba) etna oe! sot Hint Libis RET UG