Publix Opinion (Jan 24, 1930)

10 BOSTON MET’S LIVE LOBBY MYSTERY! Who is she that stands at the head of the grand staircase in the lobby of the Publix Metropolitan theatre? What is she, and why does she stand there? These are questions that perplex the minds of those who see her stationed there. They wonder whether they see a lifeless statue or a beautiful girl of flesh and blood—for it, or she, is beautiful, exotic, mystifying. Inquiry into these things has brought the information that she is a real creature of flesh and blood embodying an original idea of the Metropolitan management for additional “atmosphere” in the lobby. It was at first the intention that she should be a directoress, performing services of guidance and information with particular attention to women and children. It was found, however, that these public contacts were well served by the personnel of the regular house attaches, directors, ushers, etc., so it was decided to have her stand motionless, in statuesque pose, at the head of the grand staircase, merely for atmosphere. Thus she became a question mark, a source of perplexing wonder. She is known only as “DOLORES,” and wishes to be known by no other name. She admits she has the most singular occupation in the world. Her job requires that she stand absolutely fixed and motionless and as nearly expressionless as humanly possible, for long periods of time, without even so much as blinking an eyelash. Her ability to do this for periods as long as an hour has been acquired by painstaking practice. NEW PIT LEADER Joseph Klein, pit leader at the 2 New York Paramount, has termi nated his engagement and has been replaced by Charles Manning. MYSTERY GIRL This photograph of the mystery girl, “Dolores”, who stands like a statue in the lobby of the Publix Metropolitan Theatre in Boston, was reproduced in one of the newspapers. — Silken, Snare ‘|}Ruth Chatterton PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF JANUARY 24x, 1930 OUT! Here are a list of cuts made by various. censors from comedy shorts as reported by “Variety:”’ Horse falling in steeplechase, unless it gets up. Cow on roller skates. Tacks thrown in path of pursuing lion. Man using magnet to extract necklace from woman’s neck. Man saloon. Roulette wheel in action. Cutting electric light and telephone wires. Man letting gas out of auto tank. View of cards in boot in poker game. Can’t call anyone in dialog or by title—a big sap, spare tire, punk, loafer, bummer, you old fool, she’s a boneless herring, this is a Scotch kidnapping, tough egg, son-of-a-gun. Dice shooting where money is shown. Strip poker games. Labels on bottles such as chloroform, castor oil, dynamite, turpentine, sleeping tablets, beer, goat gland, itch powder, milk of magnesia. Nose thumbing person or animal. setting fire to a by any HQUAENGOAUUORUNEAAEADUAYAANAEAAANOUOELEOLSOEALET US UOAEOAEAAUAUALOD SEE UAHEAAA EEOC AEAL AEGON AEA LEU EOOED GUTS EA SALEM EODUOAUOT OOD GUN ESA LEO THAAD RD EA DED TOAPAAOLEOUATLSAEG AOD NAEOGAEGUHUDEGEOSUGUERGOUOGOGARAOSBLCOUONANOGDOEDEGDEADUOUEDONAOULQGQOONEODSOSQOEODEOOUOSOOEODOOOEEOEOESDELEO UNO HEL UAL SU y STUOUUUTAT AUTEUR N. Y. CRITICS LAUD “LAUGHINGLADY” The majority of New York critics found the “‘Laughing Lady’’ to their liking and said so in their papers. Note their comments. Times—‘‘It is acted so naturally that one does not wish to turn one’s eyes from the screen. It is well done.’’ Morning Telegraph — ‘Adult, believable drama, interpreted by understanding artists, tugging at the heart strings of the audience and tapping emotional reserves seldom touched by a motion picture.”’ Graphic—‘‘Smoothly constructed, excellently enacted, and with a real plot.” Evening World — “Superbly handled by a company headed by and Clive Brook.” Motion Picture News—‘A society drama with a gripping story capably acted.’’ | ‘Songs Given To Patrons In Tie-Up With Kresge In selling ‘‘Glorifying the American Girl,’ Manager Harry Browning of the Uptown and Olympia Theatres, Boston, Mass., made a lucky-number tie-up with the Kresge stores, the winners to get fifty popular songs supplied by the { store. Dolores. | _Enigma of the Lobbies at The Metropolitan Browning obtained 20,000 colored heralds from the exchange. The blank space was imprinted by the S. S. Kresge company telling of the contest, printing a number, and printing the theatre names and play dates. In addition to the tie-up with the store, there was a similiar tie-up with a restaurant. Identification Contest for “Young Nowheres” Manager L. L. Chambers ran an identification contest in the loeal newspaper to help publicize Richard Barthelmess in his current picture, ‘“‘Young Nowheres’”’ playing at the Broadway Theatre, Newburg, New York. Five different ads appeared in the newspaper for five days prior to the opening. Each contained scenes from former pictures starring Barthelmess, and the readers were asked to name the pictures and write brief essays on the role they liked best. All Night Service| on Home Office Switchboard All night telephone service at the switchboard in the Home Office has been inaugurated by order of Mr. Katz. This idea grew out of the discovery during the midnight shows on New Year’s Eve that the switchboard, the most vital control post in the home office organization, was not functioning. With a difference between Hastern Standard Time and. Pacific Time, which makes it only nine o’clock in the evening on the Coast when it is midnight here, and believing that emergencies might arise which would make it necessary for western theatres to contact home office officials, the all-night switchboard service has been ordered. : ANOTHER INDICATION The high esteem with which Publix personnel is regarded in communities is noted in an editorial of the Charlotte, N. C., Observer. This editorial comments upon the recent promotion of Warren Irvin to district manager of the Carolinas, complimenting Charlotte theatregoers for having Irvin in their midst. INTELLIGENT PUBLICITY . The writer recently happened to look over a couple of publicity scrap . books from two different cities. Both were well loaded with clippings— but they presented two opposing viewpoints on publicity. One book was filled with a lot of stunts and stories indirectly bearing The stories were tricky and flashy—but upon the theatre and its shows. They filled newspaper it would be hard to point out what they “sold.” space and made rather good reading—but the whole bunch of them could hardly sell a ticket because they conveyed no ticket-selling urge or thought. The other book showed a different type of publicity-mind. Apparently the mind that conceived the articles had outgrown the old “press agent” thought of “making a showing.” The old day of filling scrap books with clippings and thinking that the boss would be pleased is gone. | WHAT TO DO WITH‘POETRY’ | Lots of your patrons like to get an injection of poetry with their daily habits. To accommodate these, we print an offering from a patron who flew into a fit of it, after visiting the BrooklynParamount. Someday, after the opening of a new Publix theatre, or maybe after the remodeling, or re-decorating, you can “‘lift’’ this scented delicacy of verbiage. Get the Chief of Police or some other local aesthete to stand for it, and then plant it in your local newspapers. The localization will arrest attention, and maybe get a remembered laugh, and at the same time put a lot of words in the mouths of patrons who want to describe the splendors of your theatre but don’t know the lush words with which to doit. Thus it will serve two purposes: (1) getting a local laugh for those who giggle at poetry, and arming your poetryminded patrons with a lot of swell yearning words about your theatre. How about a newspaper contest that gives local poets a chance to jump Pegasus over the descriptive hurdles of your nickelodeon. All right, boys, come and get it: FILIGREED DREAM OF BLUE HEAVEN Dedicated to Brooklyn Paramount By Clarence Eduard Heller Pylon towers of the True Hathor of Troy, thou wert none lovelier than those of this noble Temple of the Muses. -Architecture weaved about, in an architect’s dream, of filigreed designs. As beautiful as the Rose and that doesn’t sell is just “eye-wash.” A vivid example of intelligent publicity comes from Detroit. Realizing that “sound” is the most important thing we have to sell, the Detroit advertising department keeps shooting to the newspapers interesting articles on how the Publix theatres are constantly working to perfect sound. One story tells how “dead seats” were resurrected at the Paramount theatre, Detroit. That house has had trouble getting people to sit in the side-seats because a “dead spot” made them bad from a sound-reception standpoint. The public quickly found out that the seats were poor and the problem of getting them to sit in “Aisle 6” on the right was intensified. Then stories appeared in the paper telling how a corps of technicians had been working for weeks and that a simple readjustment of the horns had resulted in the “dead seats” coming to life. At another theatre it was known that the top balcony was bad for To solve this problem, a tilting of horns was experimented with and found to improve things 100 percent. Stories reached the papers telling that the top seats at the Adams were now the choice seats because of the mysterious discoveries of the Publix technical staff. | These stories were kept in a mysterious vein—the surprising things being sound reception. discovered about sound, etc. Along similar lines are sfories telling how the Publix projection experts discovered that by dimming all house lights when colored sequences are on the screen the projection became almost three-dimension. This was used to sell an all-colored picture and overcome complaints that the photography was blurry, etc. As a matter of fact the dim-light idea is true and was discovered at a midnight screening,—by the publicity department! Publicity men — who take their work seriously — complain that they are still looked upon as “clowns” and “stunt boys.” That complaint will cease in years to come if all publicity men use selling-intelligence. ra’aTaa’A’a’a"a’a’a"A’a'a A's’ ra’a"a"a"a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’A’A’A’A’A’A’A’A’a' x Alabaster Shrine of le lac du Boulougne de Paris. In thy marbled and filigreed depths, I sit, entranced, held by the spell. ..the double spell. . .of the witchery of Music and Environ. : Whole days could I sit with in thy walls and dream... — Stories that are marvels for imagination are woven in my brain from my contacts with thy sacred portals. Fading lights... colors of the prism, every mood... : Red for the bizarre; green — for the softer emotions; yellow for the baleful scenes; white for keener, purer visions; rainbow hues for chimera, jargon, phantasy... All repose within thy sacred depths. ..removed far from the commerce of the marts of the Bagdads without. Beautiful, entrancingly sweet, FILIGREED DREAM OF BLUE HEAVEN subdued suiting Holiday Greetings From Theatre Lobby Governor Allen of Massachusetts helped the Metropolitan in Boston break into all of the Boston newspapers when he sent the first Christmas greetings telegram from a Postal Telegraph station which had been installed in the theatre lobby. The telegraph company offered cash prizes for the senders of the most interesting season’s greetings. . Publicity ‘ava‘a"a’aa’a"a a'a'a'a'a"a'a’a‘a'a'a'a’a’a"aa'a'a'a’a'A'a'a'A'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a"a'a’a’a'a'a'a’a'a"a'a's'a'a'a'a"a'a'a'n'a'a"a's'a’a'a"a’a"a’a’a’n'n’'a'a'a’a'a'ete etree it ~ m ~ = a aa KLEE EEN EY Ye er aa’ e'a"a'a'a'a"a'2'a'a'a aa e"a'h 6a a"A a a'a'a"a'A'a'A'a'2'A sb 8’ 'a's aaa", a°a"a'a’a'a’a'a'a’A’a'a’a"a'A’a'a'aA’a'a"a"a"A"2"e z * "a%a"A"a'A"a’A’A"A’A'A’A'A'A'A"A’A’A'A’AA'AA'A’A’ATA'A'AA’A'A’A'A’A’A“A’AAYAA’A’AA’ATA’A'A’A'A’A’AA’AA’A'A’AA’A'A'A’AA’AA’A’AA'AA'A’A'A'A’A'A'A'A'A'A'A"A'A'A' ‘a’a'a'a"a"s |) “a'a"e"S |)