Publix Opinion (Feb 21, 1930)

PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF FEBRUARY 2Zist, 1930 7 COPY Can you see this 2 column full page ad occupying the relatively same position in a metropolitan paper that it now has in Publix Opinion? It is the work of David A. Lipton of Detroit. Pay close attention to the copy —and use it for your own greatest show month! I FEBRUARY 4 Is Greater mee. ‘ ¢ at the mighty ie | MICHIGAN ~ February—the peak month of the theater industry’s season— has crowded the Michigan theater this ear with shows of size and splendor unprem cedented in Detroit's history iY | F 2 oo Every important producer is clamoring for February releases and we have been able to secure the four most outstanding talking pictures of the 4 year and present them at the Michigan dur ing February. a\g eo” y To these remarkable pic& ™ tures we have added the finest fy stage revues yet presented at the Mich. iA lgan and a host of stage celebrities that read & jike a Who's Whod" on Broadway. e@ “% The Michigan theater is De troit’s leading entertainment cenq) f ter—one of the greatest Publix thea: y} ters in America. Come to the Michigan every ff week for the world’s finest shows. You ove It-to yourself not to miss a single program! February’s Bis 47 Parade of WonfF der Shows Is On ‘ Pt e 3, bf NOW PLAYING k by CHARLES KING—BESSIE LOVE ‘ in a love story you'll never forget « oe” “CHASING RAINBOWS” onstace “MARDI GRAS” ad brilliant with color—gay carnival in Sunny Seville! ¢€, ; > FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7 ¥ Welcome “the Rajah of Jazz” i to Detroit. What a man! , 4 PAUL ASH IN PERSON “Mr. Jazz. Himeelf” ¢ And an emotional screen masterpiece ‘THE LAUGHING LADY’ = Ruth Chatterton—Clive Brook , t FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 6 The laughing, loving comedy-drama ‘ , Marion Davies ¢ » “NOT SO DUMB” of ONSTAGE “THE INGENUES** " 25 beautiful, talented girls from Kd ‘THE ZIEGFELD FOLLIES” “e FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 “The last of the red-hot mamas” Sophie Tucker fe IN PERSON with new blues songs Ania the smashing screen melodrama “DANGEROUS PARADISE” Nancy Carroll—Richard Arlen aren ; A tit OA f { r a POWDER MAKES FLASH When the motion picture, “Dynamite,” played the Rivoli Theatre, Beatrice, Nebraska, Manager Max Tschauder bought $1.50 worth of red flash powder from a drugstore, climbed to the marquee and set it off. The red flash of ‘the powder reflected in the sky and attracted plenty of attention. SUGGESTS HUGE BAD WEATHER CAMPAIGN A national campaign to combat the cold weather bugaboo and encourage people to come to the theatre all winter regardless of the weather, as was done with the refrigeration campaigns in the summer, is suggested by Manager Sidney Dannenberg, of the Paramount Theatre, Toledo, Ohio. In this campaign, it is Mr. Dannenbere’s. idea that the copy should stress the fact that during these weeks, exceptional entertainment programs have been = arranged. People must be sold on the idea of coming every week. “The average small daily ad,’ said Dannenberg, ‘‘used by the theatre to convey its message does not scratch even the surface of the importance that is lent to the message of selling a man and his family the idea of leaving his warm home and going out into the cold, braving the possibilities of a stalled motor, ete. Hammering away at them in a wide-spread and concentrated manner will, I am certain, make believers out of skeptics and over a period of time, such work is bound to bring results.”’ Additional information on the idea, as well as practical exploitation examples may be found in Publix Opinion, week of December 6th, 1929, pages 1 and 4, and week of January 10th, 1930, page 9. Telegraph Tie-Up Nets Windows Displays Exploiting Paramount’s ‘‘Burning Up,” during its engagement at the New York Paramount, proved advantageous in many respects, due to the fact that Valentine’s Day opened up a unique tie-up with Postal Telegraph. Postal installed a special window in co-operation with one of New York’s leading florists and devoted the entire space to “Burning Up.’’ Two hearts, three feet high, were placed on each side of the display with a photo of Arlen and Brian, the stars, on each. Miniature telegraph poles as high as the hearts were shown in the background and the hearts contained wires from Arlen to Brian sending Valentine greetings to each other, with the copy read ing: “I’m burning up ‘the wires to send you flowers for Valentine’s day.’’ The Telegraph Company also tied up fifteen flerists’ windows with an advance of Nancy Carroll in “Dangerous Paradise,” using the Valentine’s Day motif to put it OVE. The balance of the “Burning Up” campaign, handled by Eddie Hitchcock, publicity director of the Paramount and Henry Spiegel, his assistant, included a racing car on Broadway and several motorcycles, all carrying banners on the picture. The Cord automobile agency placed a car at the disposal of the publicity staff all week. The car was kept moving up and down Broadway, earrying copy on the picture. (The stills on “Burning Up” carry a special on Arlen in a racing car standing beside a Cord auto.) MUSIC TIE-UP J. A. Jones of the Saenger Theatre, Pensacola, Fla., reports two music store tie-ups when playing the “Show of Shows’. In each case there were posters and window displays featuring the names of the song hits and the theatre and playdates. In one window, there were miniature bathtubs and dolls to go with the advertising material on ‘‘Singing in the Bathtub”’. HOME OFFICE DEPARTMENTS Here is the thirteenth of a series of stories about Publix Home Office Department personalities who depend upon your effort, just as you depend upon theirs. To know and understand each other's person alities and problems will lighten the burdens of everyone, and make our tasks enjoyable. For this reason, PUBLIX OPINION is devoting an important part of its space to these brief biographical sketches. LEM STEWART Advertising Manager Quaker families and show business do not go together, but in the case of Lem Stewart, Philadelphian, Advertising Manager in immediate supervision of the advertising activities of hundreds of Publix showmen, the lure of the motion picture world proved stronger than the inhibitions and restrictions of|/environment. That was why, in 1916, shortly after the completion of his course in advertising and economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Stewart joined the staff of Triangle Film Distributing Corporation, after several connections in which he had served as advertising manager of a scientific instrument company and in a similar capacity with Crew Levie (Oils). Three years later, in company with some of his associates, he resigned from Triangle to assume the position of advertising manager for the theatres oN ee Pres Lynch’s Southern Enterprise of Atlanta, Georgia. It was while he was engaged in that capacity that the elaborate system of advertising service and instruction now in vogue in Publix was developed and brought to its present state of refinement. Became Manager Realizing even at that early date in 1919 that his system would require all the aid that practical experience could give to it, he refused to accept his executive position until he had tried his hand at managing five theatres in Asheville, North Carolina, for a period of nine months. At the end of this experimental stage, he travelled through the entire circuit introducing his system of service and instruction to all theatres. In 1923, the theatres of Southern Enterprise fell under the’ control of Paramount and Lem Stew art found himself back in New York extending his activities over a wider terrain. Then came Publix and hundreds of theatres more found themselves included in the servicing activities of a department elastic enough to embrace everything within reach without an appreciable change of methods. “All we have had to do,”’ explained Mr. Stewart, ‘“‘was to add men to our staff from time to time, but that in itself was a problem. Every member of our department has operated the same type of theatre as he is working with now. One of our chief aims has been, and still is, to improve the use of newspaper space through the application of more resourceful methods, and it is for that reason that we are striving to give to the men in the field knowledge which will put them on their own advertising resources.” Scans Campaigns As your correspondent tried to dig through the modest front of Mr. Stewart in an effort to secure a record of his accomplishments, various members of his staff brought him tear sheets and campaigns sent from different cities. With a few words he indicated where praise was due, how a poor trend was manifesting itself in some man’s work, or where it would be advisable to stress one of the manuals published by the department. From his office,then on the twenty-sixth floor, he could look out over quite a section of New York. ‘‘Rather strange,” he remarked, ‘‘to be back in almost the same spot where I started in New York in 1916 after a tour that covered practically the entire south and west. But getting into the show business was just one of those things I had to do.” . But the Quaker ancestry was OPTOMETRISTS OFFER ANGLE FOR STUNT Optometrists handling ‘Shuron” glasses are now displaying cards in their windows which read as follows: “Tf the movies hurt your eyes, don’t blame the pictures.’’ A friendly gesture, but one with room for improvement, particularly from the viewpoint of Publix showmen. Why not take some stills on forthcoming pictures, together with better copy-slants, to your local optometrist? He'll welcome them; the dictates of his profession prevent a lavish use of newspaper advertising, but he makes full use of his window space, and seizes upon his infrequent opportunities to enliven his displays without sacrificing dignity. Location of his shop is almost invariably prominent, and his conservative window-endorsements of your product will present a high-class appeal. “Enjoy the marvelous play of color in ‘The Vagabond King’ to the fullest extent! Let ‘Shur-ons’ make complete your appreciation of color perfection on the living, singing screen.’’ Surround that with half a dozen stills from the picture. Slip in another card to the effect that ‘‘The Vagabond King,’ a Paramount picture in Technicolor, with Dennis King and Jeanette MacDonald, comes to the Publix-Paramount Theatre on March 7th. Paramount’s supreme sereen operetta! Dozens of other copy slants will immediately suggest themselves. “Don’t miss seeing Nancy Carroll in ‘Honey’ because your eyes are so often ‘tired.’ Perhaps they need ‘Shur-ons’ to assist you to full appreciation of motion picture perfection.” “Did you wel come ‘talkies’ because you no longer risked eye-strain from reading sub-titles? Then ‘Shur ons’ will help you to better enjoy such musical extravaganzas in color as ‘“‘Paramount on Parade.” Parade of Automobiles for ‘The Love Parade’ Every now and then, staging of an automobile parade is an excellent medium for advertising a picture. Manager Earle M. Holden of the Publix-Fairfax Theatre, Miami, Fla., arranged one to publicize Maurice Chevalier in Paramount’s, “The Love Parade.’’ A, French telegram contest was planted in the Miami Herald with $5 in gold to be awarded to the first correct translation of the telegram in French received by the manager from Maurice Chevalier. Answers were received from all over the state. a ET eS bothering this reporter. Has Hobbies, Too “Perhaps I should have told you,” Stewart remarked in answer to a question, “That my father was a manufacturer of banjos. As a matter of fact he modified the instrument and gave it its present form. Many performers on the Keith circuit used the Stewart banjo and as a child I attended demonstration performances and exhibition concerts with members of the firm. Maybe the germ of showmanship took root then. Certainly it was fully developed by the time I was through with Quaker schools.”’ Came the inevitable question about his hobbies. “Ig there anything in the world that an advertising man doesn’t try to do at some time or other?” he replied. ‘‘First advertising was a hobby, then it became a business. I played the banjo and piano when I was a kid, and when I was old enough wrote music and lyrics but never quite reached the royalty stage. Then I’ve done some sketching and painting. But when the weather’s suitable you can put all those on the shelf. Give me a chance to do some deep sea fishing or let me go swimming and I’ll be happy.”