Publix Opinion (Mar 21, 1930)

THREE-CORNERED TIE-UP FOR “ RE HONEY” PICTURE, SONGS VAGABOND KING FLORIDA DRIVE “A KNOCKOUT The Palm Beach premiere of “The Vagabond King’ was put across in a manner not only befitting the production but the aristocratie colony as well. City Manager Conrad Holmes, Paramount Theatre Manager Walter Morris, and District Publicity Director Frank Moneyhun worked together to make the opening the finest and most noised about affair that had ever honored the resort. Posters and window cards were used in profusion. Specially constructed banners were used along the main arteries leading into Palm Beach. : Direct Mail Campaign Because of the $5.50 ticket price, a direct mail campaign wa undertaken. Two thousand specia announcements were mailed to the Palm Beach colony, the Miami Beach colony, and to all hotels. These included requests for reservations to be mailed back to the theatre, and proved productive. To make it as easy as possible for people to secure tickets, branch box-offices were established in various hotels and local points. A newspaper ad_ listing all these places appeared aS soon as they AND CHESTS GET PLUG What is possibly the largest exploitation tie-up ‘between a mercantile firm and a _ theater and music publishing organization was effected this week when an agreement was reached between Publix Theaters Corporation, the Famous Music CG oor po Teds tion, and The eS Co-operate with Lan€é it money Dealers. means 7 ! for all of you! ane. Lies ‘ manufacturers of the wellknown Lane Cedar Chest, for the exploitation of the Paramount pic ture, ‘Honey,’ and its principal “In My Little Hope song hit, Chest,’ in conjunction with the Lane Cedar Chests. About 5,000 full-sized cut-outs of Nancy Carroll and the Lane Cedar Chest will be displayed by furniture dealers in their show windows in every city of the country at the time of the tion of the picture. You advise your local Lane Chest dealer of your play date to get maximum benefit from this tie-up. In addition 12,000 broadsides, comprehensive campaign sheets, will be sent by The Lane Company to that many dealers throughout the United States, who will be advised how to co-operate with local theater managers to advertise not only the Lane Cedar Chests, but also the picture, ‘‘Honey.” Conspicuously feature din: these broadsides will be a special edition cover i should design of the sheet music, “In My Little Hope Chest,’’ and a reproduction of this story. The dealers will make extensive use of. the photograph of Nancy Carroll and the Lane Cedar Chest in their newspaper advertising copy, and they will devote a certain day to the free, distribution of copies of the song ‘In My Little Hope Chest.’’ Famous Music Corporation, publisher of the hit, is printing a special cover for the song, featuring the picture, the star, Nancy Carroll, and the cedar chest. The Lane Company has placed an initial order of 25,000 copies of this song, with a special imprint of the dealer’s name, and expeets to effect a distribution of about a half-million copies simultaneously with the general release of the picture. All theater managers can proeure one of the Nancy Carroll cutouts from the Lane Co., Inc., Altavista, Va. These cutouts can be placed in the lobby or some other prominent place in the theater. For those theaters that do not sell sheet music, these cut outs can be used to call attention to the free distribution of the sheet copies of ‘‘In My Little Hope Chest.’’ In this way theater managers can tie-up with great effect with the local Lane Cedar Chest dealers and get free exploitation for the picture. To make this tie-up as big in| scope as it is possible, The Lane Company is getting twenty-four of its field men to work in conjunction with the furniture dealers. ‘They will advise the dealers how to display the Nancy Carroll cutouts, how to use newspaper space with the best results, and how to work together with Publix theater managers. And to further this exploitation work, the Famous Music Corporation will have additional men in the field to cooperate with The Lane Company’s men to aid the thousands of furni— ture dealers who sell the Lane Cedar Chests. Publix theater managers will find that their co-operation in putting over this tie-up will mean Lane Com-}| exhibi|’ i] PREMIERE ACTIVITY Part of the activity in pictures during the world in Palm Beach, Fla. premiere of the “Vagabond King” With the co-operation of the telephone company, informed of the opening. subscribers were called and Empty store windows were used for the purpose. all office. To Talk to Kiwanis| Earns Space in Papers When Elmer R. Daniels, manager of the Capitol, Worcester, spoke to the local Kiwanis Club on “Theatre Management,”’ he treated his subject so interestingly that each of the Worcester evening papers went for it to the extent of a column and a half. “A theatre manager,’ said Mr. Daniels, ‘‘must primarily be a business man, but the nature of that business differs greatly from the average in that the merchandise he has to offer must be sold within a certain period of time. It cannot be placed ‘back in stock’ to be disposed of at a later date should the public not respond.” Daniels went on to speak of talking picture. rehearsals, refrigeration, usher-training, and firedrills, phrasing his speech in words which were not technical and were easily understood by his audience. So intelligently had Daniels pre pared his material that the newspaper accounts of the talk were packed with institutional selling. i ———————————— greatly increased business to them on this picture. They will have all the assistance they want to stage a successful campaign. This great plug for “Honey” was effected in Chicago by Sam Baron, of the Famous Music Corporation; of The Lane Company; J. Krauss, general sales manager of The Lane Company; and the entire staff of Henri, Hurst and Mc+ Donald, Inc., nationally-known advertising agency. These men worked out a plan of action which should’ make both “Honey”? and the Lane Cedar Chest very popular. Publix theater managers can get a list of the Lane Cedar Chest dealers in their town from ‘Sam Baron, care of the Famous Music Corporation, 719 Seventh Avenue, New York City, or from the Lane Co., Inc., Altavista, Va. “Honey’’ is a wonderful picture. It has stars, story, and corking music. It is going to be an immense hit with audiences. It should be advertised as extensively as possible. Co-operation with the Lane Cedar Chest dealers will help bring its fame home to every moving picture fan in your town. KE. H. Lane, president. facilitate buying of theatre tickets (the wide open spaces in Palm Beach are very wide) the de luxe eniertainment special was converted into a traveling boxThe two lower illustrations are of store windows containing displays. —— ee ——_—_—_—_—__ a | : were established. CLASS APPEAL Two of the very attractive newspaper greatest to the select gathering at Palm Seats for Florida premiere were appeal of the finest sort. The Greatest of all HKusical Romances Lives Again! : HE WORLD PREM n AY EVENING ‘WEDNESD: Ey orcLock The PBagabond King’ WITH JEANETTE MacDONALD WARNER OLAND 0. P HEGG FEBRUARY 19TH. Blazing with Gorgeous Technicolor Throughout! AT $5.50 ALL SEATS RESERVED GET THEM NO! LETTERS INVITE THEATRE PARTIES As a means of stimulating business in Lent in the Publix-Great States division, Madeline Woods has prepared a quantity of form letters, to be sent out from time to time to women who are frequent hostesses, obtaining names from the society columns. These call attention to the fact that it is now the ‘in-between’ season before spring housecleaning, and suggest the desirability of entertaining at the theatre. Managers have also been supplied with congratulatory cards to be mailed out to persons celebrating birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and the like. These cards are honored for one or two admis-~ ads used, to sell Paramount's Beach. The ads reflect class $5.50. i ennis King ce : ‘The Bagabond Ring” ‘ iil JEANETTE MacDONALD color lazing with brant with ALL RESERVED and County Road ~ Diat 79 a Wel : DNESDAY EVENING, FEB. 19 AT 8 ; 230 ‘Vagabond King’ Breaks Miami Receipt Records Box office records are being shattered wherever “The Vagabond King” is shown. A telegram forwarded to the Home Office Advertising department on March 7, by Earle M. Holden, manager of the Fairfax, Miami, Fla., and herewith reproduced, is another example of the above statement. “Vagabond King opened regular sngagement this morning. Largest erowds history Fairfax. Forty-five minutes. required to clear first ticket line. The Miami Herald says the picture is so opulent in its amazing perfection one hesitates to speak of it in comparison with any other motion picture.” sions, specified by the manager, |’ and are marked for days other than Saturday, Sunday and holidays. aie Acceptances on either of these stunts are communicated to the society columns, and invariably crash. SOUND INSTALLED \ The Lyric Theatre, Yuma, Arizona, has opened an all-sound policy and the Ramona, Phoenix, will switch from tab shows ‘to allsound. Policy at poth of these theatres will be four changes weekly. 3 Straw Hat in February Rouses Council Bluffs _ Finding that a local shoe dealer always inaugurated the straw hat season in Council Bluffs, thereby making the: papers every spring, Manager R. K. Fulton of the Broadway beat him to it by putting a masked man in a straw hat on the street in February. The man handed out cards reading “The Chevalier Straw—‘Nobody’s Using It Now’ — Hear Maurice Chevalier sing this roguish song and seven other song hits in ‘The Love Parade,’ ete.” Prior to the appearance of the regular theatre ads, a series of small, all type ads in the nature of teasers were run. These ads contained excerpts from the most impressive dialogue. One read as follows: “As a thief you first bade me save France! As a thief, I ride and fight for you tonight! The Vagabond King.”’ Two girls were employed to eall telephone subscribers and to tell them of the opening. (See illustration.) Window Displays The window of the leading book store in West Palm Beach was obtained for a display of the book “If I Were King.” A special edition featuring Dennis King and | “The' Vagabond King’ made the display very much worth while. Included was a large set piece calling attention to the engagement at the Paramount Theatre. A similar tie-up was made with a music store. There was a display of sheet music and records from the attraction and a phonograph played Dennis King’s recordings. . To take advantage of the large tourist turnover, some of the peautiful photo-enlargements in color were placed in leading hotels. Their attractiveness made it easy ‘to place them. Fifteen hundred of the rotogravure inserts on the picture were distributed in laundry bundles. For the sake of publicity, a telegram of invitation was sent to the president of Cuba. His reply in Spanish was used as the basis of a translation contest with passes to the first ten correct answers. Newspapers ran stories on this. Besides all this, newspaper stories, window tie-ups with a florist and a dress shop, trailers, and a special pre-view for the press were used to completely cover the Palm Beaches with ticket selling advertising and exploitation. ! : Club Membership List Requested by Metzler \ All managers have been asked to compile a list of clubs or fraternal organizations, for which the company pays membership dues, to which members of theatre staffs belong, and to forward this list to Comptroller F. L. Metzler. Included must be information as to amount of dues paid and degree of activity in affairs of the organiza‘tion on the part of the Publix employee. Managers are to include themselves in age listing.