Publix Opinion (Jun 6, 1930)

4 PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF JUNE 6rx, 1930 MADELINE WOODS’ MANUAL IS FIRST TO TACKLE CHILD. ATTENDANCE IN BIG WAY The first complete manual devoted entirely to the stimulating of child attendarice at theatres that has come to the attention of Publix Opinion is the one prepared by Madeline Woods of Illinois and Indiana. It consists of 16 pages of material that contains not only worthwhile stunts that have been tried successiully but also the general principles governing exploitation for children. The first of these is that too much effort and time must not be spent on the children because it is still the adults who spend most money and bring the children to the theatres. The second one is that greatest efforts must be made to bring them into the theatres only when we have attractions that will please them. Pictures that are not suited to children will not please them and much of the effort made to get them into the theatre will . have negative results instead of positive. Children will be interested in pictures like ‘Young © Eagles,”’ “Honey,’ “Spring Is Here,” “Light, of Western Stars,” “‘The Texan,’ “True To The Navy,’’ Return of Fu Manchu,” ete., ete. They will not be interested in “Sarah and Son,’’ ‘Anna Christie,’’ “Lummox,”’ ‘‘Rogue Song,’ and other attractions of interest only to adults . Where several theatres in town are making a play for the kiddies it is best to center efforts on the house playing the picture that will please them most. The attitude of producers to the child problem is such that indications are that there will be plenty of juvenile appeals-in all pictures to be released. Animals, children, and an over dose of exciting outdoor shots are being planned for all productions into which they can be incorporated. This should be a \considerable relief. Exploitation Efforts | For those theatres planning sports: shows ‘there are a number of sure fire angles. It might be possible to promote some basehalls and to get a local baseball celebrity to autograph them. They are to be given at a special matinee. If newspaper having kiddies’ club or page can be made partner. to the deal so much the better. Where balls cannot be promoted it is possible to buy them very reasonably in large quantities. It is possible to get the baseballs in connection with the Oh Henry! Matinee. Tried in some of the towns, this stunt has been quite successful. The stunt is this ' You purchase 500 (or more as your needs demand) Oh Henry! Bars at 3c each, .-and the Oh Henry! Company will send you 5 baseballs; besides, you are loaned a trailer and several one-sheets for use in the lobby. If you like, you can have, instead of 5 baseballs, 2 or 3 baseballs, and 2 or 38 children’s aluminum cooking sets put up in little doll houses— to appeal to little girls. — With a stunt of this kind, every. child gets a bar of candy and the lucky ones get baseballs or cooking sets. . Children are bound to be interested in baseball right now. so if we can make them think of baseball in terms of ‘‘theatre,” it should help. Perhaps you can promote some bats, gloves, ete., to give away as other prizes. If there are any youngsters around town who have a regular ball club, it might be a good idea to invite them to the theatre on the day that you have your Baseball Matinee. As a further connection with your Lobby Sport Show, it is suggested that you get among the prizes which you will promote, some children’s golf sets, tennis balls—perhaps, a_ teeter-totter— roller skates, ete. Children’s tents can be set up in the lobby along with the display of the toys and other prizes and those can be ‘given away from time to time. Do not give away the children’s gifts on the night of the adult prizes as this will only mean the children will be there occupying seats which would otherwise be sold at adult prices. To get away from this, it would be a good idea to give away the children’s prizes, at the afterschool matinee on the opening of a picture when you are going to give away the adult prizes some night during the run of the picture. In this way, the children would see the show and would not come back again at night when the adult raffles are taking place. This can be handled, of course, by giving away children’s prizes at some other theatre where we have more than one house or all the sporting goods for both children and adults can be shown at one theatre with the children’s drawing taking place at another house. <A card on the display would indicate at what house, what time, ete. the drawings would take place. Exhibitions As a further means of keeping the school children interested, arrange for ‘‘B’’ house, a lobby display of articles which have been made by school children. For instance, there could be a lobby display of articles from the Manual Training Department. You could give ribbons as prizes just as is done at fairs—a white ribbon for the first prize, ete. Better prizes might be given. The girls might display the articles which they made in the sewing classes and*this would be especially good in the latter part of May when they could exhibit their graduation dresses as in most of the _ schools, sewing classes make their frocks. The girls could model these dresses and a prize could be offered—a ribbon or cup or medal for the dress most neatly made. _ This might not mean a whole lot of money at the box office but at least it would get you some good publicity and would attract some students as well as talent to the theatre. Where you do not have sewing classes or manual training classes, you can still have exhibits for children, and these might be something as outlined in the following. . Toy Show ; Here is a stunt which can be well employed in one of your houses even though you have a tie-up with the schools for: the sewing and manual training exhibit. This can be in addition to the other, or even by itself will prove interesting. Have a doll show with prizes offered for the dolls most effectively dressed. There can be a Promote Prizes prize for the most beautiful doll, for the most comical doll, the largest doll, the smallest doll, and the most unusual doll, etc. This will interest young children, and the older ones as well as girls who are interested in showing, may enter dolls in the contest especially if you offer some prizes. There should be a prize for little girls—such as a baby doll, and the prize for the more grown up girl—such as a toilet set or silk stockings, or a party bag, or some such gift. These prizes might be promoted, or, of course, can be obtained quite inexpensively. So that the exhibit would be interesting to boys as well as girls, you could have along with the doll show, a display of home-made toys or ‘aeroplanes, or radios. Here again, you would offer prizes for’ the best home-made toy—perhaps a prize for the best radio, or the best aeroplane, etc. These, however, would have to be home-made because they have to show children’s skill and the poor youngsters should have some chance at the prizes as much as the ones who can afford more. expensive play things. At the close of the eanbests Ethe prize winning articles can be exhibited in one of the stores, either in the window, the toy department, or children’s department, and thus advertise. the theatre. Special Matinees In connection with the children’s activities outlined in the foregoing pages, you can make those exhibits, etc. have a general appeal if you employ some stunts such as the following: Harmonica Contest Balloon Blowing Contest Aeroplane Sailing Contest There are a number of other stunts along these lines which you can figure out. With the balloonblowing contest, the children blow up these balloons and the child that blows up the balloon the largest size, gets the prize. The aeroplane-sailing contest is staged as follows: Use little aeroplanes such as are sold in most toy shops. Train a couple of youngsters in advance to sail these planes cleverly. They can be made to loop the loop by putting a little weight on the tail (a very small paper clip will do), and they can be made to sail over the audience and back to the stage. /Offer a prize to the youngster who can sail the planes best. I think two boys who know how | to do it should start off the stunt and then ask for children to come upon the stage and try. The Harmonica Contest lends itself to a variety of methods. You can have any number of these stunts worked out using some each Saturday in June, or at after school matinees, employing them, of course, in the house where you have a picture most suitable for children. The Kiddies’ Club | A very successful Kiddies’ Club has been worked out in Bloomington by Manager Lawler. You might do the same thing in your town and employ as part of the club. acitivities some of the stunts as outlined in this manual together with ideas submitted by Lawler. He has built his club around the organist, but where you do not have an organist, you can still have a club. The club was started at a matinee which opened at 1 o’clock and the manager addressed the children telling them that it would be lots of fun for everyone and asked the children to submit their idea of a name for the club, and he offered a prize for the best name —the one that would be selected. This was a free show, but, of course, you do not need to start with a free show unless you see fit. The following week was a candy \ Association. “Beau Bandit’ “Clancy in Wall Street’’ “The Climax’’. “Crazy That Way’”’ ‘High Society Blues” “Honey’”’ “Light of Western Stars’’ “Dixie Days”’ “Knchanted Forest” ‘“Pretzels’’ ing the candy free of charge. Anmatinee with the manager obtainother week, the head of the Boy Scouts was sent to address the children on ‘‘Americanism’’ and each week some city: official will appear at the matinee to talk to the children on ‘‘Safety.” The children have been provided with club buttons. You can work out something along these lines and have a local athletic coach to talk there one Saturday, and perhaps another day, someone from the library to tell stories and talk to the children about books and another Saturday have’ a singing contest, etc. © Have the children send in cards telling when their birthday-is, and then through the columns of the newspaper, list names of children who have birthdays, and are, therefore, entitled to get in free by identifying themselves at the door. They would have to bring a birthday card which you would send them. Along these lines, you can perhaps use a ticket which when used five or six consecutive times, entitles the child to see a seventh show free of charge. They might be used instead of buttons and they would be punched each Saturday. | Prize Matinees Miss Woods can obtain children’s watches guaranteed for. one year made in wrist watch style with a leather band, white gold filled case and otherwise very attractive at $2.50 each. Some of these have been given away in one of our towns and they made a big hit. It appealed to children up to 16 and 17 years of age and come in both boys’ and girls’ styles. * It is. also possible to purchase go-ponies for $2.00 each and these, of course, have a strong appeal for children up to 10 years of age. You might, therefore, work out some prize matinees at which you would give away two watches and two go-ponies or more or less. Two of each would make your matinee cost you $9.00, and if this RECOMMENDED The following pictures are endorsed by the Parent Teachers is too much, you can give away fewer prizes. This will stimulate Lieheaute because they are prizes that children will want. Where it is possible to use your stage, you can have go-pony races offering a prize such as a’ box of candy or a toy for the child winning the race. To do this, you line the children up at one end of the stage, start them off and determine the winner and then let another group race, ete. until you have three or four winners and then match these win ners in a final race. You could give |} a go-pony perhaps to the winner, and you could give away candy prizes to the other participants in the race. Dancing Tie-Ups It always means extra money at the box office if you can arrange for the local dancing schools to put on an exhibition in aac aes to your performance. i Teachers are always anxious to exhibit their pupils and especially THESE STUNTS WILL BRING THE KIDS! “Mammy” “Only The Brave’’ “Paramount on Parade’”’ “Sky Hawk’’ “Spring is Here’ “The Swell Head’’ “Young Hagles’’ The following shorts are especially recommended: “Spills and Thrills’’ “A Tough Winter’’ “A Night in a Shooting Gallery’ ‘‘Wanderlust”’ at this time of year when all the dancing schools have their closing programs. In the towns where we have this as an annual or semi-annual event, it never fails to stimulate business for three nights. Why not work this out as one of your June tie-ups? It will not cost you anything but the stage hands as most dancing schools have to use their own pianist who is familiar with the work of accom ‘panying the children. By putting on the dancing revue once between shows, those who do not care to see it will not have to sit through it, and you can depend on it that the parents and friends of those participating will be on the job to see the show. Serials | If you are getting ‘“‘King of the Congo” or “Hunting Tigers in India,’ do not let it open “cold” but play it up in advance. Get balloons with animal pictures on them, and you can distribute these in advance as a means of advertising the opening of the picture. It would be a good idea to open your serial by distributing tickets in advance to the children who would use them throughout the serial and if they attend all the performances up to the last one, and if their tickets are punched to indicate this, they may see the last performance free. | Don’t Forget Don’t forget if you use street ballyhoos such as cowboys on horseback to advertise ‘‘Light of Western Stars,” or ‘‘The Texan,’’ or any other pictures of this kind —-send the cowboy to the schools. By the same token, if you are using an aeroplane over the city to advertise ‘“‘Young Hagles,”’ or any kind of an outdoor ballyhoo at all to advertise the picture that has any appeal to the children, get this ballyhoo in the neighborhood of the schools at dismissal time. Children will go home and talk about the ballyhoo as it will impress them more than it will adults. Don’t forget to bring your special children’s attractions and ac tivities to the attention of the Parents Teachers’ Association. Don’t forget to get a notice on the library bulletin board when you have a speaker from the city to talk on ‘‘Safety.’’ Don’t forget to get a notice on the library bulletin board when you have a librarian to talk about books! and tell stories. Don’t forget to get bulletins up in the schools, library, etc. you have children’s exhibits in the lobby such as the doll show, Aeroplane Show, ete. Don’t forget to mention your ac tivities in your newspaper adver- tising. Don’t forget to talk to the chil dren yourself or even through the Public Address Sytem in your theatre, impressing upon them your various children’s activities. This is much more attractive than trailers and certainly is less costly. when