Publix Opinion (Dec 12, 1930)

~--, + EE een a ae reer POEL ILO, oe Mid-December finds effective anti-slump campaigns, concentrating on specific attractions, in work in virtually every Publix situation. The necessity for continuing such phases of activity as are not limited to the period preceding Christmas through January and February makes it imperative for the few situations which have not initiated slump antidotes to immediately get campaigns under Way, adapting successful slants from other situations if necessary. Economy is emphasized in Illinois and Indiana, where theatres which do not have holiday decorations from previous seasons | are procuring them through tieups, with mechants decorating lobbies in return for the privilege of installing displays. Toy shops, toy departments of large stores, grocers, florists, telegraph companies and electrical dealers are suggested by Division Publicity Director Madeline Woods as possibilities for tie-ups of this sort. Florists and telegraph companies are hooked up together where possible, with booths for sending flowers by wire. Floral decorations are furnished in return. Stage Attractions As added stage attractions, Great States theatres are attempting to line up lingerie shows, pajama parades, dancing school re vues, Christmas gift shows. The latter feature modeling of apparel, with furniture stores co operating for stage settings and music dealers furnishing phonographs or pianos for accompanying music and incidental entertainment, with all merchants participating giving merchandise prizes for patrons. Miss Woods emphasizes the ease of getting give-aways this season, citing promotion of diamond rings in Harvey and Joliet. Importance of gifts for children is stressed, as is distribution of give-aways over a number of ordinarily dull nights. Grocery and poultry raffles were found both easy to promote and attractive to patrons in the Great States Thanksgiving campaign. Sale of theatre tickets, both as gifts and to merchants as premiums, is being pressed. Manager Walter Guth of the Lyric in Blue Island, Ill., has effected a jeweler tie-up whereby the store gives a guest ticket with every purchase of 50 cents or more, and pays the theatre full face value for the tickets. Street Car Tie-ups Street car and cab tie-ups are in operation, both as an antidote for bad weather and as an encouragement to theatre attendance after shopping. Particular attention is being paid to children, with gifts of fruit, nuts and toys promoted for distribution at regular Saturday matinees. Tie-ups featuring free serving of coffee and cake, etc., to shoppers are being made wherever possible. A bakery tie-up in Wheaton, B+ O0-0-1 0+ 0-0-0 0+ ©+8+ 0-0-0000 0+ 0+ 00+ 010+ o Notice ! If you anticipate midnight shows during the holidays, when it will be necessary to use reserved seat tickets, advanced sale tickets or special tickets of any kind, please send your requisition to your division purchasing department as far in advance as possible, so that the order may be placed early enough to insure delivery on time of any such tickets that may be needed. The seating plan of your theatre should be attached to your requisition for reserved seat tickets. J. H. Elder $0 0-0-0 Or +05 10+ OOO 0+ 0+ Or OO OOF S105 OOS 10° O+ 00-07 O8 © 00+ 0+-0 10+ 0+ 01-00-01 0+-0+ 0+ 0+ 0+-O+ 0-0-0 0-00-8101 0-00-00 0-O 20> { i ! : t } i i i } i { Christmas Campaigns In Full Swing Everywhere PUBLIX OPINION, WEEK OF DECEMBER 12th, 1930 Ill., netted 250 loaves of bread for the first patrons on Monday evening, and resulted in a packed house, In Chicago, Publix-B. & K. theatres are permitting the post office to place attendants in checking booths, providing parcel post service. In return, all mail trucks carry banners advertising attractions at the theatres. City Manager Gilbert O. Brown, in Kankakee, Ill., has received three consecutive full page “Shop Early’ ads from a local daily. In them only the Majestic Theatre is directly advertised, receiving dominant space for current attractions, and no merchants at all are mentioned. Brown procured them by permitting the paper to offer 20 pairs of guest tickets for the best letters on early shopping. Theatre Parties Arranged Two profitable tie-ups made by City Manager S. S. Solomon in Youngstown, Ohio, have been so | successful that they will continue indefinitely. At the State Theatre, every Thursday night is ‘‘Postal Telegraph Night.’’ Not only does the entire local organization attend, but all pay full admission, including the manager. Nine Postal boys replace the State ushers for the evening, and an attendance prize is awarded as one of the events. Postal employees have elected officers from their number for the Publix-Postal Telegraph Club, and the Youngstown manager is systematically sending wires to organizations and mercantile establishments soliciting theatre parties on Thursday nights. Seven parties secured to date included from seven to eighteen people. The Kress-Publix Club, a similar organization, brings 85 members to the theatre each Tuesday night. All pay full admission, and are seated in a reserved section of the auditorium. Following the show the club meets on the mezzanine, for talks by the Kress manager, Solomon and employees, specialities and dancing to a radio. Two guest tickets are given weekly to the girl honorably mentioned by the store management, and this award is announced from the stage. Solomon is completing similar party arrangements with A. & P., Sears Roebuck and a large department store. Sears Roebuck Tie-ups In a tie-up with Sears Roebuck, a Toyland opened Dec. ist on the State mezzanine, with the store furnishing two attendants and mezzanine and lobby decorations, including a large lobby Christmas tree. Cooperative Sears Roebuck advertising invites Youngstown children to write Santa Claus in care of the theatre, and 800 children had already responded by November 28th. These letters will be answered on special stationery and answers mailed in Nome, Alaska. Sears Roebuck’s Santa Claus is to arrive in Youngstown by plane, Dec. 20th, excorted by nine other planes, and will make his headquarters on the State mezzanine. The Youngstown Telegram is carrying daily feature stories, which began Dec. ist, covering Santa Claus’ daily jumps, and Postal is also tied in, contributing window displays and sending 50 wires daily, without charge. Candy And Parties For Kids Every child attending the theatre the week before Christmas will receive a box of candy, provided by Sears Roebuck. A series of special morning shows for underprivileged children are being sponsored by the Kiwanis Club, P. T. A., Youngstown Telegram, organized charities and school officials, with Willys-Knight furnishing cars for parades and transportation of children. Sears Roebuck, in addition to bearing all other expenses, is running 33 inch ads every other day in the Telegram, plugging the current attraction at the State and the mezzanine toyland. C. A. Cottle of the Riviera, Detroit, also has a tie-up with Sears Roebuck, which includes a toyland and Santa Claus in the Riviera lobby and purchase and distribution by the store of 10,000 circulars directed to children, telling them that Santa Claus will be at the theatre matinee and evening from Noy. 29th to Christmas. > PARAMOUNT COIN-GIANTS READY! Indication that the sweeping money drive of “Morocco,” “Tom Sawyer,” “Blue Angel” and other Paramount pictures will be carried far into the next year is seen in the reports on five new record-wreckers just being polished off at the Paramount Studios. Here they are! Watch the coin splatter when they hit! 1. “FIGHTING CARAVANS.” A truly BIG picture! Gary Cooper, Lily Damita, Ernest Torrence, Tully Marshall, Fred Kohler, Eugene Pallette. Five hundred Indians and 1700 minor players! Story by Zane Grey. Directed by Otto Brower and David Burton. The vast sweep, romance, colorful heroism, do-or-die-determination, and eye-enchanting beauty of the Old West translated into terms of irresistible box-office draw! Prepare for this one! 2. “GANG BUSTER!” Jack Oakie, irrepressible insurance | warring and ferocious gangs. salesman hemmed in between two Is this going to be a laugh panic! With Jean Arthur, William (Stage) Boyd, Francis McDonald and a mob of gorillas. Excitement, thrills, love interest, but most of all, LAFFS! Directed by Edward Sutherland, who handled Oakie in “The Sap From Syracuse” and “The Social Lion.’”’ Every known ingredient of a sure-fire box-office walloper is harmoniously mixed into this picture. Wait and see what happens! 3. “DISHONORED.” Bigger than ‘‘Morocco!”” Yes, the same “Tom Sawyer’ Hitting On All Six: Coin Rolls In! Sweeping the country, “Tom Sawyer” is continuing to pile up grosses which make box-office depression a thing of the past. The Paramount juvenile epic is delivering what was expected of it and more, boosting grosses in every situa tion with unfailing regularity. enslaving heroine. Marlene Dietrich, a scintillating star heading a cast of stars. She plays opposite Victor McLaglen, in a stirring love episode of the late war against the colorful background of imperial Russian and Austrian courts. With Warner Oland, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Norman Kerry, Barry Norton, Paul Panzer and 2500 minor players. Directed by Josef Von Sternberg, who directed Dietrich in ‘‘Morocco” and “Blue Angel.’”’ 4. “SCANDAL SHEET.” Another terrific Bancroft vehicle directed by John Cromwell, who hasn’t turned out a flop to date. With Clive Brook, Kay Francis, Regis Toomey and Lucien Littlefield. Virile story of love, hate, power, jealousy, and a strange, rugged honesty, all fused into the person of a battling editor of a yellow journal. A picture sure to cause a stampede to the box-office! 5. “NO LIMIT.”. A _ five-star picture! Just look at them— Clara Bow, Harry Green, Stuart Erwin, Norman Foster, Dixie Lee! Directed by Frank Tuttle, maker of “Sweetie” and “Her Wedding Night.”’ A story about usherettes, gambling houses, hold-ups and typical Bow love! Laughs a-plenty! <A sure coin picture! AD BUDGET ITEMS ARE CHANGEABLE (Continued from Page One) eral guidance, but that they are at all times at liberty to consider their advertising budget as a whole and have no hesitation in going over the budget on one account if they are under it on another. “There are numerous instances in which managers pass up valuable suggestions given in the manual, because they have no money to spend for the particular account under which this suggestion might be. They should feel at liberty to appropriate the amount from another advertising account in order to carry out the idea suggested.” ADULT APPEAL TOO! “Tom Sawyer’ is meeting with greatest success in the field when it is sold to adults as well as children—and that’s certainly the way it was sold in Chicago. None of the juvenile appeal was sacrificed, and the line “Is this you and your first sweetheart...?” sold many an adult ticket. Read, the copy! Incidentally, the Chicago Theatre had the biggest and earliest holdout of its history on the day “Tom Sawyer” opened. ) PUBLIX BALABAN & KATZ Uhider Jhatrs, CHIGAG Ny \ * RANDOLPH STATE taKse oe fetes YO AM. 35¢ tol Pat. Is This You and Your First Swectheart in the Long, Long Ago? Do you remember tho thrill of that first Ales in thoso barcfoot days ... como bo a kid again... Ive for two Joyous hours tho happy days tliat can nover como back? Mark Twain's beloved story with real kids"acting the roles JACKIE COOGAN MITZI GREEN JUNIOR, DURKIN You'll howl] when Tom and Becky get-“engaged’”* ee,» you'll Jaugh at Hack Finn's cure for warts = + you'll sob when Tom runs off from -home ye Taare Sfeirtert win OSES cue neER The picture of the century is here, lifting your heart with laughter . . «drenching your eyer with tears! Notable examples of its consistently distinguished performance are the Opera House, in Tucson, Arizona, where business was 30 per cent above average and all juvenile records were broken, and the Olympia in Miami, Fla., where its gross topped the four-day average by 50 per cent. Total of paid children's admissions for ‘Tom Sawyer” in two days at the Tucson Opera House was 1837, juvenile attendance for the first day alone breaking the record by 405. Outstanding publicity was secured by Manager Frank Drachman, with stories and cuts daily for a week. Entertains Kids Main publicity puller was a special showing for 900 children of county schools, brought in donated buses and private cars from schools up to 75 miles away, Many of the children had never been to Tucson, more had never seen a picture. After the showing they were guests of the theatre at a promoted lunch in the Masonic Temple. School officials, Masons and merchants cooperated, and operators donated their services. Pictures on this made both the front page and inside of the Sunday paper. The small son of Tucson’s chief of police acted as host to the kids, giving each an allday sucker. At another special showing the following morning Drachman entertained Sisters from local hospitals and convent, orphans and children from an Indian school, netting more publicity which gave full attention to the picture. Drachman also used radio announcements for a week in advance, a ‘“‘Tom Sawyer” boys’ wear tie-up which. included window displays, co-op ads, 500 “Tom Sawyer’’ caps and 1500 candy apples, all paid for by the merchant; a special front and lobby, usual newspaper advertising and trailer. Miami Campaign In Miami, Manager James H. McKoy of the Olympia went before the P. T. A. and made arrangements for teachers to tell every class about the picture. The superintendent of education for the county personally spoke on supporting the picture at his meeting of all principals. The picture was screened in advance for teachers. McKoy placed 1-sheets in lobbies of all schools. Under-privileged children were entertained in a tieup with the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs and the Miami Herald. In advance, McKoy spotted board fences, on which were mounted cut-outs from the 24sheet and manual copy, in his lobby and on his mezzanine. A similar display went into the outer lobby currently. Numerous tieups provided window displays. McKoy preceded the National Screen trailer with an effective personal endorsement of the picture, addressed to everyone who “was a boy, is a boy or KNOWS a boy!” OPEN FOR CHRISTMAS Remodeling of the Strand Theatre, Gulfport, Miss., and the Rialto, Phoenix, Arizona, will be completed in time for both houses to open about December 20th, Morris Greenberg of the Construction and Maintenance Department states.