Showmen's Trade Review (1939)

Page 18 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW August 26, 1939 HERE'S a picture with a number of good selling angles and an appeal to various and diversified groups. Since it is in reality biography, (Gus Edwards is the subject) a wide field is opened for showmanship, for Gus was a champion showman of his day. Among the many tunes for which he was responsible is "In My Merry Oldsmobile." Now even the smallest towns have an Oldsmobile Agency so here's what you should do to get the fullest cooperation for your showing of "The Star Maker." The Oldsmobile Company is taking a two-page spread in full color in the Saturday Evening Post in which the picture receives a generous plug. This ad makes a free offer of sheet music to every reader of the magazine and as you may learn by spending 5c or for nothing by finishing this sentence, the Saturday Evening Post has 3,000,000 readers. Since the offer is being made to so large a number of people, there is plenty of music available. Local Oldsmobile dealers are being offered extra copies for their mailing lists. Every sheet of music carries a sticker with full picture credits. It is up to you to have a sticker with your playdates added to every copy in the local dealer's possession. Put Ad Blow Up In Windows There is a 38 by 50 blow up of the Saturday Evening Post ad available to all dealers. This should be placed in the local dealer's window with a "coming" sign on it as soon as possible, with the playdates to be added as soon as they are ascertained. In addition to all this, every dealer will receive an exploitation handbook instructing him on how to tie up with this picture and how to cooperate with you. It should require very little effort on your part to obtain full cooperation. There are 10,000 copies of a special "Star Maker" phonograph record being distributed to dealers throughout the country. One side has "In My Merry Oldsmobile" and the other side a medley of tunes from the picture. The Oldsmobile dealer will have this record played in his showroom and besides will help you put on a street stunt with a sound truck (it better be an Oldsmobile). There are plenty of tieup stills available which you can offer the dealer to make this tieup even more effective. MAKER Other stunts in this connection would be to conduct a search for the oldest Oldsmobile in your city. Use it in your parade. Get the dealer to provide free rides in new Oldsmobiles to those patrons who live far away from the theatre. That wasn't the only tune written by Gus Edwards and there are eleven other old songs in the picture, so there's a swell music angle. Four new songs make additional exploitation a cinch. And besides all that, we must remind you, lest you forget, that Walter Damrosch and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra are heard rendering portions of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Tschaikowsky's "Valse des Fleurs" and Aditi's "Parla Valse." Taking up the music angles in order, first you want to concentrate on the old favorites. Have your old organ tuned up and let the folks join in an old-fashioned Community Sing, by projecting the words from these songs on the screen. If you can't use your organ, get a piano. You can also have a pianist in the lobby playing these old songs. Placard the piano with stills and copy about the picture. You might also have a pianist on a truck in the Oldsmobile parade. You might run a contest in which you offer prizes for anyone who can bring in copies of the original sheet music covers from these old songs. Plug Songs Through Music Stores The new songs can be plugged in the usual manner with displays of covers in music store windows, etc. You can make this display more novel by mounting them on backgrounds of stars made with cardboard and silver flitter. With the cooperation of the music store get up a special album with pictures of the stars of the pictures and imprint it "Star Maker Album. ' Anyone making a purchase of music above a certain amount gets an album free. Have a girl in the music store window sing the songs as she plays them on a piano. That's always a sure-fire attention getter. Besides hitting the music store manager again on the motion picture debut of Walter Damrosch (you have to keep the man pretty busy this week), you can write personal letters to all the groups of music lovers in your community. Free tickets could be given with the purchase of a specified number of Damrosch's many recordings of classical pieces. Music classes of local schools should also be solicited on this picture, with perhaps a special group rate offered to them. A "Then and Now" Window Louise Campbell, feminine star of the picture, appears in costumes circa 1919 and there are stills available showing her in today's styles. "Then and Now" window in a local feminine apparel shop should be easy to obtain. A "Star Maker Sale" offers the possibility of tieing up with a number of local stores to their advantage as well as yours. All you have to do is buy a special mat. add the proper copy, have a number printed and you're off on the contest. The idea is that around the star there is room for 30 punch holes. Each time a purchase of 25 cents is made, a hole is punched. On completion of the card, a star has been made by the punchmarks (hence the name) and the holder of the card is awarded some kind of prize. There's still another way to cooperate with merchants. One of the famous old songs in the picture is "School Days." What a heading for the top of a cooperative ad page. If you don't think that's easy enough, try one on another of the hit songs — "A Man and His Dream." The front of your theatre can have as its theme the picture of Bing Crosby at the top of this page. Blow this up from the still and have as many other stills around it as you may think practicable. Over the entrance of the theatre or atop the marquee, you can use this same blowup. Produced by Charles R. Rogers. Directed by Roy del Ruth. Screenplay bv Frank Butler, Don Hartman and Arthur Caesar. An unusual contest in which old-timers particularly would be interested is one in which contestants name some of the stars made by Gus Edwards. Of course, this ties up directly with the picture both by title and by the fact that the picture is about Gus himself. For the longest and best list, you can offer suitable prizes. Paramount exchanges have available a number of stills culled from old theatrical collections. Some of them show the following: The Duncan Sisters, Eddie Cantor, Lila Lee, Georgie Price, Lillian Loraine, Walter Winchell, Bert Wheeler, Mitzi Mayfair, Lola Lane, Helen and Grace Mencken and Mae Murray. There are probably many others, stars in their day or some who just had parts in some of Gus Edwards' revues. Why not run "Personal" ads in the local papers to see if some are living in your city now. You can make fine capital out of it. If the radio is open to you, get spot announcements on the air every Thursday evening after Bing Crosby's hour and Friday afternoons on Walter Damrosch's program. Look through the press book to see whether some of the kids who are in the picture might not come from your town or the vicinity. There are 66 of them. You can run a "Local Boy Makes Good" campaign and have the child's parents as guests of honor at a special showing. We're giving a party and you're invited! The kid angle on this picture is a good one. There are a lot of kids in it and if there was ever a picture made for kids and adults alike this is it. Make a blow up of this still, put it outside and surmount it with above copy.