Showmen's Trade Review (1939)

September 9, 1939 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW FOR BETTER SHOW SELLING Showmanalyses Have Appeared In STR on Following Pictures Bridal Suite June 3 Broadway Serenade April 1 Coast Guard Aug. ; Each Dawn I Di; Aug. 19 Elsa Maxwell's Hotel For Women Aug. 5 Four Feathers Aug. 5 Golden Boy Sep. 2 Goodbye Mr. Chips July 29 In Name Only Aug. 19 I Stole a Million July 29 Juarez June 10 Lady of the Tropics Aug. 12 Lucky Night May 13 Man About Town July 1 Man in the Iron Mask July 15 Old Maid Sep. 2 On Borrowed Time July 15 Only Angels Have Wings May 27 Our Leading Citizen Aug. 12 Stanley and Livingstone Aug. 12 Star Maker Aug. 29 Tarzan Finds A Soti June 24 They Shall Have Music Aug. 29 Under-Pup This Issue Union Pacific May 6 When Tomorrow Comes Aug. 12 Winter Carnival Julv 29 Wizard of Oz Aug. 29 Women. The This Issue Young Mr. Lincoln June 10 Baby Porker Given Away as Part Of "Bachelor Mother" Promotion A "live baby" was offered by Theatre Manager Harry Crawford of the Ambassador Theatre, St. Louis, to the first bachelor, man or woman, asking for it, as part of the promotion on "Bachelor Mother." The baby proved to be a young pig, made available through the cooperation of the East St. Louis Livestock Exchange. It came in a baby hood, baby dress, and was covered with a blanket in a regulation baby basket. Newspaper photographers covered the stage presentation of the baby porker. The Macy Jewelry Company sponsored a Ginger Rogers Measurement Contest. First award was a Lady Bulova $42.50 diamondstudded wrist watch. The runners-up received guest tickets through the courtesy of the Ambassador Theatre. Other exploitation features included broadcasts, advance and current, over KMOX and KXOK; distribution of 75 jumbo windowcards to loop and suburban stores. Art and stories were planted in the daily newspapers and with seventeen weekly, suburban and foreign language papers. Cosmopolitan Magazine Tieup The Paramount Theatre in Hot Springs, Arkansas, effectively tied in its run of "Juarez" with the feature article about the picture in the July issue of Cosmopolitan. Blowups of the magazine cover were placed in the lobby, with blurb lines attached to point out the high praise given the picture in the magazine story. Stickers with "Juarez" selling copy tied in with the magazine article were placed on the Cosmopolitan broadsides at newsstands, and on the newspaper and magazine delivery trucks in Hot Springs and vicinity. Prizes to the Best Guessers Using mat 3C in the press book showing pictures of all five passengers that ride in the plane, Manager Ted Turrell, in advertising "Five Came Back," asked readers to "name the five persons that came back." The first ten people mailing the correct answers to the Beverly Theatre received passes. New York State Federations of Women's Clubs to Observe Films' 50th Birthday Detailed plans for observance of the motion picture's Fiftieth Anniversary by members of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs were sent to local chairmen last week by Mrs. Malcolm Parker MacCoy, State Motion Picture Chairman. Mrs. MacCoy suggested to local chairmen that they call together all agencies in their communities which have an active motion picture program such as women's clubs, YMCAs, YWCAs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, representatives of schools and public libraries. The suggested Fiftieth Anniversary program includes: 1. Appropriate displays in schools, libraries, community centers, local stores, etc. 2. Newspaper publicity. 3. Incorporation of historical material into the program of motion picture appreciation classes. 4. Essay contests dealing with the history and development of films. 5. Utilization of radio to stress not only general motion picture development but the past and present motion picture activities of your own organization. 6. A luncheon, dinner, or public mass meeting which will present (a) the history and development of films; (b) educational uses and values of the current film product; (c) the responsibility of organizations "such as yoUrs" for shaping motion picture standards; (d) a survey of the influence exerted by such organizations over a period of years to improve standards of public taste. The week of October 1 to 7 is to be observed as Fiftieth Anniversary Week with a single luncheon, dinner or mass meeting, or a series of such meetings under the sponsorship of local organizations. "If a single large meeting is decided upon," Mrs. MacCoy suggests, "municipal officials, school and library executives, as ChakeresWarner Managers Meet As part of the two-day convention of ChakeresWarner and Chakeres Theatres of Ohio in Springfield recently, more than 20 managers of theatres in Logan, W ellston, Hillsboro. Circleville, Greenville, Xenia, Wilmington and Springfield held an all-day session at the Hotel Shawnee at which Phil Chakeres presided. Michael H. Chakeres, city manager of the Chakeres-W arner unit, was chairman of the program. The fiftieth anniversary of motion pictures was the subject of discussion. "Mr. Chips" Dog Display Here is the display of Toy Boston Bull Pups Manager Lester Pollock, in cooperation with the Rochester evening newspaper, offered to juveniles for the best letters on "Why Every Home Should Have a Dog." Devised to publicize MGM's "Goodbye Mr. Chips" at Loeiv's Rochester, Rochester, N. Y., and the newspaper's serial, "Runauay," the contest received excellent publicity breaks. well as heads of the various civic organizations and women's clubs should be invited." In her covering letter, Mrs. MacCoy says: "This Fiftieth Anniversary celebration offers an excellent opportunity for an organization such as ours, which has had such a powerful influence on film development, to celebrate not only what has been accomplished by motion pictures generally but also what has actually been done by the women of each community to raise standards of local motion picture entertainment." A two-page outline of practical projects takes in library, school, radio and newspaper cooperation. "Bachelor Mother" Gets News Breaks All Over the Country Using the baby in the film as the theme of novel exploitation, livewire theatre managers in their "Bachelor Mother" campaigns have won break's to date on the front pages of fourteen of the nation's leading newspapers. Tremendous space in other sections of scores of newspapers was devoted to tie-up angles of the Ginger Rogers-David Niven comedy. In the Albany Times Union stories clicked on page one on three days. Breaks were rung up twice on the front page of the New Orleans Item and the Harrisburg , (Pa.), Telegraph. "Bachelor Mother" stunts scored additional front-page stories in the Terre Haute Tribune, New Orleans States. Columbus Citizen, Baltimore Nezcs-Post, Binghamton Press, Press Cimitar, Memphis; Constitution, Atlanta; Examiner, San Francisco; Express, San Antonio; Desert News, Salt Lake City and the Telegram, Bridgeport. Other top ranking newspapers which went to town in support of theatres in "Bachelor Mother" campaigns include the Post-Intelligencer, Seattle; Oregon Journal. Portland;. New Haven Journal; Kansas City Journal; Indianapolis Sunday Star and the Dallas Morning News.