Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1941)

Page 10 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW October 4, 1941 Atmospheric Front Features Thrill Theme of Jungle Film The thrill theme of RKO-Radio's "Frank Buck's Jungle Cavalcade" was carried out in the atmospheric front created by Manager George Bole of the Golden Gate Theatre, San Francisco, for the run of the film there. The theatre had one of the biggest weeks of the season with the adventure production, according to Manager Bole. No small reason for this was the display, which caught the attention of every person in the vicinity of the Golden Gate. Quad Ut& Jlait WamoM No. 3— The Staff The responsibility of members of the house staff in making the theatre a place women will want to attend is outlined herewith : 1. The theatre staff should be selected, where possible, from boys or girls of reputable families — not necessarily wealthy, mind you — but reputable. 2. The theatre training has never been stressed for its worth. This should be sold to the mothers who have sons or daughters who might be eligible for theatre service. 3. The members of the staff should have instilled in them their responsibility as representatives of the theatre. 4. Members of the staff should at all times, on and off duty, be careful of their conduct, their appearance and the selection of their friends. The smaller the town, the more important becomes this latter point. 5. • Each member of the staff should always be at his neatest and attractive best, unfailingly courteous and polite and at once solicitous of the woman patron. 6. Sloppy attire, loud talk, a sullen expression and above all a fresh attitude — these are unpardoned by women. If a theatre is operated properly, there is no better Believing th,-,t loss of patronage can in most cases be traced t3 the female of the species through lack of sustained effort on the part of the theatre to keep her, a "Find the Lost Woman" campaign has been inaugurated by the Interstate Circuit of Dallas, Texas. Managers of the circuit are asked to forget, for the moment, their screens, and stand across the street, as it were, and look at their theatres with no thoughts in their minds except "What have I here that will interest and attract and appeal to the women of this town?" Several ideas have been formulated for the managers' consideration, and have been divided into three parts: The Theatre, The Manager, The Staff. The seven points in this, the third of three articles, concern The Staff. place on earth for a boy or girl to learn diplomacy, tolerance and poise. 7. Frequent staff meetings should be held for the express purpose of discussing ways and means of getting women back into the theatre. Get members of the staff to submit their ideas and have them make definite attempts to do something that will aid in such a drive. (This concludes the series of three articles on winning and holding feminine patronage.) Ginger Rogers Film Backed by Novel Campaigns in Southern Cities Manager R. E. Norman of the Saenger Theatre, Pensacola, Fla., and Manager Ricardo Montiel of the Saenger Theatre, Mobile, Ala., worked out similar campaigns on "Tom, Dick and Harry," which played both cities simultaneously. Norman tied in with the Walgreen drug stores in his city to feature a special Ginger Rogers sundae using the mat showing Ginger eating the sundae to ballyhoo the stunt. Norman also tied in with the local fashion shop for a window display of the gowns worn by Miss Rogers in the film and followed this up with tie-in copy and news items in the local papers. For his campaign, Montiel tied in with the Kyser Style Shop, swankiest store in Mobile, for a fashion display of the gowns featured in the film and followed this up with the proper credits and tag lines in the Mobile papers. Albright's, largest chain store in Mobile, featured a Ginger Rogers sundae and plugged the stunt by handing out special sundae tie-in cards crediting the attraction, theatre and play-date. 24-Inch Cut-Out Letters in Lobby The simplest things often have the greatest effect. For example, those 24-inch cut-out letters Manager Wexler of the Carmel Theatre, Hollywood, placed in the lobby to advertise "Meet John Doe," literally bowled the patrons over. Campaign on 'Dumbo' Instituted by RKO-Radio Special exploitation and promotion on Walt Disney's forthcoming feature "Dumbo," to be released by RKO October 31, was instituted in the Sept. 13 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, with a full-page color advertisement inserted by the Parker Pen Company. "Dumbo" is the keynote of the fall campaign of the Parker Company in featuring their Quink writing fluid. The same ad is to be repeated in the Comic Weekly (King Features), which is inserted in leading newspapers throughout the country. Approximately 100,000 dealers will co-operate in the campaign, using over 2,000,000 "Dumbo" song books as premiums. Additional "Dumbo" coverage is identified with breaks in 33 national magazines with an aggregate circulation of 50,000,000, together with roto and black and white newspaper pictorials having a combined circulation of over 100,000,000. Over 100 leading department stores will feature "Dumbo" in their window displays, toy departments and local newspaper advertising for the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas. These include : Robinson's, Los Angeles ; Kaufman's, Pittsburgh ; Wieboldt's, Chicago ; Stixbaer & Fuller, St. Louis ; Kern's, Detroit ; Rhodes', Seattle ; Foley Brothers, Houston ; Weinstock Lubin, Sacramento ; Block's Indianapolis ; Bloomingdale's, New York, and Peck's, Kansas City. The Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation, operating in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan arid Indiana, will feature "Dumbo" in its newspaper and billboard advertising, giving away "Dumbo" masks, celluloid buttons and a comic weekly at over 4,000 filling stations. The Minnesota Valley Canning Company, manufacturers of Niblets and Green Giant Peas, will feature a number of the Disney characters including "Dumbo" in their national advertising. The first ad will be a page in Life magazine. List of manufacturers licensed to adapt the characters from "Dumbo" for merchandising tie-ups is as follows : American Dental Association, molds, giveaways for dentists ; Character Novelty Company, stuffed dolls ; Cohn & Rosenberger, Inc., novelty jewelry; A. S. Fishbach, Inc., masks, costumes ; Fisher-Price Toys, Inc., pull toys ; Hermann Handkerchief Co., Inc., handkerchiefs, scarves and neckerchiefs ; Ideal Novelty & Toy Co., Inc., dolls of wood pulp ; Lightfoot Schultz Co., soap ; Louis Marx & Co., mechanical toys ; Harris I. Nirenstein, static electric toy; Oak Rubber Co., rubber balloons, inflated rubber figures ; Ohio Art Company, toys and pails, sand sets, housekeeper sets, lithographed steel toys ; Owens-Illinois Glass Co., glass tumblers and containers ; Paas Dye Company, Easter egg paper transfers ; Plastic Novelties, Inc., pencil sharpeners ; Stark Bros. Ribbon Corp., ribbons, bows ; W. L. Stensgaard & Associates, Inc., retail store displays ; P. Wunderle, Inc., dandies ; Garden City Publishing Co., three books ; Whitman Publishing Company, two books (10c) ; Dell Publishing Company, cutout books, paint books, fast action book and K. K. Publications, Inc., giveaway book for holiday promotion. Hartford Uses Department Store Angle to Exploit The Big Store' In the department store manner, Manager Billy Hartford of the Granada Theatre, Everett, Wash., exploited "The Big Store." In front of the theatre he advertised the picture as a "clearance sale of mirth." Paper pennants carried these lines : "100 per cent off on silly notions," "Everything Marxd down," "No cents sale," "No remnants of gloom," "Ten floors of roars," "We deliver the laffs," etc. Hartford also installed a public address system on top of his marquee and broadcast the same information to the shoppers.