Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1941)

Page 36 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW November 1, 1941 Bach Stage in the Short Shops — Pete Smith Big Campaign Launches 2-Theatre Premiere of "Quiz Kids" Subject THE hustle and bustle of the Short Subjects Shop at the MGM Culver City studio suddenly ceased for a moment several weeks ago. and into the office of Pete Smith marched all the other short makers with a huge cake sporting a dozen candles. No, it wasn't Mr. Smith's twelfth birthday, but it was the beginning of his twelfth year as a shorts producer. In addition to consuming the cake. Smith celebrated the event by presenting to the movie-going public his one hundred and fiftieth short subject. "Army Champions." Any man who has been doing one job so long should pause every once in a while to take stock of himself, to find out whether or not he still has his perspective. Well, when Pete began to look back over the years he discovered that he hasn't been doing the same job all these years, that his work has changed considerably since that memorable day he took a microphone in hand for the first time and nervously recorded his commentary on a sound track. Back in 1929, when Pete came on the shorts scene, about the only thing as black as stock market circles were short subjects circles. This was the era when sound was the thing and a short subject was anything one or two reels in length that made a sound. But producers and exhibitors alike soon discovered that the novelty of sound couldn't sell pictures. Patrons were demanding something much more substantial. They got it from Smith. He took his knack of using the English language to make ordinary situations funny and applied it first to a series of shorts on fishing. And when the fish were hooked, he turned to the rest of the sports world. And when most sport subjects had come in for their share of criticism by prolific Pete, he set about to prove that he could take it as well as dish it out. There soon poured forth from Hollywood short after short burlesquing the movie industry, particularly the blood-and-thunder melodramas, replete with saw mills, villains, heroes, and mortgages. A couple of years of this and again Smith felt the need of expanding his activities. So he made a series of "Oddities" and followed them with his present-day "Specialties" — a name which encompasses just about everything and which adequately describes what Pete considers screen material: everything. Perhaps to a greater extent than any other short maker Smith's subjects are definitely "boxoffice." And for good reason, because Smith himself is a press agent. He learned the job from the dean of all p.a.'s. the late Harry Reichenbach, to whom he was an assistant. It didn't take him long to master all the tricks of the trade and even invent a few new ones. It was Pete Smith who undertook to make New York "Robin Hood' -conscious when that picture opened. Under his gentle urging, Douglas Fairbanks shot arrows from the roof of his hotel. One, especially well aimed, punctured the rear anatomy of a furrier peacefully at work in an open window of an adjoining building. The resultant flow of headlines was copious. Smith first came to MGM to take charge of that company's studio publicity. His fine Italian hand was behind the stunt of sending Leo the Lion by airplane across the country from California to New York. The fact that the lion and plane cracked up somewhere in the wilds of Arizona did not lessen the stunt's publicity value. Whi'e his mail tells him what the public wants, it is Smith's personal knowledge of publicity and exploitation problems that permits him to deliver short after short into which exhibitors can get their teeth for a bang-up promotion job. Intrinsic entertainment value and boxoffice appeal, in fact, are only two limitations Smith recognizes in the choice of his short subject material. With these two elements as his guide. Pete has done pioneer work in widening the scope of subjects suitable for one-reel presentation. Sports, science, home economics, animal study, romance — all have come within his purview, as well as innumerable novelty subjects which can be categorized in only one way: "Pete Smith Specialties." PETE SMITH — He may be perplexed at the culinary job of carving, but he knows what showmen want. Five Star Football Frolic Staged by Tommy Howell Tommy Howell, manager of the Tower Theatre, Houston, Texas, staged a "Five Star Football Frolic" in which he sold five gridiron subjects above the feature. Ticket-Selling Standees Plug 'Is Everybody Happy?' Attractive ticket-selling standees were designed by Louis Charninsky of the Capitol Theatre, Dallas, and his assistant, Jimmie Bates, to plug "Is Everybody Happy?" "Quiz Kids" schoolhouse in Jordan Marsh Company department store plugging Paramount reel. Garnering the largest amount of free newspaper space and radio time for a short subject in Boston theatre history was the record of Paramount's "QUIZ KIDS" short in its dual premiere at the Paramount and Fenway theatres, Boston. Over 3500 lines of free space were promoted in local papers announcing the opening of the short ; the Boston Daily Herald ran an underline crediting theatres under its "Beat the Quiz Kids" syndicated column for eighteen days ; 200 subway two-sheets devoted a special box to the "Quiz Kids" short; 100 one sheets were posted in subways. A tieup was made with Jordan Marsh Company, Boston's largest department store, who staged a contest to find a Boston "Quiz Kid" to appear on the national program. The store gave the theatres three large window displays and placed fifteen ads in local papers plugging theatres. This lineage amounted to over 2000 lines. Radio station WBZ, which carries the "Quiz Kids" program, gave the theatres four spot announcements daily for nineteen consecutive days. The Paramount and Fenway devoted more than usual space to the "Quiz Kids" onereeler in all newspaper advertising. The campaign was staged by Martin Glazer, publicity director of the Boston Paramount Theatre, with the assistance of the managers of the Paramount and Fenway theatres, Messrs. Rosenberg and Pinanski. Columbia Sets Episode Titles Titles for all episodes of Columbia's forthcoming Jack Holt serial, "Holt of the Secret Service," have been set as follows : 1 — Chaotic Creek; 2 — Ramparts of Revenge; 3— Illicit Wealth; 4 — Menaced by Hate; 5 — Exits to Terror; 6 — Deadly Doom; 7 — Out of the Past ; 8 — Escape to Peril ; 9 — Sealed in Silence; 10 — Named to Die; 11 — Ominous Warnings ; 12 — The Stolen Signal ; 13 — Prison of Jeopardy; 14 — Afire Afloat; 15 — Yielded Hostage. ^Acf% wUfZ lv KT £o. H