Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1944)

dy 29. 1944 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW 15 'Cover Girl' Tieups On National Scale Still Pay Dividends The national tieup effected with 22 advertisers by Columbia Pictures is continuing to effect cooperation on the part of dealers with exhibitors playing "Cover Girl" throughout the country, proving this exploitation angle one of the most successful ever accomplished on a motion picture. In Chicago, Charles Cottle, manager of the State Lake Theatre, arranged for the Helene Curtis Company to install 2000 displays on their product and the picture in as many beauty parlors and other dealers throughout the Chicago area. The Chicago Alail Order House set full window displays in all of its five Chicago neighborhood stores. The W. T. Grant store tieup paid extra dividends in the form of two special displays and large attraction cards in all of its other stores, as well as a banner in the sheet music department and another in the phonograph record department. Grant's also ran several large display ads featuring its tieup with "Cover Girl" and giving theatre and playdate mention. The Royal Crown Cola Company placed 4000 window cards, wall cards and car cards in and about the Chicago area. In Milwaukee, ^Manager Kilbery of the Palace Theatre arranged for Gimbel's Department {Continued on Page 20) Gets School Officials' Aid in Campaign on 'Mark Twain' Complete cooperation of the principals of fourteen schools formed the nucleus of the campaign for "The Adventures of Mark Twain" staged by Mrs. Dorothy Brooke Kopper of Schine's Palace Theatre, W'atertown, N. Y. First, Mrs. Kopper contacted the principals ; then she sent them letters enclosing a program schedule. Every bulletin board carried notices and endorsements from the principals, and the English teachers in each school made special announcements urging students to see the picture. Passes were offered for the best essays on Mark Twain. Airs. Kopper promoted a book shop display, also a window at a photographer's studio, featuring a large still of Fredric March surrounded by the studio's own miniatures. A well-known department store also arranged a window around style stills from the film. Old-Time Fiddlers' Contest Draws Crowds to Fox in Leadville An old-time Fiddlers' contest on the stage of the Fox Theatre, Leadville, Colorado, attracted a record-breaking crowd and enabled Manager Bob Nelson to ring up one of the best grosses in the city's history. Nelson decorated the stage similar to a barn, with bales of hay for the fiddlers, and had three events — judge's choice, fiddler's choice and "Pop Goes the Weasel" — for the fiddlers in attendance to vie for. Groceries and foodstuffs, promoted from local merchants, were awarded the winning fiddlers. Cash awards were given the oldest fiddler, the fiddler coming the greatest distance and the fiddler with the most unusual attire. Fine Post Office Tieup Acting on a suggestion carried in the exploitation section of Columbia's "Address Unknown" pressbook, Dave Idzal, manager, and Betty Smith, publicist of the Fox Theatre in Detroit, made arrangements with the local postmaster to use the title, "Address Unknown," in requesting closer cooperation from the public in the mailing of letters and packages. The theatre furnished 3000 4x8-inch cards, which carried, in addition to the Post Office message, picture and theatre credits, and were posted on letter boxes throughout the city as well as on mail chutes in all office and public buildings. Theatreman Honored For Good Citizenship Popular and successful theatremen not only efficiently operate their theatres but also take active part in community affairs. A sterling and inspiring example of good citizenship is the record of Paul Wykoff, manager of the Riviera Theatre, Anderson, Ind., who recently received the Veterans of Foreign Wars citizenship award for his civic activities. Besides his managerial duties, W^ykoff is a member of the Associated Theatre Owners of Indiana ; has served as chairman of Madison County's March of Dimes collections ; is chairman of the Kiwanis' interclub relations committee and member of the music and membership committees ; chairman of the Madison County OPA food panel and a member of the membership committee of the Chamber of Commerce ; member of the Board of Park Commissioners and has been a member of the executive board and a district and council chairman of the Boy Scouts. Other civic activities : Red Cross work, member of the publicity committee for the Madison county War Chest drive, a major in the fourth area of the OCD Auxiliary Police, an active member of the Fellowship Lodge 681 of the (Continued on Page 20) \^ampai9n on SYWA Premiere Pointed to All Types of Patrons World premiere of David O. Selznick's "Since You Went .^way" at New York's Capitol Theatre came on the crest of a promotion tidal wave designed to engulf every stratum of society and pull them back in an undertow culminating at the box-office. Window displays, cooperative ads, radio plugs and wide distribution of special printed matter, were rained down upon the public by U.A. exploiteers, in large enough quantities to make this campaign an assured hit. The windows of W. & J. Sloane, Lewis & Conger, Abercrombie & Fitch, Dunhill, 50 Womrath book shops, several Brentano book shops, 40 Adam Hat stores and 5000 drug stores, arranged on a Calox tieup, were all attractively decorated with "Since You Went Away" displays and carried full credit for the picture's engagement at the Capitol. All bowling alleys were covered with special cards, streamers were placed on records in all sheet music and musical instrument stores, cards were placed on juke boxes, a special display was set up at the United Seamen's Institute, and pet shops featured blowups of Soda, the film's canine star. These tieups resulted in cooperative ads being secured through W. & J. Sloane, House of Westmore and Lu-x. In addition, a tieup with Benrus Watch accounted for radio plugs in twenty-five surrounding cities. Special printed matter was also used to good advantage. Two hundred cards were distributed at Traveler's Aid booths ; 5000 city taxi cabs displayed colored stickers plugging "Since You Went Away" and the Fifth War Loan, 100,000 inserts were placed in baseball score cards announcing home games of the New York Giants on one side with a message to see "Since You Went Away," with complete theatre credits, on the other ; 350 hotels, through the United Hotel Association, were supplied with lobbj' signs. Macy's, Bloomingdale's and a number of music stores carried sheet music tie-up material, and the advance newspaper campaign which got under way several weeks prior to the open(Continucd on Page 20) Management of the Newman Theatre, Kansas City, went in for the weird, ghostly aspects of Warners' "Between Two Worlds" when that film played there. Note white-shirted pedestrian's toothpaste smile, also attractive cashier. Junior gay blade at left seems to have been repulsed by his girl friend.