Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1944)

30 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW November 11, 1944 Governor Speaks At ^Romance' Premiere A parade, an address by the Governor of Rhode Island and a band concert in front of the theatre, marked the premiere of "An American Romance," at Loew's State, Providence. High school bands and uniformed veterans of World War I participated in the parade which traversed streets in the downtown business section and culminated in front of the theatre where the concert took place. Gov. J. H. McGrath addressed the crowd from a platform decorated with flags and red, white and blue bunting. Prior to the premiere a private preview was held in the ballroom of the Biltmore Hotel, with state and city officials, members of the press and radio station managers among the invited guests. Twenty-eight spot announcements, ranging from 35 words to five minutes, were made on all Providence stations from Oct. 23 to 27, inclusive. Full-page national ads were carried in the Journal-Bulletin and Pawtucket Times. A 4S0-line national ad was run the day before opening. Both the Journal-Bulletin and Times carried art from the picture. All lobby displays, newspaper ads, cards, trailers and other material carried a special ribbon effect on "Nation-Wide Premiere." The marquee was mounted with 4xlS-ft. transparencies of the picture title and cast in color. Ten thousand 5x7 heralds distributed to employes by the Walsh-Kaiser plant showed a photograph of the company's manager endorsing the picture. School bulletin boards posted 36 18x24 cards stressing the American angle of the production. One hundred motion picture study guides were distributed to the high schools. A posting was arranged with American Railway Express trucks to snipe two-and four-sheets on "An American Romance," with "Now Playing at Loew's State." Window cards were placed in 300 spots in towns and neighborhoods surrounding Providence. MGM contracted for 24-sheets to snipe with "Now at Loew's." A trailer, with special leader "Nation-Wide Premiere," was run one week in advance. Kearney Promotes Cover Picture Ed Kearney, manager of Schine's Paramount, Syracuse, promoted a front cover color layout of Tamara Toumanova in the Sunday edition of the local paper, tying in with the showing of "Days of Glory." There was also a story break plugging the picture. CHAIR FAST Securely fastens LOOSE CHAIRS TO FLOOR $2.50 Package JOE HORNSTEIN, INC. 630 NINTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY Or Your Supply Dealer WAHOO America's finest Screen Game J ■ HOILYWOOD AMUSEMENT CO., 831 S. WABASH AVE., CHICAGO Signs like that shown above were made and placed at the approaches to five different toll bridges in and near Richmond, Va., as part of the campaign on MGM's "Waterloo Bridge" by Brock Whitlock, Loew's Theatre. ODT's Non-Travel Plea Basis of Topical Tieup Linking up a picture with current events is sometimes a difficult thing to do, but when it clicks the effect is likely to be very satisfying. Brock Whitlock, manager of Loew's Theatre, Richmond, Va., and his assistant, Vivian Brown, recently had this experience when they played MGM's revival of "Waterloo Bridge." Perhaps you remember the still from that picture, showing Robert Taylor telephoning his mother? Whitlock had two 40x60 blow-ups made of this and placed them in two railroad stations. The following copy was attached : "Is your trip necessary— at least he is entitled to get home to see his mother !" Considering the efforts of the ODT in this direction, it can be said Whitlock took full advantage for a legitimate tieup, and in the two busiest spots in the city. The "Waterloo Bridge" campaign developed by Whitlock and Miss Brown also went in extensively for window displays. A miniature bridge was built and placed in Byrum's Restaurant window over a deep well, accompanied by stills of Taylor and Vivien Leigh. Copy idea was : "You'll never tire of fine food at Byrum's, just as you'll never tire of fine pictures, etc." In a large window of Thalhimer's Department Store a display was arranged tieing in the raincoats worn by the stars in the picture to almost identical ones shown. This effect was further heightened by the use of many stills showing Taylor and Leigh in raincoats. In the window of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. the Taylor-phoning-his-mother still was used again. It remained during run of the picture. Amateur Artists in Contest to Paint Costume for Ginger Rogers Capitalizing on the artistic aspirations of many newspaper readers, Manager Lou Marcks of Schine's Colonia, Norwich, N. Y., utilized an unusual stunt to publicize "Tender Comrade." Marcks planted a good-sized cut of Ginger Rogers in the paper, but instead of being costumed, the picture showed only a brief outline of a dress. The idea was for readers to design a costume for Ginger, using either crayon or paint. Designers of the ten best costumes received free tickets. Marcks received a tremendous amount of publicity for the stunt. Fashion Note SHOWMAN SAM SAYS: If those long runs get much longer there's grave danger that the women's costumes will go out of style before end of run. Overall Premiere Held For Defense Workers Thousands of southern California war workers, wearing their factory garb of overalls and jumpers, attended the premiere of "The Very Thought of You," at Warners' Hollywood on Thursday night. Though the customary fanfare of bright lights and spectator thrills were in evidence, sables and mink coats were conspicuous by their absence. Dedicated to "home front" workers who stay "on the job and finish their jobs," the premiere, except for the picture's stars who made up an honorary reception committee, was limited to workers in aircraft, shipyard, rubber and other war industries. Selected by their fellow employes, special honor guests were workers who had done outstanding jobs in cooperating war plants, which included Lockheed, Northrup, North American, Consolidated, Vultee, Douglas, Firestone, Goodrich, Goodyear, U. S. Rubber, California Shipbuilding and Consolidated Steel. In Albany, N. Y., a special midnight show sponsored by local women's organizations to raise money for their war work was held at the Strand Theatre, with seats sold out at $1 top against a regular admission scale almost half as much. Held two weeks in advance, the preview was expected to result in favorable word-of-mouth advertising for the regular run. Allis-Chalmers Tieup For 'Winkle' Playdate How small incidents in pictures can often result in a large-size tieup was well illustrated recently when Columbia's "Mr. Winkle Goes to War" was booked for the Palace Theatre, Milwaukee. In the film Ed Robinson uses a bulldozer to carry out his heroic action. Now, Manager H. H. Birmingham and Publicist Gene Kilburg knew that this particular type of bulldozer was made by the Allis-Chalmers plant in Milwaukee, and accordingly put it up to the big company for a tieup. Allis-Chalmers took up the idea pronto, and not only covered their own plant, but worked on the other war manufacturers of the city. The company posted on its billboards throughout the plant 40 one-sheets on "Mr. Winkle Goes to War," imprinted with Palace Theatre playdate, reaching an estimated number of 36,000 employes daily. In addition, 52 other war factories posted notices on all of their bulletin boards, reaching about 100,000 workers. Many of the plants also made brief announcements on their loudspeaker systems. Beyond this cooperation, Allis-Chalmers also ran two 600-line newspaper ads playing up the use of its bulldozer in the picture and giving full picture and theatre credits. Good Judicial Comment Results From 'Impatient Years' Screening Local jurists and prominent women were invited to see Columbia's "The Impatient Years" at a private screening by Morris Rosenthal, manager of Loew's Poli Theatre in New Haven, Conn., prior to the opening of the picture at his theatre. Later, Rosenthal arranged for two of the judges and two leading women to discuss the problem of hasty war marriage and divorce on radio station WELT. In Portland, Maine, Manager Leo Young of the Strand arranged for a judge of the State Superior Court, in whose jurisdiction divorce petitions come up for hearings, to see the picture and then appear as principal speaker on a radio forum over radio station WGAN. The judge issued a statement to the press which contained ' prominent mention of the picture.