Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1946)

SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, OcWber 19, 1946 " ALAN CURTIS SELLING THE PICTURE 20ih'Fox Sets Billboard Campaign During the last three months of the Spyros Skouras Sales Drive, 20th Century-Fox will inaugurate the biggest billboard advertising campaign in its history, covering key cities from Boston to Los Angeles, Charles Schlaifer, the company's advertising-publicity head, disclosed this week. This extensive outdoor showing will be launched next week with the initial posting of paper in New York for "The Razor's Edge." A total of 24,319 sheets of paper will be posted in this campaign which will supplement the intensive newspaper and magazine advertising planned for "The Razor's Edge," "Margie" and "My Darhng Clementine," during October, November and December. In New York for the world premiere engagement of "The Razor's Edge" at the Roxy, the company will use more billboard space than it has ever used before on one picture. The showing, which will cover subways and suburban railroads as well as regular outdoor boards, snipe locations, six, three and one-sheet stands and window displays, will utilize every style of paper from half-sheet streamers to 24-sheets. A total of 18,600 sheets of outdoor paper will be used for this typical circus showing for the picture's extended engagement in New York. As an added feature of the campaign the company's advertising department will use for the first time a giant 48-sheet specially designed for "The Razor's Edge." The poster will be posted extensively in the New York area and also will be used in key city locations in advance of the picture's day and date release during Christmas week. During November the billboard showing ANIMATED 'BOOK.' Declared the largest of its type ever made, the animated book display shown above on 20th-Fox's "The Razor's Edge," now on view in the rotunda of the Roxy Theatre, New York, is approximately 14 feet in its overall base dimensions; the base of the book is approximately 10 feet and the individual pages are four feet by six feet. A mechanical device turns the pages, of which there are six, at IS-second intervals. Display is on a miniature stage whose side drapes are illuminated by fluorescent lights. Background is made up of beveled mirror panels. Declares Homer Harman, Roxy director of publicity and advertising: "I think exhibitors all over the country will find, as we have here at the Roxy, that such a display is most unusual and ^ a superlatively effective means of advertising 'The Razor's Edge'." will be devoted to "Margie" and "My Darling Clementine" in key cities with the exception of New York. Teaser 24-sheets on the two pictures will be posted in advance and later will be covered by the regular 24-sheets. Outdoor posting on "The Razor's Edge" will start generally in December and will include all the boards previously used for "Margie" and "My Darling Clementine." The billboard campaign throughout the country will be in addition to the posting done regularly by theatres, and will be used in advance and current with the engagements of the pictures in each city to stimulate public interest and to insure longer runs. Twin Sisters Advance Publicists for ^Mirror^ To promote the world premiere of International Pictures' "The Dark Sister" at Loew's Criterion in New York this week, and to help launch the selling campaign in other eastern and midwestern cities. Universal arranged a three-week tour for Veda and Cesta Ryker, red-headed identical twin press agents. "The Dark Mirror" deals with identical twin sisters. After several days of activity in New York, the girls left last Monday (14) to bring tidings of "The Dark Mirror" to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Boston and Providence. During the week of October 20 they will visit Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati and Chicago. Appearances in Minneapolis and St. Paul are scheduled for October 28. The twins will then go to California to appear on a series of national network radio programs. During their visit to New York, "The Dark Alirror" press agents visited New York newspapers and trade publications and made a guest appearance on "Double Or Nothing" over a network of 324 stations of the Mutual Broadcasting System. They were also hostesses to a distinguished list of psychologists, psychiatrists and geneticists of Columbia University's School of Neurology and Psychiatry at a special screening of the film at the company's home office followed by a supper at the Swiss Inn. New York newspapers including the Times, PM, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, covered the screening and supper. U-I Publicity Staff Is Realigned by Bergman Continued expansion of Universal-International's home office advertising and publicity department was indicated this week when Maurice Bergman, eastern director of advertising and publicity, announced additions to the staff and certain realignments in the department. Maria Van Slyke, formerly of the New York publicity department of International Pictures, has been assigned general contact work. Milton Livingston, formerly with Motion Picture Daily, was added to the general publicity staff as trade paper contact, succeeding Phil Laufer who was transferred to the Winter Garden as that theatre's publicity representative. William Kernan, formerly of the advertising department of RKO theatres and more recently of the staff of Donahue & Coe, advertising agency, has been added to the advertising department and will specialize in the placement of exhibitor advertisements. EVELYN ANKERS MICHELINE CHEIREL JACK • HbLT INEZ COOPER Distributed by SCREEN GUILD PRODUCTIONS ATOMIC POWER I ATOMIC LOVE! ATOMIC PLOT! THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY!