Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1948)

14 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, June 19, 1948 KIDS GO FOR THIS BALLYHOO. There's a monkey in this cage and boys are crazy about monkeys — monkeys are just crazy. So this combination was used by Dave Kamsky of Neighborhood Theatres Circuit in Richmond, Va. for a simple horse and wagon ballyhoo on RKO's "Tarzan and the Mermaids" when it played the State and Capitol theatres the same weekend that the city of Richmond staged a Water Carnival and Aquatic Spectacle. Later the monkey assisted the boys in distributing handbills. Maloney Utilizes Summer Angles In 'Summer Holiday' Campaign Campaign Material for WARNER BROS.' "Romance on the High Seas" GENERAL APPROACH: This romance with a music and dance background on board a liner bound for South America should hold well nigh universal appeal, for it has six new songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, dancing, a strong love interest and is filmed in brilliant Technicolor. Besides familiar names, it introduces Doris Day, certain to make a hit. Women should flock to it and take their men along — to the latter's satisfaction. NEWSPAPER ADS: All of the 17 newspaper ad mats play up the film's four stars, and all but the small mats give prominent space to the shipboard background, the songs and dances, the Technicolor and Michael Curtiz' direction. Big claims are made for the musical in the two main catchlines that top most of the ads: "From the Atlantic to the Pacific no musical ever was so terrific" and "Nothing ever like it on land or sea" — claims that it may well live up to. The four stars are depicted in most of the mats — bust portraits in a lifeboat bearing the "Atlantic — Pacific" catchline, and alongside a long gangplank leading to a distant ship. Their names at times appear on pieces of luggage, at others on pennants. Background space is filled with light drawings of shipboard scenes of singing and dancing. DISPLAY MATERIAL: The posters and accessories happily catch the mood of pleasant entertainment. The full-length singing figures of Jack Carson and the new star, Doris Day, each with an arm high in the air, are dandy for lobby and window standees and for a marquee attraction. Good for cutouts are their heads, along with those of Janis Paige and Don DeFore, in the lifeboat from the six-sheet; attractive cutouts may also be made of the two main figures in the three and one-sheet. The ad and poster arrangements are repeated in the 9x12 twocolor herald, two 40x60 easel boards, the window and insert, the two colored 22x28 cards and the slide. EXPLOITATION: Outstanding among other good exploitation ideas are six stunts for capitalizing on the six songs — for sound track use, bally, Doris Day plugger, etc. — all worth carrying out in detail. There's a four-day newspaper contest for entrants to fill in the title of old pictures from published stills. Doris Day promotion ideas include a lobby plug, disc jockey playing of her recordings, radio contest, etc. There's a cruise contest; an ideal man poll according to Janis Paige's eight-point division of masculine eligibles; a lobby "passenger" list with guest tickets for some "passengers"; a gang-plank to the box-office; a lobby corner display of binoculars, sextant, signal flags and other maritime equipment; classified ad suggestion; radio spots and two five-minute star interviews; a three-column "to sea and be seen" fashion display; tieup possibilities on Miss Paige's checkmate dress and her Lux indorsement. NEWSPAPER PUBLICITY: The new singing star, Doris Day, is given a big sendoff in the publicity. The other stars and leading support players, the making of the picture, its general appeal, etc., all get good play. The publicity mats, especially scene stills, give readers a foretaste of the gay entertainment that awaits them. Nearly all angles available for the promotion of a coming attraction were utilized by Manager H. H. Maloney of Loew's Poli Theatre, Worcester, Mass., for MGM's "Summer Holiday." He laid special stress upon the summer angle as a "natural" for the hot-weather months. Theatre's personnel iwore straw hats ; merchants put a credit card in their window displays of straw hats ; 100 mirror streamers boosting the Summer' Holiday sundae were placed in drug stores, local spas, five-and-ten and fountains ; the theatre's mezzanine promenade contained examples of summer furniture, loaned by Sherer's department store in return for credit cards ; a Sherer co-op ad devoted mainly to summer clothes, furniture, etc. ; a Summer Holiday Night was arranged two nights in advance of playdate at the Hotel MUSIC ANGLE. Although Eagle Lion's "Ruthless" is dramatic, Diana Lynn, who appears in it, is a pianist of note, so Manager Earl Long of the Paramount Theatre, San Francisco, went after this musical angle by displaying a Seeburg Select-o-matic phonograph in his lobby which played the star's Capitol recordings. Note resemblance between girl at left and photo of Diana atop instrument. Well no wonder — that IS Diana. Coronado night club. Among other features of Maloney 's advance promotion were "Summer Holiday" cards in all bus stations ; a coloring contest conducted through heralds distributed through all local schools ; recordings of the film's song, Stanley Steamer, played over radio station WAAB, this in addition to its gratis spots and those over other stations bought nationally ; orchestrations with theatre-picture cards distributed to night clubs and all MGM record dealers ; a telephone campaign lasting three days during which 1,005 residences were called by a young woman engaged for that purpose ; display of costumes worn in the picture in Sherer's windows ; blowups of the Stanley Steamer with the Miller family in it from the 24 and six-sheet posters in the window of a Studebaker dealer, alongside a 1948 car of the same make ; the same blowup in the lobby in advance and atop the marquee during the run. High School Band Played The Worcester high school band played in front of the theatre for 45 minutes on opening night. On the stage. Worcester's mayor, Charles F. Sullivan, paid a special tribute to the picture and to Loew's, Inc. Three selectmen from Grafton, Mass., where scenes of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness," from which "Summer Holiday" was adapted, were originally made, appeared on the stage and gave brief talks about the picture. Search for Good Luck Charm 'Bad Sister' Plug A search for the most unusual good luck charm in New York City was a stunt exploiting Universal-International's J. Arthur Rank production, "Bad Sister" at the Winter Garden. The picture was adapted from an English novel titled "The White Unicorn" — the white unicorn being a traditional symbol of happiness in Great Britain, being used for a good luck charm. Winner of the contest to find the city's most unusual good luck charm was a $50 bond, with 20 pairs of tickets for the best entries by others.