Universal Weekly (1924-1936)

Vol. 20, No. 7 Universal Weekly 9 Exploitation of Short Subjects Should Be As Intensive As Features A Few Good Instances of Success in Exploiting the One and Two-Reeler THERE should be no more need for urging exhibitors to exploit short subjects than for telling them to carry an umbrella when it rains. But there is. For some strange reason, most exhibitors judge the pulling value of a subject by the length, rather than by what's in it. In no other business is advertising regulated by quantity. The Mississippi is the longest river in the United States. But Niagara Falls gets the crowds. And many a one or two-reeler subject has as much box-office pull as a long feature. Your feature is your big attraction, of course. Otherwise you wouldn't pay for it many times the rental that you do for a short subject. But in many cases a short subject can be exploited equally with your feature so as ,to convince the public that they're going to get more for their money at your theatre than they do at the theatre that advertises its feature and then stops talking. Most exhibitors take their news reels as a matter of course. They make a bad guess that everybody in town knows that the latest news reel will carry the pictures of the things everybody is talking about. But they're passing up money unless they advertise when they have unusual stulf in their news reel. Exhibitors who showed the International News pictures of the Prince of Wales and the round-the-world flyers, and who didn't advertise these features were just pushing money away from the box-office. An instance of taking advantage of timely news reel features was shown in Kansas City at the Liberty, where on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the World War, special advertising was given International News No. 62, which contained a section devoted to important scenes of the opening of the war. The exploitation campaign put back of the Dempsey series of two-reelers proved what could be done to make a short subject the feature of a show. In Pittsburgh Jack Hays, Universal exploitation man, arranged a tie-up with the Pittsburgh Pirates that gave the Dempsey pictures exploitation all Summer. A gold ball and bat is to be given by Jack Dempsey and the Cameo Theatre to the most valuable member of the Pittsburgh team, and the fans are voting every day at the park by writing the name of their choice on the back of the rain checks and depositing them in ballot-boxes which stand in the park. Big signs tell about the contest and the "Fight and Win'' pictures, keeping these pictures before all the fans throughout the baseball season. In Los Angeles a big exploitation campaign was put back of the Andy Gump comedies, tied-up with the newspaper that ran the Gump cartoons. In a number of cities. Universal exploitation men are getting window displays with photographs of Wanda Wiley, star in Century Comedies. Universal's "Leather Pushers" series was well exploited with sporting goods and athletic tie-ups. After all, it was the short subject that taught us almost everything we know about motion picture exploitation. The serial blazed the way for motion picture advertising. Little had been done in the way of any sort of exploitation for motion pictures until "The Million Dollar Mystery" began its big campaign. This was followed by other big serial successes which were put over by advertising and exploitation. Nearly every trick that we are using these days is some (Continued on Page 36) oOo "FIGHT AND WIN" HAVE MANY EXPLOITATION POSSIBILITIES UNIVERSAL'S "Fight and Win" series of ten tworeelers starring Jack Dempsey, have many excellent exploitation angles which Universal exploiteers are ready to put over for any theatre running the series. The title "Fight and Win" lends itself quite readily to any number of valuable exploitation ideas and can be tiedup with almost any advertised product. Local fight arenas welcome any suggestions entailing the use of Jack Dempsey's name and will lend all the co-operation possible in putting over the "Fight and Win" series. Novelizations of the Gerald Beaumont stories from which the ten pictures have been made, have been prepared by Universal and can be supplied in either copy or mat form. Editors in all parts of the country will be tickled to get this material, and publication of it will increase box-office receipts beyond the exhibitors' fondest dreams. Scenes f rom "Health Farm Wallop," 'Number Nine in the Dempsey "Fight and Win" series.