Variety (Sep 1932)

• Tuesday, September 20, 1932 PICTIRES VARIETY IT Works Slowly Some , time ago It was . suggested that a row of .wide chairs might be installed for the comfort of persons who were not able to fit JOosely into the standard seats. ;. . . ' .. Orie manager recently, reported that the sturtt went over, but not for a couple of mbnthsi He started the idea off with a bang, but-so much interest -was manifested in the occu- pants of those seats that really fat persons, who would be most apt to. enjoy the added comfort, were shy about occupying them. They were not taking up room that, was re- quired during the summer, so the manager let them stay in..Gradually the'seats, which were sold for a dime more than the regulars, came to be occupied,' until now he sells about two-thirds of them most nights and all of them when the house is full. Scheme works so. well that he is figuring on a second row. If you tried the stunt, and it was not an immediate click, -this may be the'answer. The; gag dates back to around the middle '90's, when Neil Burgess put them in the Star theatre, N. Y. About the same.time Proctor's 23d St. Had divans, seat- ing two,. which were, great, for the spooners. Unlike the fat seats, these saved .'space, since the arm space "was saved on- each double space. Taper Off Wise managers are tapering off from the give-away stunts. Figure that the new product and the re turning prosperity n6 longer make it imperative to toss in prize pack- ages. But they are tapering and not shutting down cold.. For the past couple of years bus! ness has been built with all sorts of extravagant gifts, and it is going to be difficult to cut them off at short notice. The average manager feels tempted to, but the wise ones are planning to space the splurges a little farther apart, gradually widening the gap until they are practicaly out. To help they aire refraining the. stunts. They take out one idea and put in another, changing again be- fore the second becomes too firmly established. One house which was • giving 6ut new cars at intervals is going to used; cars; and in this dl vision is now down to Chevs, with the Fords to come later. After that there will be none. Jt is the same way with other stunts. Trade . giveaways will be smaller and smaller until they reach the- vanishing point. Beady for Lloyd Release of the Harold Lloyd com- edy will probably mean a rush to the laughing record which was first Used to promote his comedies, but Which has come into general use since then. One man in a town where the shopping district is only seven blocks long has arragned to wire a loudspeaker in at least one spot in each block to be fed from the theatre with the laugh mixture during showing times. • Police have assured him that it is all right with them, but warn they may have: to act on a complaint, bat the exhib figures that even if he has to muffle the stunt after a day he'll still be off to a flying start before formal complaint can be entered. • ILoudspeakers are to be borrowed aijid the wire will be returned to the electrician, with payment made for such wire as has been rendered useless to; him. This involves only trie short- lengths, and cost will, not be-very large. All to be worked from the same record, as a lack of syn- chrony would raise too much din. | - Dead Now litis a dead stunt for some time t6 fcdme. now,'but one New Hampshire, manager, capitalized, the eclipse with the offer of a double pass for the' best photograph of, the .recent eclipse, with singles to ail who' turned in a recognizable print. He got about 20, which he dis. played in the lobby, with proper credits under each one, and the frame attracted so much attention that the local photographer asked permission to repeat the showing in his windows following the theatre showing. Most managers apparently re garded the eclipse as a total loss but in this one' instance it worked Billing Reviews Early reviews on pictures,, usually critiques on film caught at previews in California, are to be reprinted on certain .pictures playing Publix houses. Reproductions, on good quality heavy paper, can be tacked up for lobby; display in advance of pic- ture's playdate. 'Ed Olmstead, special adveitisi man on Metro pictures in Publ Hcvlsed the review idea. Cheering ' Em Up Warner theatres, -are ,tying with local newspapers for a condensation of business and manufacturing news appearing in these dailies, feature being screemd under the title 'Sun- shine News.' ■ Paragraphs which deal with ■ improvement in .the industrial field,, are prepared by the edi- torial department. . In Syracuse, N. Y., Loew's State pastes commercial, good news bulletins, supplied by the dallies of that city-on a. lobby board. Percentage Sales Trying to make a dicker for a percentage sale with; a church or- ganization, a manager -found his prospects reluctant to enter a. deal, though they were badly in need of the money. Through the under- ground he found that some of the officers of the club feared they would be gypped on the split, as had happened some time before when the house was under another management. • He reopened the negotiations with a new proposition. He would sup- ply .them with tickets calling for a 40c. admission for only 30c:', with the understanding -that the .organr ization sold these tickets for 10c. each. They retained all ticket sales. It was pointed out that many per- sons would buy the tickets for 10c. and not. use them, in which case the society had its dime. Idea was promptly snapped up, the tickets being good only, from Monday to Friday of an indicated week. About 900 were sold with just over 800 coming in to! the box office. Society made an extra $10, but the manager figured that he got that back in sales to people who bought for the society and- then spent the rest of the money to real- ize on the dime investment. Xmat Is Coming Christmas is coming. Seems to be a long -way off yet, but it is a good time to start getting ready. One way is to start something be- fore ." Thanksgiving that will hold their interest past the holiday sea- son. . One idea is to start one or more dramatic clubs composed of well-known local young people who will produce one-act plays once a week or two nights a week, if your clientele is sufficiently large. You cannot get interest in December. The trick is to get-them interested in October and hold their interest when the slump comes. If it is pos- sible to form two or more clubs, or to split one club into two producing sections, a rivalry can be estab- lished which will [ be of material help. Rooters will come„to the per- formances of their favorites. They will also want to come to see how the. rivals compare. Set the award for week after Xraas and you can : hold^an increasing Interest as the slump period approaches. If you . have a cooking school— and you should—make a special driye on candies and cookies and cakes for the five weeks before, pos- sibly enlisting the local confectioner to supplement the teacher supplied by the gas company. Get in on the kid club with sug- gestions on presents which can be made by the members, with prac- tical demonstrations. For this those dealers who handle .crepe paper, fabrics, perhaps even tools, will supply demonstrators. The big idea is to get them saying, on instead of letting them drop off and then try ing to coax them back. Carnival Gag One lobby gag was developed from an old. carnival, stunt-by a. manager who believes in keeping his lobby lively. Back of the ticket office he set a barrel .with a • dia- mond-shaped hole slightly larger than a baseball. This was placed six feet back of a barrier,, with a small boy to pick up the balls. Anyone who bought a ticket had one chance to toss a baseball through the hole. If he did, his ad- mission, less tax, was refunded. He figured on paying off about one in 20 but the average was much smallerj even when he moved the barrier in. a little. Gag worked for a week and he is saving the barrel to use some other time. Just to get all he could, the back- ground and t£e barrel itself was painted up for the following show. Plenty of people stopped just to look on, but it seemed so easy that some bought tickets Just to try their skill. Hot Staff Mayfair, N. Y., which started the marquee display craze with 'Bring 'Em Back,' gets another stunner with, a volcano for 'Bircl of Para- dise.' House is on a corner with both sides covered with a. tropical landscape. At the corner is a vol- cano some 30 feet tall with chiffon flames which are. illuminated at night with a decidedly-realistic ef- fect. Vivid enough to-bring them over from the 'right\s'lde.. of B'way, half a block away. : -; "\>~' ■:• ;■ ; . Idea is. within reach of the snialller theatres on a scale to: suit the pocket book. Volcano call be'-built-up with roofing paper over..^^';nctting--bn a framework, and -then"' painted,to suit. Transparent material should:; be. set in around the top to indicate' lava streams. . Chiffon is red and yellow and when lighted from below, with the chiffon blown up by a fan, the effect will get them anywhere. Parading Prosperity Nabe. management is planning a prosperity parade for the early part of October. Will be confined to children under 16, with prizes for the best floats carrying out the idea of the return of prosperity. Floats are to be toy express wagons or home-made carts, and there Is no premium on costliness. To the con trary, the management, wanting to remain solid with the parents, stresses the fact that originality will count for more than mere show. Only rules are that the floats must have been made by the kids themselves, with adult supervision, if desired, - but not adult help, and there must be no political angle Prizes are for originality, tasteful ness and comedy, with two prizes in each class. Girls may enter doll perambulators instead * of express wagorts, if desired, but this is op tional. They can.. come Into the wagon , competition, if they so desire. Exhib figures that constant talk at home will help the parental state of mind, which may find reflection In the form of more dimes for shows, Similar parades In .the past, gener- ally on circus pictures, have been put over in a big way, v ' : ■ New Control Control idea, in which number of tickets given Is determined by the number of a particular letter or card given out, got a new angle after a local driye for a crowd. Theatre advertised that on a spec ified date a bomb of confetti would be exploded from the roof of a busi ness block, AH who got a set of blue, red, yellow, green, and white drew a ticket. About a peck of confetti was tossed off the roof, but there were only 100 green paper flakes, and these were cut from safety paper to avoid duplication; Gag had several hundred children searching the street for several hours, with only 37 complete sets coming in for redemption. Just a variant on the balloon tossing and similar stunts, but it keeps them busy much longer and, because of novelty, it's a better ad. Real Dutch Uncle Winnipeg,-Sept. 19.' • John Flddes of the College theatre here is a real dutch uncle to all the kids in the neighborhood of his theatre. Flddes organizes baseball and football leagues in their seasons, teams being picked out of all attenders of the Saturday afternoon' shows, at the College, and they all play off for a cup which is put up by the management for the championship of what is known as 'Uncle John's League.' Straw Votes Exhibitors are pretty generally agreed as to: the wisdom' of keeping out of national politics, but there is no bar up against straw votes. To the contrary, it can often be used to advantage. Have a cheap ballot printed up with the names of the candidates, provide a supply of pen- cils (with strings), where the ballots may be marked, and give one to each patron for a day or a week. If the latter,. post the results of the poll daily. It may encourage loyal partisans to buy in again and swell the vote or try to overcome a lead. Get the dally papers inter- ested, and play it up like a circus. Might even pay to advertise in ad- vance with transparencies such as they use in political parades. It would not hurt to stage, a bi- partisan political rally the night before election. Put it on after the last show, with the house open to all, but those in the seats permitted to retain them, if they desire. Give each side a chance to make three 10-minute speeches each, and hold the watch on them. Run off some cartoons or comedies between speeches, and if you are going to receive the election returns, that's the chance to sell the announcement. Don't play politics, but play. for the politicians, giving an even break to all. Billboard Work With the coming of cooler weather and better grosses, there are indica- tions that, managers are giving more - thought to .billboard campaigns. For .a time it wai^argued that bill- boards did not pay, largely because there' had to be some economies. This seemed to be the most obvi- ously easy. Word came from the home offices to lay ,off billboards, and this form of advertising took a black eye. A posted bill is worth while only when the cost of the board plus the . paper used, is more than offset by the value of the ticket sales. It is not' merely a- mathematical formula that a board can sell, so many tick- ets and that ten boards should sell ten times as many. The Ideation of the board is of greater importance than its cost. And the value of lo- cation is determined in part by the character of. the offering. : It stands to reason that a board for a cheap melodramatic play can- not sell well in the finer residential sections unless the board must be passed by other than residents, and of the class who. go for melodrama in a big way.. Similarly it would be absurd to advertise a. picture like 'The Guardsman' or 'Strange" Inter- lude' in the slum 'section. Since It is not possible; as a rule, to select the stands' each week, the wise course is to select such stands as will' appeal to those who will best patronize the type of play most fre- quently booked, remembering that a cheap location may be the most ex- pensive considering the number of possible patrons reached. If boards are contracted, they should be se- lected only after a most careful sur- vey of their possibilities/ Changed Names -Manager who got tired of the usual watermelon, pie and ice cream eating contests figured a new one. Advertised a spinach-eating con- test with the usual prizes and an appeal to the parents to come and see their, offspring eat spinach and like it. Splhach was made into a puree and a measured half-pint placed in each soup pate. As usual the boys had their hands tied behind them and the plate had to be licked clean and no fair slopping it over onto the table. Each plate was placed oh a square of white paper, and any spinach oh the paper disqualified the contestant. Made more of a hit than the usual contests, and can stand repeat. : Quintet Splits Price 1,0s AngeleB. '.Circuit-wide contest for the most effective lobby, display,' prepared at a minimum cost, staged by Fox West Coast for a single week's ef- fort, resulted In a five-way tie for the first award. George Sharp, Wilson, Fresno;' Lev Clarke,. Dome, Ocean Park; A. M. Miller, Fox State, Oakland; Garey Carr, Granada, On- tario, all In California, and Jim Clenmer, 6th Avenue, Seattle, Bplit the prize, each getting $35. Heated Igloo Manager who was counting oh its staying hot through September had a nice 10-foot cutout Igloo facing up and down the street for 'Igloo.' Looked like a lot of money until the playdate, when the weather sud- denly went cold and the ice didn't look so hot. Manager sensed the situation on bis way downtown and shortly after he got there the Igloos blossomed out with large signs ad- vertising 'steam-heated apartments.' Got a laugh and saved the day at the b. o. Fought for a Flag With school opening, a theatre management hung up. a flag for a prize to the grade school bringing in the largest attendance the second week school • was open.- ■ Three schools competed. Each was given cards which car ried the name of the school and. de- tails of the offer. These were given the children to distribute, with the understanding that each card turned In with a paid ticket would count as one vote for that school. Manager permitted one girl from each school to stand in the lobby to supply more cards where additional tickets were bought, and to act as checks on the balloting. , It had a fair effect on the attend- ance during the week, but the man- ager was shooting higher than that. He figured that the approach of the children would bring the house- to the minds of returned vacationists and establish contact through .the season. Children contacted practi- cally everyone in that section, per- forming a service which could not have been bought In any other way. A Long Bridge - Appealing to the bridge craze, .an exhib has announced a 10 weeks' bridge contest open to all. Session will be held each Wednesday morn- ing for 10 weeks, which will bring the pontest to a close just before Xmas. There will be about a dozen prizes for the largest total scores for the series, with small prizes for each session, but only three of these —a first arid second and the booby. Gaines open at 1L with the show: starting at one. There will be an hour and a half of play, with , half an hour for a. light lunch, which the house will promote frbni various grocers, who win supply tea and coffee, email cakes and sandwiches made from filling it is desired to promote by sample. All who attend pay the regular matinee admission, and are free to remain for the performance if they desire. Figured that once the wom- en start coming they will keep on. Two girls will keep the scores and all scores will be counted, hot merely those Of the day's' winners. Argued that a small score this week may be offset by a larger one the next time, which will keep the con- testants interested. Score is kept by. the theatre and also on cards which are to be obtained at the first game as entry blanks. Flower Fiesta Seattle. Orpheum promoted a leading florist firm to bank the lobby with flowers and to give a flower to each woman attending the theatre the opening day. Packed them in with practically no cost to the house. Local Prints One of the best lobby pulls Is a. showing of prints of local happen- ings, provided that these can be gotten quickly, Prints should be riot less than 5x7 inches . and the sooner they can be gotten into the frames, the better. People will' drop in daily to look at the hot news and throng", the place when some unusual event happens. . It may be necessary to contact some amateur with a proper sized carr.ora,. but in some spots the local professional contributes the prints in return for a credit card and an- nouncement that' duplicate prints may be ordered.- Photog also has a scurce of revenue in the "sale of prints to a large city daily, where -the house, is located in a small town. , ■'■ . . . / Some developing papers permit a print to be made without waiting foj> the plate to-be dried. Other papers require a dried negative in which case alcohol can be used to displace the washing water.. Sometimes it is possible to ar- range to work with the local paper, but generally the paper wants ex- cluslves, though it may be willing to give tips. Handles Papers Here's a very small-time stunt, but it works on, the small , time. Exhib found, that .the people had no place to obtain the city papers. The stationer was more or less of a crab and declined to be bothered,- and the only way was to hang around the station and buy copies' from the train news butcher, which was not always convenient. Exhlbs established a small boy in a route, sending him out to take orders for" daily delivery, and pro- viding for a few extra copies for emergency calls. People have to come to the theatre if they "want an extra paper. Those , who take the paper, regularly are also supplied with the house program.: House is. too small to print one, but gets nice results with a duplicator, and that does; just as well. They, are bound to take, in the advertising when they take In .the paper,-which the exhib figures , is his angle. Now he's trying to get .the" .correspond- ence appointment: for local items. Just to help along. ' Wilby's Copy R. B. Wilby, who with H. F, Kin- cey has just taken over the Publix theatres in the Southwest, is the author of perhaps the most widely used theatre advertising copy, ever written. He was then operating in the South at a time wheri producers had just developed the trick of ask- ing more money for special pictures and managers were hard put to boost the price to the patrons. Wllby wrote a local advertisement pointing out that phonograph users paid more for red seal records than they did for the black label variety because they were worth more. He drew a parallel with these specials. Copy was reproduced in a trade paper and was used .ail over the country, always with good results. That was some 15 years ago, but the old timers still remember the sen- sation it made.