Variety (Aug 1933)

By Epes W. Sargent Get'an Interview Moat headmasters yell for the re- porters as soon as they close their product contracts for the new sea- son. There's always an opening for a notice, hut just hoyr much depends both on the amount of ad- vertising don€> and the reporter's receptivia.framei of; mind,. This year niany contracts will be closed late, and it will take some in- tense selling to get the product an- liouncement over. It's going to call for enthusiasm, and a good way to ctfeatd that is with a party. That should b& easier with the beer flow- ing, for the guests will stay sober ■jaPQugh to reTn^mber around to sell the books, but'they I have to hand put a sales spiel on'I how. good the shows, are going to 1>e this year in order to. sell more than one book where the victim hais. the price Of two or more. in a larger t6wh, Iwit.h a greater number of churches; it ;wouId be a good plan to hang up larger prisses; To—play -safe;. the house - can- ofEer- 10% cut for the-prize money to go 50-30-20 to the berieiftciarles: This will . obviate any 4ahger of hanging up a priie lairgep than the return warrants. It would be a good plan to bpr- row a film tor pre-showing .if this can b<9 done. Otherwise somej good comedy shorts should be laid in and niot only the picture editor but the important staff men invited, the party being thrown after the. paper has gone to press, if it 1&. a morning sheet. This means around one o'clock, but it will be worth the trouble if the product is skillfully sold through a display : of the ah noiincement boOkiS and ■vvhatever other material offer's. Show the picture, servei beer, and sandwiches and cigars, throw on the lights and let them look at the picture books Those who are "to write the story should be provided with a synopsis of the bookings. The Others are important ih that they can help ease the story past the city and .copy desks and ihtO a favorable position in'the paper. It pays to play with all the m6ri and not merely with the" mari whb is'to write the. story. Contest Carves With the news from Paris,, widely spread lii the daily' press,, that curves &re coming back* there's a good chance, for. a neigr type of beauty contest with' the curves in demand. Scores Of plump" girls who have felt it would be useless to enter former contests, would welcomie the chance to air the curves and proclaim their present fashionablesness, and it's quite JOy the different angle. Give it an a.ttractlve title such as Buxom Beauty "Pageant, get the" women's page editors to co-operate In plugging the idea, and the stunt can be sold Off to tlie stores, with displays of the' new stout styles.' It remains to be seen whether the girls will fatten, up Just because Paris says so, but there's a . chance for a big night which Is not affected by the eventual outcome. . Incident- ally it is a great gag to Use in con- junction, with a return.date of the Mae West picture, but play the pic- ture before the contest arid, en joy two good nights. In Absentia One of the early users of the Tar- zan, serial-has his layout all ar- cahged. He has had a hea'vy cage built for. his lobby and a week be- fore the opening he is going, to ad- vertise .for a gorilla to use .in the cage for exploitation purposes. Going to ' starlL-Off with a want ad. That Business Guide Itequ c st s ha ve been rece i ved:'for in the local paper, ajid challenge the sheet to make good its brag you. can get anything you "Want it you use our classified ads.' Paper Is-all set to play up the gag and point out the improbability of. any- one in the section ha'Ving a gorlIl& to rent. ' Figured' to be worth two. or three stories, with a nian in a from falling Off. Sign stated that owing to the lottery laws it was riot possible to offer prizes and it was presented merely as an amusement. Ho'wever, there was no objection of- , fered to side bets so long as the players did . not become noisy, and the gag was one of the best at- tractors the house had used ih a ' tong tirtie. . - Value of the stunt is that it plarits pretty solidly the name Of a title to be sold, since they have to concen- trate on spelling it out. How Bust Does It St. Paul. Cliff Rust^ manager of the local Straw Day Straw hats are duo to exit' In about three weeks* , and their pass- ing should be fitly marked. Plenty of standard stimts will be held over from previous years arid will be ne'jr in to'wris where they have not yet been wOrke'd.'. One new idea is planned for a large store which will give out cards which will serve as entry, blanks a soft ha,t contest. All who bUy a; hat from the store wiU be eligible for an appearance on the .stage.. •Those ' the audience decides . look their best in the new lids wlU be monkey suit taking his place in the rk6, manages to burn utrihe burg gathered for the finals and the three ca$e the opening day and the paper Regularly. When "Tom Mix wired best lookers will receive ticket proudly proclaiming it at least got f^oiji Sioux City that one of his prizes. - Store pays fOr the tickets, some action, for the house. Fina.1 J trucks had turned turtle off a wet Same store has been giving free story will riot tell jiist what the highway injuring two of his horses, tickets with each straw bought be- paper supplied in the hope Of drlv- jj^g,. Coined the mishap into timely I tween Sept. 10 and 15 in previous Irig them to the lobby to see. ^ews copy with the result that he 1 years and felf-the- need of a change Figured that it Will be enough to landed foUoW-up squibs in the local of pace. It will preface the sales jazz up a 60,^000 town, with the report upon the coriiplete season with a soft hat style show man-monkey used as a ii«rambu- .^yg^y _f^hg heasts. with a dozen raodels between IG and lator for the succeeding chapters, | ^j^^^ ^^e Mix act arrived in town, | CO Rust cookiesd up a.-sturit which got a neat front-page break. Item said that squad caris, hearing, much shooting, rushed to 7th & Wabash copies of the telephone business guide for. towns without a red book, unfortunately the city from- W^hich it hailed was not noted and. Iniauirles cannot be referred the prigiriatorr— unless he sees this and sends in. Mearitlme here's the matrir idea, which will perha,ps. intereist others, iSbok largely depends upon the size of the town and the . riumber of ad- vertisers. Copy sent in .w.ias around 5x6 inches with from ohe to three; headings-tij the page.. Industries such as dry goods, coal and wood, hardware, butchers^ dairies, laun-r dries, restauralnts, tailors, dress- makers;. Stationers, aiid the like Eac4i advertiser \yas given a type line four Inches (24 ems) wide, wUh the de'aler's name - iri bold face, his Street address in roman arid t^e phorie number in italics.. Preference is that the phone number follows the nanie and then the address. Each- advertiser is given two . lines of six point only 20 ems wide, to set the pames into the left hand margin Chstrge^was 25c' for each ciasslfi- catioii. the sariie firm being listed under two or more different heads if desired, such as cOal and Ice. Ad dltional 6 pt. lines are 10c each- This provided a profit, but the charge should be based, on, , local printing costs and thie number of copies printed. Bell Plug for 'Dinner* Sbopting Passes To give life to the lobby one ex- (a haifTblock from the Orpheum), Ihibitor is cleaning up with the old fearing that the TOuhy gang had dart game. He pastes a sheet pt broken loose but instead found only white print paper over a soft board the Tom Mix troupe, doing a bit of backing and on this writes the old - fashiOried cutting * up;-—The-hKoneS- ■of^-T)erhaps—^ Touhys are held in the local bastille. Names are not announced - in ad- charged with kidnapping William vance and list is changed nightly, in denartment and hardware atoraa- I Hamm,. millionaire brewer and the- _^„y person whose name is on the ^HS^^-^ siss.ssssfa.'S^iss?^^ the front to walk out Of the lobby, iur«««^«.«T;,orv Ai«_ I SO he buys and goes in anyway. X, ^ r., ^^^^i"®?J^' -^i^rtt Rarel3^ takes Lloyd Towns, mgr. Par, book ^ crowd of several hun- Holljrwood. trpng plugging exploitation cam- paign ' preceeded 'Dinner at .Eight' opening' at Grauman's Chinese, with nine, local radio stations using pro- gra.in3 on the .pic; a special song by. Dorothy Fields and Jimmy Mc- Hugh; 500 flagpoles with 'Dinner at Ei.ght' pennants; window displays. I of hundreds of dinner bells for his forecourt display and tied up with a. gasoline brand for 1,1^00 display boards ."at local \ g^asserles. Free Pretzels Tossed in a Page San- Francisco. With tJ's 'Moonlight and Pretzels' up with local "acker and cake com^ dred to the theatre to see if their «SS Prlt^ffl" have been listed. ;It they're JLt?" , ^i^^^ the not. they are at least where they the lobby of the theatre, at the | ^ v • iJifluenced by the lohhy dis- counting the Fish Loew's State theatire is currently using the count-the-goldflsh stunt appearing . here some weeks ago. There is a Vacant stOre right next the. lobby and & large flsh globe is placed in the window, backed by a black Velvet drape. IJsher stands by; the Window offering blanks on which those interested can register their count. If they're right," Or nearly so, they get guest tickets for •Gold Diggers', Packs the sidewalk sO long as the usher is there to hand- out the blanks and still getting attention when he goes to lunch. Not more than .30 or 40 flsh. but they don't Stand, still to be counted, which makes it interesting. Hooking the team loJlow'ne the ooenlrig gun on the « ,^ ^ ^ I opening of this show, a large dls , ^ opening at the RKO Golden Gate, cakea and pretzels was on P»ay. „ ^ ^ ,lgmil Umann, house p.a., tied uplj^g^,^^ with a very attractive young Mostly sniall house stuff, but £ood with a new local brewery. El Key, I „ih handing out pretzels to every in the nabes as well as the hamlets. On the' football team. Arrange to have all candidates for the high school eleven attend: i desigttated performance and remaining after the show is over to listen to talks by the coach and some faculty member. Plan a ticket sale drive, with a cut to the teani for uniforms and equipment, and if the school auditorium is not available. Offer your house for the rehearsals of the cheering section. Set this for about ten miriutes after the last show and do riot require the stu- dents to buy tickets. Most of them will, and do it more willingly since it is not required. Work in with the coaches fOr pep meetings before important, games, along the same- lines and a;t least once give a. special fllm show as a treat; preferably just before the big game. Have the team at the flriai night show, but iise that for the townfolk and Invite the Students to see the film at a special showing to follow the last, regular performance. Mearis overtime for the house staff, but it means enOiigh goodwill to thousands, at the rate, of 10 to 12 Jcegs daily. - To start the tleup Umann and Tags Library Books Purely a-by-product, but one t"ber „atre has; an . arrangement with three lending libraries to paste pri the In- side cover a sticker worded: "'When you are tired of reading a book, go- to the Joyeuse theatre and see a talking picture^ Call Main 1146 for the current program;' Only costs a fiass a week to each llbra,ry, arid, the house has It doped Out that it should sell some tickets, arguing that a. sudden jump in tele- phone inquiries .following adoption of the Idea cannot mean anything else.. :. -.- -If - th.e-scheme -seems-to - hold -up^ .tiouse is planning to substitute book covers with the message .printed on the outside below a print-up for the . library. .Sells Books Chief engineer of a small house wanted to get in some quick money, so. he had a supply of books printed up. 10 tickets for an eight admis- sion price, Cover was printed up as one vote for any church society; - a lis t being obtained Jrom Ahe p a stor Of each church. Various societies peddled books on consignment, tearing off the cover and asking for covers from books bought at the box office. .Society having the largest number, of book cover votes Sept 15, glx:weeks, after the stunt started, will receive $100. Beauty of the. gag is that it not only has the women bouncing make that worth wnue. That Columbia "Contest "■ ~"E*hibitorff-who-are-tO pla;y-"^Lady for a Day' axe going to have a chance to shoot at 10 prizes for the best campaigns, ranging from a bag of golf sticks to radios. And they don't have to do more than, make In- tensive Use of the special campaign book gotten out by George Brown for their assistance.. Often a cash prize is hung up to cover the fact that there is. little help to be had from the press bppk. but in this in- stance Browri. fairly Shovels, put ideas, and all the exhibitor has to do is to make his campaign as big and as profitable as possible. - ' customer for the theatre. • '^uickllLCtion St. Paul. in a city-wide T>lue eagle parade. though It must be worked where a, Buck Briant of the 'Chronfcle' sold 50,000 marchers—representing 4,300 the; Er Bey on the Idea of buying local business houses^ ;full page spread In the ?Chronlc' burg the biggest thrill ^t s had since plugging the show and the beer. Just for Fun the Big Tussle. Garrlck theatre, loop dime grind, copped the lion's share of the good- natured laughs with a banner thus To impress a coming title oh his [ paraphrased; 'NBA tonight; tomor- patrOns' minds, a stunt man ,had a I row all right/ set of dice about ah inch and a half f Clockiug a Pic Rochester. ^ Old clocks get a dusting off In entire title, plus some extra letter I contest sponsored by Loew's Roches- on the sixth side. Gag was to toss ter In connection with 'Turn Back them out and see If they would fall the Clock.'. "Times-Union' co-op- , so the title could be spelled without erated with publicity for Idea to feathers. square cut in a carpeqter shop, painted. white and lettered with a five-word title. Each face carried one letter, and each dice carried the -Featters Paid Off Chicken feathers dyed green and red were sent several hundred pos- sible patrons of a medium sized town theatre with, the urge that, they be worn In hatbands on a specfled day. It was promised that something .rfJlce, would happen te some of the feather wearers. Most of the" recipients wore the feathers on the designated date be- cause a display advertisement in the newspaper announced that passes would be given some of .those met in streets and stores, with a plug for the pltture being advertised; which had nothing .to do with turning any die over,, | bring out plenty of ancient time- Placed on a table In the lobby with pieces and create an unusual lobby a protecting rirti to keep the dice i display: Tickets for the 25. oldest Bond Paper ^Lester BdwardSi now p.ai- for WRNY, sends albrtg " a suggestion ifor a novelty piece tha.t he has worked in the past and which he thinks is . ac(aptable , elt her to radio "dr lhe "tKeatre,''' " ""* ■ • - It's an a,dverti.semerit printed. on the back of a bond or stock cer- tificate with the essential copy "This certificate is worthless but if you visit the. Blank theatre (datesX you will receive 100% entertainment, re- turn on yOur investment.' For a broadcast the copy Is changed to read 'If you .will tune in.' Edwards Writes that when he worked the stunt >e advertised in the daily .paper for not so good shares, Offeririg onej cent each, and TTl'0^t"asroveriirtis.'"^nt"sma^ he suggests that a brokerage office ban suggest where such paper can be picked up; PrObably easier to get now that the Treasury depart- ment is efunnlng for those who buy .dead stock to write off on their in- come taxes. He gets aptual stock certificates all signed and sealed; There are bales of the stuff around. Galveston. ^^Geo'rge W. Sjpenoe, former man- ager R. & R. theatres In Waxa- bachie, arid Sherman, appointed manager for R. & R. at Corpus Christl theatres. Including Ritz, Pal- ace, Rio arid Melfoa. Cairroll, la. J3. J; Smith managing recently re- opened Royal. Relnback, la. W. A. Hawn now at Princess In addition to piloting Rialto, which he owns, at Grundy Center. Akron, O. Opening of Palace, now Chatkin- controll^d, has been advanced to Aug. 29,. according to: Manager Jack Roth. Three-a-day policy. Vaude bills split week with Palace, Chat- kiri house in Toungsto'wn. Los Angeles. ■ Studio, 500-seater-under construc- tion at Prescott, Ariz., by the Stet* sori-Arthur-Cabellero interests, is-to open Sept. 15. Al Stetson will be in Bin Hughart has taken oVer the Central, Lowell, Ariz., and after re- modeling and reseating house will rename it the. Studio. . .-San Diego. . ■ Fox West .Coast managerial, changes have Jean iUinand manag^- ing the Capitol. Calexico. replacing John D. Howard. Homer Skllllon replaces James. Wyatt. who hias been acting skipper of the local Egyptian. Wyatt continues at the house as assistant manager and doorman: Kansas City, The annual convention of the- Fox Midwest division of theatre iriari- agers jvas held at_Excels.ior Jlprings, Mo., "this week. E. C. Rhoden;'dr- visiOA manager, was in charge of the meetings and over 100 man- agers weroiln attendance. Among the officials present were Howard E. Jariieyson, Wichita; lii J. McCarthy, Kansas City; Lon Cox, St. Louis; Harry McClure, Topeka, all district managers. " HoTyOke. Geoi E. Friary, formerly asst. mgr. of "Victory here, goes to Strand, Plttsfleld. Newark. Al.. Zlmballst. transferred from WB here to be . In charge of pub- licity at St Louis. Chicago. ivoU, Gary (Ind.) taken over from the receivers by Roy Ashbeck, formerly associated, with the Chir cago Civic Opera. Chicago. Irving, northslde, how on the Ess- aness list, Essariess having picked up a lease from the landlord whp .stepped out of active show business. Bronx, N. Y. Sidney Gottlieb I.<j the new man- ager of the Daly, succeeding Joseph W, KUff]eri_resjIgned^ Gottlieb comc_3 frorii thensame^^ atre. Moilne. IIU ^ Charles C. Perry, manager Garden, Davenport, has been named mnn- ager of the Fort Rock I.^land. sucr ceedlng .T Cieorge'. D. Blckford, re- signed. Marry Holsdhr^rg is. paw manager at the OardPn. About 60 singles were , handed out by two reporteirs from the news- paper which sponsored the stunt, and these names 'were listed in the paper the mOrning the.show opened. Figured that each pass broinsht In one and a half paid admissions, not to mention the adv erlifting vahie-ot- the feathers on display. Gag. in 1*8 environment, really did better than a stunt directly tied to the title. Bus and Buzzer phoenix. Fox theatre here used two clever gags to ballyhoo 'Baby Face.' First gag was running lS&8 model Olds- mobile about downtown streets. Car bore placards which ..read, 'I'm old but all peiJped UP to see 'Baby Face* at the Fbi theatre".' AS the second stimt a pretty girt was hired tjii„fiirt. As the men drew close to her she showed a purse on which was a sticker reading/ 'Baby Face at the Fox.' Minus a . Monk Inquiry Of a states righter for a baboon for ballyhoo work fbr 'Tar- zan' stresses the fact that large riionks are scarce In the east. Not" many ev^ In the zoos/for they are mean spwited beasts with claws that can cut through several thick- nesses of cloth at one sweep, Prob- ixbly plenty of-.work:ifor a.time, for anyone who has such a pet, but they all seem to be out on the coast," 0 $l;00p Starts Season Seattle. Bit; campaign In newjjpapcrs for Hamrlck . houses, Blue Mouse and -iVlu3lc-i3ox>^tlvl3 -week-for-Jfall .son super-attractions' opening next; Coli;nan In 'The Masquerader' (UA) at former; 'Midnight and Pretzels' (U) at M. B. - A cool ?1,000 is the newspaper aUvertisIng budget for the week, juiit playing the new sea* .son and the.sf pixeg up with good art by Tcfl Champion and strone typr? sind"worflf4.