Variety (Sep 1933)

tucfl day, September 1938 P I C ¥ M B E $ VARIETY 21 EXPLOITATION % ^P^^ W. Sargem Won. Extra Days Canton, O.. Dick Cru&ieei^i manager Wameir Bros. A|haiiat>ra. here, is responsible for ^. novel bit. of exploitation In connection with the screening of *H.er First Mate.^ Cruslger ar- ranged with the maiiiagement of Meyer's Xiake Park here for the use of four, battery driven boats, and using icoiiteatants in a marathon in progress at the park ballroom^ staged a boat race, at 3 oh a Sun- day afternoon, the day the' .film opened, a sche^ul^d , four-day run.. Bace was run off in; two : heats, with four couples participating ' in each heat, Victors of the two heats competed for. the. winner. Each boat was gaily decorated with pen- nants blearing the name of the the-, atre, title .of the picture and name of the merchant or firm sponsoring that particular boat :^ Theatre awarded' cash prizes tor the winner - and the. Second place. Cruslger enlisted enough downtown merchants to finance the sttiht, in return £or the advertising, and also tied up with the local radio station, for a week's advance announce- ments. Several ..thousand' people lined the banks of the ^Bike to wit- ness the novel race. Run extended three days. Kidding a Corker Manager who believes In. getting funny how and.then has taken an Idea from the N; T. Strand'is ofiCer of. 910,000 to^udge Craten He is going to offer $6,000 tb the man who put the shiner on Huey Lohg, the catch being that he nriust bring the King- fish along to Identify him. FigUreis on getting a g:lggle without having to pay all that hioney out. More or less questionable in spots, but good where the chief exec is known, to be a kidder. He'fll the same chap who got his exchange to send to New .York for a group of foreign language dailies in Yiddish, Italian; Greek, Polish and German. Used their front pages as his main lobby billing for 'An- other lianguage' and had them three deep aroUnd the board for the first couple of days.' Figured that all but the most seri- ous titles can be helped by a little judicious foolery^ Tea'sing One semi-new idea is the untitled card, developed' from the undated bill. Sounds a bit complicated, but it worked once: ' ^ ' Starter Is a distribution of cards, In the original 'instance- a fairly good manila, printed up with* 'Bring this card to the Courtney theatre August 6 and have stamped In the title of the biggest pidture you've seen in months and months. Then keep the card, which entitles yon to a rebate ,of 6c to see this unusual feature/ ' Picture was shown a week later, but on the date annoUnded- there was a girl In the lobby to rubbier et&mp In the title and date of the show. More, than half of. the cards given out were brought In, and were taken out to be shown others who did not go to the trouble. Even where the cards did not* come in there was some interest In the title, so the effect was much better than the 60% indicated. Worked 'Em Arthur Houseman pulled down about 40 cols, of advance for Dave Hutton between his iarrival here and the opening at the Fox, Brooklyn. He met Hutton. a,t Manhattan Transfer, coaching, him on what to say, with the result that . Hutton was prlnied with frdtit page .crashr ers instead of the dumb line > he probably would haye pulled all'by himself. Houseman followed this up with some siieciala and landed him on a 36-statlon hook-up. Nice work. Fre-Kelease Bally Hollywood. Taking advantage of the. coUegi-- ate angle on 'Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,' Mpnegram has been able to make a flock of merchandise tie- ups, although picture not yet re- leased. Biaker Shoeq, Stetson Hats, Rem- Inerton Typewriter, Norge Refrigera- tor, Burt Shoejs. and Grayco shirts and ties will boost tiie film in adr verttsing their products. Lilndsley Parsons; Moiio p.a.» arranged the tieups. Voice. Tests Presence in town of a touring "TSHOTKfgraph^recOrdlng-devlcer-in-for^ the county fair, gave one alert thinker a stunt. He arranged with the owner of the device to make him a set of discs of the voices, ef well- known localites without their knowledge^ Tipped off the operator when the people he wanted came up to test the device. Operate re- ported a failure and made a second record, keeping the first for the theatre. 'Going to run these off on the non- sync some night, with prizes for those who spot all the voices, but confident no ohe will make a perfect iscore. Tested one but, and his wife did not recognize , his own voice coming through the hot-hs, which give a different quality t6 most voices. Somewhat similar to the voice gag how used by'Paramount, but, in the latter, pictures help the identifica- tions. Just ismall-town stuff, and mbre of a press, gag than a stunt, but figured it will get jittehtiou. Taikative Barrel Another twist has been given the bill at the bpttoni of a barrel gag. It made a local sensation at small cost. Setup Was apparently the usual gag of a. bill in the bottom of a barrel/ but in reality the bill was sufficient- ly above the actual bottom to make room for a speaker. Barrel wajs by the curb, lashed to.-a support ap- parently to hold It In jplace, but in reality to protect -the wire of the loudspeaker, which ran down the support of the marquee and into the Underside oif the barrel. Wire ran up'to the third floor where a. tilted, mirror permitted the operator to .watch the bairrel without being seen.. .. Beside the inlke wad a lioh roar, the. familiar rosined strinig knottied into a tin. can, and, the roar was am- plified, ih the horp. When a crol^d gia.thered to see what was making aU the noise, crisp sales talk woUld be spoken, with now iand then a refer- ence to the actions of the. crowd such as, 'Wiirthe lady In thei blue hat please move further back;' That seemed to make .It all the more mys- terious. ' . When the message had been de- livered, the barrel would go quiet and after the crowd drifted away It would be baited with a fresh roar. It turned in a lot of business. Good Slogan, Advertising some of the coming pictures, the N. Y, Academy of Mu- sic slogan, *We pick the best, , then scrap the rest.' Might not be so good with patrons who, know the booking details, but for the average clientele , it sounds impressive and convincing. Some -advance announcement seems to be..4ndicated about, now, and one theatre has prepared a board giving some'' 20 underlines with a brief comment on each as to its possibilities, plans to paste an T told you so' over the good guesses to Indicate that the rest of the estl'- mates are correct. For that reason it's not going to6 strong on a.ny title, but hopeful, there will not be many poor guesises to pull down the average. If It's too strong a.-straln; the board wilt go~b£u;k to the paint shop. Jnst Harder , Pretty much the old. gag of writ- ing the title of a star film being sold as many times as possible on a, post card, but given a new twist by requiring that It be written back- ward, so that It.wQuld show properly onlyi If held up to a mirror. \ VPut a brand new kick into ^ old idea, and deciding the winners was helped by the fact that there were fewer repetitions to be counted. Probably the old stunt would .-not have caught more than a couple of hundred, but, the - new condition made It sound new' all over and brought in several hundred re- sponses. Others, told someone around the theatre that they had tried, but it was too tough, but the end was attained.. *They had con- centrated on thC: title and very evi- dently had been sold. Bally for Gninan XiOs Angeles. . Ray Dusceme, manager of Loew's State, Lrf)s Angeles, had Texas Guinan hit the trail at Almee Semple Mcpherson's Angelus Tem- ple on the Sunday before she opened at the theatre; Opening day, Thurs- day. (7) saw a flock of the Temple followers at the theatre. Stunt grabbed good space In the .dallies. Crasked; tke Expo Rochester. Manager Jay Golden of the RKO Palace put across some extra pub- licity for 'liady for a Day,* broad- caistlng the script from the Crystal Studio of WHEC at the Rochester exposition. With hundreds of peo- ple watching and hearing the per- formers at the exposition, the dialog also went out over the air In regu- lar broadcast. Playingf to Rural Fairmont, W. Va. One hundred and fifty members of the Four-H clubs of- Marion county, were entertained -at the Warner Fairmont and Warner Vir- ginia theatres here when the county Four-H exhibit, annual, , was held here last week. It's an annual en- tertainment given by the theatreis for the ifarm Icids, Fake Club Universal revives the fake club gag for ah accessory on. Tiadies Must Live.' Known as the Gentle- men's No Club and entitles the holder to nix, the gold diggers, iri spite of the fact that they mUst live. Probably, will get some laughs, but the type Is too small to get the Idea oyer, clearly and many will not bother to puzzle, over a mess Qt microscopic type , matter.. Cards are most useful when, the punbh line Is clear a.nd distinct, and it Isn't here. Used to be a new club about every week Untll^ the- idea was played out, following Eddie. Bonhs^ Sisters Under the Skin .club. No reason, why cards should hot be locally produced to meet purely lo- cal conditions. Requirement is a good idea and something that actu- ally looks like a membership card. Coin for Letters . Hollywoodv For exploifatioh of *I iLoved a Woman' Warners offered |60 for the> best letter on the subject. Call for the letters was mad e oyer the Waifner station, KFWB. Plus the cash prize for the best letter, the Picture company .al$b promised to pay for the screen rights to the best film ideas in the letters. Featbers Spnie theatres have gotten gobd results from a special perambulator which is sent out . only on excep- tional pictures. Use of this Is fre- quently sufficient to draw patrbhs who niay not catch the title because they know that the theatre Is play- ing isquare^ Along the-same lines Is a house design for./the ma,rquee, a large compb board hat, lettered 'Another feather in our cap.' A feather about fbUr feet high, to match the size of the bonnet, gives the titles. Special design is^btought out when the first advertising is started,, and, since , it "can be. seen a couplei of blocks away^ its design Is sufficient to piqUe curiosity. It's figured tliat a, couple of poor guesses win put the hat back in the storeroom, but until then it clicks. New, for 'Diggeris' Adaptation of a Raffles to 'Gold piggers' was all right in a small town, but may be of doubtful value in the larger spots. Idea Was that any local girl could turn gold digger and aisk for |6. If she asked cue of the right men, she got It .Gag was to park the .fives on the most unsuspected citizens. Tbpmounter did his darndest to get a minister to. cary one of the five bills, but they aU thought It PhoenlXi Xiawrence Weaver managing the Rialto, heweiy-opened Tucson house In the Publlx-RIckards and Nace chain.' . Weaver one-time manager of Rialtd) here, later with the Ramona. . . Albert, Stetson (Stetson Bros.) dickering for a Tucaon theatre. .Group. operates a Phoenix house, one In Nogales, Son., and next month will open the third In Pres- cott. Stetson jformerly Arizona.di- vision manager for Fox-West Coast. Elmira, N. Y. The Colonial opened here last week after a long shut-down; plcr ture policy. Milwaukee. Louis Goldstein appointed: branch manager for United Artists here. Donald W. Glennle. fiucceeded in Detroit by Clive B, Waxman as UA office manager at Itii exchange, ' Hartford, Conn. .. Warner Brothers' changes: Wil- liam .Flannigan, ass't manager Strand, to manage Lyric; George McGee, manager Lyric to northern Warner, zone; George Hoover re- places Ben Cohen at the State, Manchester, . latter going to the Lenox, Hartford; Hugh Campbell, manager Lenox, to the Colonial, Hartford; Harvey Emerson, ass't manager Lyric, to ass't manager. Warner Strand, —^ Newark. James T. Powers has been transr ferred from managing Proctor's , to ^:he'-^management--of^the-=68th-^St,r- New York, succeeded here by Louis R. Golding, from Albany, Who five years ago left Proctor's after man- aging it for many years. New Haven. Reopening of Fox College brings in E. Robert Bums as mgr. R. J. Freedman, from local Palace, >?tepa In as asst. to Burns. Robert Munz- ner follows Freedman as chief ashf^r would not be dignified. But he did get the president of his bank, a cop, a wsiiter In a .restaurant, the post-: master and a lawyer; Girls had the .town upside down asking everyone; for- the coin, and. some of the . ultra good shook their heads,' but by and large th^ stunt was over with a bang and did miich niore g:ood than the $26 it cost. "Probably could be, worked with passes,' but. the coin is better. _ Special pinner Forehanded cuss Is waiting- for 'toinner at Eight' to get on general release. He has< the scheme all laid. . Nearby restaurant is to Serve a spe- cial dinner ait eight. It will be served , to all who . are seated: and ready at that hour for %t. Ten minutes later the price ups to 11.60 for the same menu.. Both the thea- tre and the restaurant will make a. ■fuss over the .time, arguing that each, will help the other, ' Restaurant has^ .an idea that |1 dinner can be made to. pay, and is taking this, chance to try out the price. If it's a go the $1 dinner will be eontlnued. If it flops, it was chly a press stunt and no coninient when it Is withdrawn, in favor of -the regular 66c.. meal. Another -theatre has a dual scheme for a six o'clock show ah'di a dinner at eight, one ticket cover- ing both> Looks as though the title has press possibilities, though din^ ner at eight is pretty late for the small towns. Crank Letter Wrinkles On that stunt on 'Bureau of Miss- ing Persona' offering $10,000 check for return of Justice Crater, Warner Bros, drew several crank letters. One. promised production of the missing judge if WB would first turn over the 10 grand. "WB got five letters.and turned them over to local authorltleis. in case they might unearth''a clue. AU Over Columbia is duplicating the Ijady for a Day* stunt In, all the keys, metamorphosing some local char- acter Into a grande.dame as a tle^ up for Col's flicker. George Bfown may send out Arnold Van Leer, Lou Goldberg and Leo Friedman, -vvho handled the big New York stunt to ditto in the outlying hl-spots. First in the Sub New York. Metro Is the . first company put^ ting through, a contract for adver-. tising cards in the new 8th avenue subway. New York. A total of ^600 cards on 'Dinner at Eight* have been installed In the sub's caris. a.t Palace. Vernon Reaver, succeeds A. J. Vanhl as mgr. of Palace and billy Elder sticks as asst. mgr. Jimmie Mahpn of Paramount the- atre personnel goes to local Par- amount exchange in advertising dept. Pittsburgh. Warner, Morgantown, W, Va., shut for the last two months, re- opened. Ken Grimes resumes as manager, Warner Brothers nave just put through a new five-year leaae for the Sheridan Square in East Lib- erty, nabe second-run house, Sheri- dan, Originally. Under a private lease to Harris company^, was turned over to RKO and later went to Warhers under an exchange deal that gave RKO a Warner house in Syracuse in return. At expiration of recent lease, house went back to its landlord due to the RKC bankruptcy, and some spirited competitive bidding ensued between the Harris interests and WB. Latter won out. FoxrWest Coast reopened the Campus, Berkeley, E. C. Gates manager, moving from the U.C., where he Is followed by Dave Rich- ards. Campus policy first-run 35c top. Denver. Bob Dunagan has bought and re- bpiened the Star, at Lordsburg, N.M., calls it the Studio. At the top of the list in the 'New; Show Year* contest being run' off by =th€f^Intermpuntaifr-divlsion""of"^'ox="^ West Coast (end second week) are E, C. P'Keefe, Billings, Mont,; Geo. Paper, Longmont, Colo., and Fred Bezold, Sheridan, Wyo. O'Keefe was seventh in the opening week standings Boston, George Kra.ska, father of the arty cinema in Boston, leaves for Canton^ O.i to mahage Loew's. Crasking the Papers Fairmont, W. Va. . . "Wliether she knows it or hot, Mae West is stirring ' things: up in Northern West Virginia; The Clarksburg 'Exponent' print- ed ah ad and feature story about Mae. The ad aaid, "Buxom Blond Brooklyn Beauty Brings Back Bil- lowy Bosom,' and. Dr. Homer E. 'W'^ark, pastor of. Clarksburg First M, E. Church and former president of W. Va. iyesleyan Church College, de.clared to his congregation that that line-wias 'entirely but of place,'^ that it. appealed to the vulgar and sensual , and was out of tune"-with the 'right way of thinking and liv- ing.' The Clarksburg Exponent how takes the case to the. people asking its readers to lexpress their opin- ions. The Fairihoht 'Times' also asks its readers tb comment since the same stbry was printed in the 'Times' last Sunday, The ♦Times' pblnts out editorially that the Mae West film, ^She Done Him Wrong,' Ti^as first shown last February and then it asks, *Why did it' take So long for the Mae- Westian talk and; mode to. become- pppuiar?' The 'Times'' alsb asks, 'Dp the modes of the deml-vlrgins of the nineties strike, a popular- chord to- day?' .: The readers haven't, answered as yet but, by the way the. young folks are mouthing the Mae "West phrases these days, they've all gone :West. iSchool stunt Again Montgohiery, Ala. Lloyd Towns, Par mgr, in, a hook up with local newspapers and Sid- ney Lanier High School officials, has agreed to award a large silver loving cUp to the most valuable player with the school fobtball team this seasbn. The newspapers have 'agreed to help the theatre in giving free advertising . to the football team, also to follow the work of the playeris through the season, and give each player fair criticism. At the conclusion of the football sea- son the successful player will be' named, by niembers of the 'L' club at the school. When the cup Is awarded, a school night will be held at the Paramount. The cup has been placed on display, and considerable. . interest has been aroused, with the results that Mgr. Towns has re- ceived favorable coniment from the school authorities and newspapers for ills, interest in helping promote keen athletic competition at tbis- school. A Natural Hartford, Conn. With a Ibcal grocery and market, . the largest of its kind in Connecti- cut- producing its own coffee and calling it 'Morning Glory' the War- ner Strand cashed in when Kather- ine Hepburn, a 'local daughter' ap- peared in the picture by the same name. The tle-r up resulted in win- dow displays, direct-by-mail adver- tising and other types of exploita- tion that not only produced for the theatr« but for the coffee manu- facturer also. As a premiere stunt for "Lady for a Day' In New England B. M. Loews Theatres through George Landers stages a typical Hollywood opening with flaring searchlights, dinner to which Governor Cross had been invited at the leading hotel and a personal appearance of Hohart Boswprth, who appears in the picture. Jtist an Echo Los Angeles. . 'Old Man' Schwartz of Texas, vet showman, came to town to show; the boys a thing or two about plug- ging pictures, Tb ballyhbo 'Too Much Harmony' for Its Paramount showing,. Schwartz rigged up a papier mache dummy, of Bins Crosby, crooner Ih 'Harmony,' Dummy, operated by mechanical motion, sits atop a wagon and is ambled along the bouls making wisecracks and answering imperti- nent questions from an accompany- ing stooge, by means bf mike han- dled by an operator inside the per- ambulator. Page Tie-Ins Los Angeles. Fox-West Coast Is providing its theatres with full page layouts to. be used as ad. tie-ups between houses playing 'Dinner at Eight' and jnerchants. Each of the stars 'itf"fhe-plCtTlFe=ig-rinitTiri(rdHii^a^sep^"-- arate ad, With copy joining them in with the commodity being sold. Circuit will do the same thing on .'My Weakness.' Bad Writing Los Angeles. IlUlstreet is using b. handwriting export in the lobby to decipher sig- natures .and character. BEHIND me KEYS