Variety (Sep 1935)

'^I^edneisday, September 25, 1935 PICTURES VARIETY 29 EXPLOITATION #1^ ^1^ By Epes W. Sargent Saluted the Legion A pretentious campaign, superr vised by Charles Kurtzman, Pan- choh & MttfCO'tSJtecuttve and Tom Bailey, Reliance Pictures Corpora- tion publicity clilef, broupht in from tlie • •ooaety -WJorJd'preintercd ..'Red. Salute' at the Ambassador Theatre for , American Legion weelt.: As- sisted by Lucille Byi'ne and Dick Halloran of F&M and Maurie Davis of United. ArtM the jjreni.iej: dazzled ■tl^e'iULtlvcs. Mtss!r.g no aiiglcs, 'Rcie . SaLutsJ- Say^ht „tbe vlAltl:TiS..Le nalres and the home talent with socko stuff. A 'Red Salute* good-will car. In the shape of a Zepplin 30 feet long and 8 feet high, bowled In from New York to lead street ballyhoo, even to tagging the Legion and 40-and-8 parades, where several hundred thousand standees gaive it thff large double o. Radio tieups. were headed by a contest on Americanism, with some of Barbara Stanwyck's wardrobe from the plx being offered by 'Styl- ist,' KMOX fashion expert, as ace prize.. Spot announcements and cut- in announcements after- Cliff Edwards on Bisodal Hour also helped. Gals dressed in Uncle Sam costumes, with red and white strip- ed pants, bobbed to show plenty, dished out heralds on the streets with horns, auto-dobr handers and miscellaneous junk. Stanwyck's personal wired Congrats and Inci- dental plug for Americanism theme of her plx read at Ad Club Post of Legion with city's biggest advertis- ers present along with BOO leading guests of convention. ' Including an assortment of about 30 governors, a flock of mayors, admirals and. a general of two thrown in for good measure. Tie-ups included 100 beauty shops with Stanwyck's advice how to look swell; circus herald distributed through interurban electric carllne system feeding from hundreds of Illinois towns into St. Loo; Old Gold cigarettes; Postal Telegraph; florists and optical joints; red- white and blue and 'Welcome Legion' fronts; 24s all over burgh and highways leading to. city and stuffing a,ll hotel letter boxes with propaganda for plx gave campaign a glowing finish. Touring the Ziis Manager who likes to keep his kid club on-the move has arranged this year to give monthly perform- ances at an j>rphan asylum and a home for the aged, both on the out- skirts of the town. He Is planning on Friday night shows at the home with a Saturday afternoon for the orphans. A deal haa been made for thia use of a bus for transportation and a retired minstrel will help etage the shows. Each Saturday morning an audi- tion will be held as part of the reg- ular club program, with an effort made to give as much diversity to the shows as possible. Most of the talent la singing and dancing, with an occasional piano solo, but the minstrel is planning to teach the boys some of the old blackface sketches for afterpieces with 'Irish Justice' for the first. Figured that these afterpieces will wind up the show with a laugh finish that will go far toward varying the monot- ony. Boys and girls will be encouraged to try and work up specialties and a harmonica' quartet is one of the Ideas which may be devfloped, with the more clever boys working up comedy monologues, which the min- strel also will supervise. The blackface man is utilized be- cause he happens to be oh the ground, but where no professional Is available there Is almost always some local wpman who loves to play theatre and Is competent to stage the shows. Figured to give punch to the club meetings, create good will around town and possibly work into a big kiddle show toward the end of the season to run three days or a week, two shows a night. Free Band . Rochesten Lively street bally ai'ranged'by Manager Lester Pollock of Loew's Roche.ster In connection with 'Here Comes the Band.' Engaged the Knot Hole Gang band, which plays at free kid days at baseball park, to do a street pa- rade \yith b.-rtiner and then give Short, concert in front of theatre in return for free look at the show. Champ Scarer Spartanburg, S. C. btrand theatre execs evidently think Peter Lorre is a big, bad boogey man. 'Mad lx)ve' ads say no tickets will pe sold to kids for show, as it is much too gruesome for children.' - And there's not a western film In town until another week! Beportets .""lfTias' been"wofked"Tir6lTft'er w^ but this angle seems new. High school in a town of about 20,000 had a joui'nallsm class; House manager arranged with the teacher to get a boy and gir-l for duty each night to pick .lip. items in the lobb.Y for the niornlng paper. Each is given a brassard with a star and the word 'reporter,' the star referring to the paper's title. Introduced by a trailer for a .week, the kids hustled per-, ■^pna.1 items, wi-Iting them out at 10:30 and turning them In to the city-desk-pf - .the- papiei'- " Now and" then an item merited a head. The rest was grouped under a cut head 'Heard:In the Lobby' with a smali drawing of the theatre's distinctive front arid with a paragraph telling the Idea. Stunt had to he discontinued' through the summer, when school was closed, buit the stuff was re- garded as of sulflclent value .to have a news man detailed to the lobby, retiring this fail when the class work was resumed. If anyone comes along in the afternoon the doorman takes the Item and holds it for evening. Idea has been so well established that most persons who want newspaper mention come, to the theatre, and niost of therii buy tickets.. Mean- time the school likes the idea be- cause it gives the boys arid girls actual practise. Than angle works so well that the commercial class instructor is in treaty with the house to help with the advertising writing, with some aid from the art department. There's ari additional angle In that parents and friends of the re- porters for the evening come down to the show to see Mary or George, or whoever it may be, actually re-r porting. Seems to be practicable almost anywhere there's a class. Inviting Trouble Manager who had a picture made from a best seller thought it would be a good idea to offer a prize to thie patron who made the best advance treatment of the story, laying out the Incident In what the writer be- lieved to be the most logical han- dling of the Incident. Just happened that the scenarists departed rather widely from the book plot, and the manager found himself in plenty trouble. About 50 persons entered the contest and they were In the audience the first day to se^ how closely they had guessed. When they saw a practically new story on the screen they not only kicked to the theatre stalT, but went out and told all their friends to stay away, as It was not the picture ad- vertised at all. Instead of the Idea.bringing addi- tional coin through the interest aroused, 'the manager figures that it was responsible for a drop of about $200 on the three-day run. Story might have gotten by had not emphasis been griven the departures. Some years ago there was a mild craze for offering tickets to those who detected boners In the films. It had te be dropped because It was found that the audiences became rather contemptuous of the pictures. A few have revived the scheme, fol- lowing the Skolsky column, but al- ready the promoters are dropping the idea again. Anything making for adverse criticism is to be avoidid as cre- ating unnecessary complaint. It's bad enough without actually urging the cash customers to cavil. It's much safer to offer them prizes for discovering the good points of the picture on the lines of 'What I liked beat about .' laundiy Staffer dpartanburg. S. C. Robert B. Talbert, city manager for th,e Carolina, State and Strand houses of Palmetto Aniusements, Inc., here, pulled a neat one for his MOvie Jubilee exploitation. He tied up with a large local lai^dry and had an attractive magazine size announcement of several pages placed In each outjgoing laundry package. Profusely Illustrated and elab- orate In Its publicity on important new productions, the publicity me- dium was one of the largest and most attractive of its type ever Is- .sued here. Further^ he boosted morning and evening newspaper and radio (WSPA) space to further build pull, plus some of the. largest and most unusual attractive lobby displays ever seen in a Dixie show place. } Swap Sydney. All kiddies attending Regent where 'Our Little Girl' is playing are given a 'Shirley Temple picture book' entirely free. Idea has boosted up trade. Kids also slg'nlng a hu^e auto- graph book, which when completed wUl be sent to Miss Temple. Said that all the kiddies In Sydney have signed the book which first began with 'Bright Eyea.' GettingGlo^^^ , ■ "Canton,"o. Warner's Alhambra here, under the manageriient of Wallace (Doc.) Elliott, made a carefully planned publicity and iexploitation campaign on 'Page Miss Glory.' A large oil- cloth sigh with huge lettej-l«ff 'Who Is Miss Glory' and referring to a contest being conducted by 'Screen- land Magazine,' was placed on a billboard in the center of the town. The. sign, of course, carried copy plcseirg the film theatre and_play- date. Canton mUslc_ stores, _were. 'ffbierairy showered with "'Page Mfis Glory' window; displays, theatre arid play date plugs plus stills of Marlon' Davles. Similar setups were.' ar- ranged In sporting goods houses, in fsmart footwear , establishments ca- tering to the higher iricome groups of Canton and In Ice cream parlors. Shops In Canton also tied In 'Page Miss Glory,' featuring a large dou- ble column cut of Miss Davles in a tieup campaign with beauty parlors and millinery stores. For a street bally Elliott togged out a young couple dressed in 'hick' clothes, dat- ing from the '90'a, and had them stroll; through Canton's downtown carrying copy on film, cast, theatre and playdate. Many Angles Baltimore* Herb Morgan, at Loew's Century, laid out elaborate campaign for current bill, 'Da,rk AngeU on screen, and Ina Ray. Button's band, plus Jackie Heller headlining fiesh fare. He got local Hearst rag to. slough syndicated fashiori cuts for 6 days, and substitute in their place a line of autumn riicetles modeled by Merle Oberon, of. pic's; cast; got player and film credit lines. He arranged a classified ad promotion with same sheet. There was a co-op coiffure ad In newspapers; also an ad ifrom a hab- erdashery plugging a 'Herbert Mar- shall' suit of clothes. At local Fash- ion Congress, a 'Dark Angel' gown was shown. Over WCAO a trans- cription was played for quarter- hour which broadcast tidbits frpm pic; also same station put over ether: half-hour program ori Sun- day, co-featuring Jackie Heller and In.a Ray Hutton. Heller also gUest^ ed over WBAL, and got stage ap- pearance plugged. A feature Eve Sun story carried on Miss Hutton, with feriime .ed of women's page writing up the piece Sh Interview. The News-Post car- ried Interview on Heller. A dark- angel cake waS a specialty, at a tea room adjoining theatre. Best stunt Was getting Inspector Henry of police dept. to pose for newspaper still with Harvey Ham- mond and Ina Ray Hutton. Ham- mond for hta organlog specialty this week Is using an orig song he wrote pleadlnff for safer, saner motor driving; hence the Interest of the police chief. Plenty in St. L. .^St. Lonls. 'Dark Angel,* campaigned by Loew's State, got nice send-off. publicity speaking. Special plane. With bannered kite trailing flew over city while visitors arid a few of the. home team boys got sun- taned finish gazing at announce- ment of iiiiz luigged throiigh the ozone. All Coca-Cola dealers displayed plx adv., with play dates; New Movie Magazine plastered all news- stands and druggists counters with playdated copy tying In with feature of Oberon; hierald, 'distributed to shop girls and atenos headed 'I Bare My Woman's Heart' and signed by heroine of plx. told all of love-life problems to steam up prospective customers. 60,000 circulars went to the hou.se- wlveiB via Kroger stores, 10,000 heralds to McCrory stores,. 5,000 dealer-return current magazines shipped with stickers plugging pix handed to customers. Twenty-fours, dally broadcaiit over WIL with tran- scriptions from picture used three times during the week; tie ups with Red Cross Shoes and Gotham Gold Stripe Hosiery other angles in the campaign. Hi Hat Indianapolis. Bud Summers. Frank Moneyhun, and Don Wright combined forces to bring Top Hat' Into the reopened Indiana "Theatre with a burst of glory. Town was blanketed with ex- ploitation for the ..nick, witht L. Strauss & Company, leading men's store, devoting full window and giving 500 lines on fur coat tie-in; newa.mper ad to top hats; Rinks Ayres chipping in two ads on Ginger Rogers hair dress; Wassons adding half page ad and window on main drag; a full page of co-op ads in 'Star'; 500 Cards In bunaes and street cars; and a like number in downtown drug stores. To complete the picture, house front wad repainted; festooned with flags, and P> A, ballyhoo was In- stalled. , ...Tw^de Hopk:up _ ^ Candy store in a'theatre'bulidlni* was not g'etting the business it thought It should. The owner com- plained that the theatre jiTatro.iis got too far away from the theatre be- fore the suggestion of a soda, was made. The munHeer. ottRvnd to eet, the missing trade if the store would sell at a discount. Store was will- ing, so the manager cut a door from the Inside. foyer to the store. All' Who left the theatre through this door were handed'coupons "good for a _dlme_drink fpr 'a riTckeL /Made a gpod~'talkihg" pbirif^ for the" thealre and built a lot of business for the confectioner. Probably the idea would work, well if a. boy merely handed out. the coupons to depart-, ing patrons, but It did not cost much to cut the doorway through: Everybody happy. A little different was a hook to a newly opened restaurant near the theatre, and it was worked on an- all-cash basis. Restaurant adver- tised that between six and eight o'clock the theatre would accept its, meal checks at 10%, of its face value. If a man ate 80c worth, the check was stamped paid and if pre- sented at the theatre was good for eight cents. The checks were passed back to the eatery every morning and paid for on that basis. Slowed up the box sale slightly, but not Importantly, and the restaurant advertised the oiffer and named the current feature in its daily newspa- per space. Offer seemed to get business for both places, since after dining, the theatre was freshly brought to mind. City theatre perriiits a store to set up a stand in, the lobby, when a sudden rain coiries up. Sells um- brellas for a dollar, but store Will buy them back next morning for 90c. About 40% stay sold, yet pa- trons like the Idea. .^^ lJ5eful^"trnitB _ 'Kju Scliaefer,"orthe W.' 4:"ft"paf-' amount. New JLaven, used the l<'red Allen Town Hall unit plenty when it came* into .his bailiwick. Here fire some of the iextra stunts he pulled: Borrowed autps end took the t.rwipe Uv. city. bsJl. opening day to see the Mayor and vice versa. .Pho- tos made for newipaper art. ,Two. 15 minute spasms oyer WICC, with advance plugs for the cast arid theatre. Storl'js plattted in Soui.li 'WB'fwaTIk'" and Bridgeport, each on a Jocallte lii' the" shpwT' TEffliah' pat>ers" used for a local tie-up to Italian mem- bers of the cast. One was a local. Entertainment at a fresh air camp run by a local paper. XlQoa for ad- vance Btories, a splurge in the Sun- day paper and two three-column cuts. Miniature auto In a local parade. Two song-writers autographing their sohgij at a dimery. Got a win- dow for a full week; Entertainment at the i>olice Flel Day. About lOO windows, oi. the Ipana hook-up. Otherwise about the usual cam- paign. looking Out Recently an exhibitor was taken into court on a charge of running an automobile without a rear-view mirror. The theatre's contention that it was not operating the truck, having merely hired it frorh ari auto livery did not save the management frpm having to kick in with $25 and costs. The judge pointed out that it was the theatre's structure on the truck which had shut off the view and that thierefore the theatre was responsible and riot the truck owner, who had supplied a truck with a rear mirror, which had been biiilt over. The assessment took much of the profit off the stunt. Most managers fall to realize their responsibilities. In one Instance a sourid truck scared a horse, the hprse ran Into a window, and the theatre paid for the window, as well as a veterinarian bill for treatment for the horse. In one Instance, sev- eral yea;r3 ago, a house was flried for making such a big display as to dis- tract the attention of passing chauf- feurs who crashed. This seems to- be rather far-fetched, but the case was lost on appeaL In another Instance a prospec- tive mother, scared by a devil im^ personator, collected , a large sum. The man did the scaring, but the house was responsible for the man having been on the street. It all works out to urge that lia- bility insurance be maintained and that the policy reads to cover all street stunts. Either that or a sep- arate policy should be taken out on each stunt Not many of them will boomerang, but If one has a seri- ous kickback. It's apt RTCost plenty. Ever look over your policy? Cleverly Paked since ancient of days, fake 'grandstand, ticket' and similar ducats have been evolved for ad- vertising use, so Lester Pollock, of the Loew Rochester theatre, trod no new road in getting out a fake ticket to the Baer-Louis fight. But he got out an unusually good reproduction, and one that followed the regular pasteboard In all hut two matters. The location was for a 'Movleslde scat' and the 'Notice and agreement' was for 'Dark Angel' at the Loew theatre. Cleverness of the fake raises It to a higher plane than usual. It probably had a lot of people guess- ing. , Good thing for Uie Stadium ticket takers that Ro'^hefctsr is rie- mote from the ring. Some of them might have been fooled. Iftuick Thinking Harry Browning, of M. & P. The- atres, reports an activity of Ollie Hamilton, but neglects to tell What city. Anyhow, Hamilton got a nice punch out of an old Idea by. local- izing It It's the old bill In a bar- rel stunt, but with a twist. A water nialn burst In the street Just In front of the theatre. After the workmen, quit Hamilton buried a sign for the coming show, 'Shang- hai,' at the bottom of the shallow pit and framed it with incandes- cents. After it grew <iark passers- by. noting the llghta. looked in the trench to see why, and got the Shangh il sign. (r. Wash, McGee Oklahoma City.^ Old standbys like 'colossal',' 'gigantic' and 'sensational' have been turned out of his newspaper ads by Pat McGee, general manager of Standard Theatres, which oper- ates the town's 10 leading fll houses. . McGee has taken paid space to swear to tell the truth about films! Opening day ad on 'Two for To- night,' (Friday) said: 'The manage- ment does not rate 'Two for To- night' as the best of the Crosby pictures but it compares very favor- ably with most of them and will certainly be accepted as good enter- tainment.' McGee splsshed with an an- nouncement in the dailies on his new policy. Headed with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,' the signed piece which said in part: 'For years I've been, telling everybody who asked me on the street about a picture the truth as to whether I thought It good or bad, and giving my reasons for thinking so. But when I got back to the office and started writing ad- vertising copy I became a different man, and wltii a >ylld gleam in my eye, I'd start describing the picture^ in extravagant terms, regardless oC the picture's merits.' McGee wound up by saying Standard Theatres would publish a dally column alongside Its display ads, from which patrons could get a fair estimate of current and coming attractions; Steering Them Bight Most of the previous contests In. schools for reviews of current pic- tures have been for the 'best,' and puplla have iset themselves to pile on the adjectives in the hot altogether unreasonable belief that the most laudatory* will win the prize. But bno exhibitor haa ararnged with, the tour top claases in the grade school for prizes on the 'most intelligent' review and took time out to explain to each class that he wants them to study the picture and make a clear analysis. They do not merely say that a picture Is good or that It la bad. Th4y tell why they do or do hot like It. He figures that there Is a good grade of pictures coming along this season, and that it will pay to train the youngsters to be selective. They may slap a few down, but in tho long run he will profit through the growth of the pupir* -developing critical faculty. Idea Is partly the outgro.. Vr-. the teachers' protests that. the old .style of contest.Was merely a train- ing in composition- writing. They started to frown and he switched. The new Idea has met with strong approval and some of the teachers have arranged to come over to the theatre for a load of the press books before the showing, so they can wise up their classes. , Now the headacher Is trying to land the newspaper on the scheme^ printing two or three of the best, the conipetitlon being he'.d to cer- tain designated pictures which, naturally, are among the toppers. Exhib feels that In this way he cari get a wider circle Interested In criti- cal analysis. In Bevene Keith's theatre, Philadelphia, put out 15,000 novelty heralds on 'The Clairvoyant' lately. Probably well worth the slight additlonnl cost for double printing and die cutting. Two eye holes were cut near the top of the sheet and on one side '.surrounded by question marks. In the center was 'Warning. Hold this card up. to your eyes and face a mirror.' Below was 'Hold bottom out slightly,' which seems to be nec- e.ssiry to get the best results. • Other Hide was printed In reverse and read 'You are being hexed by (Continued on page 31)