Variety (Jan 1937)

Wednesday* January 6,1;937 P I C T 11 R E S >36 Trends The year iust cldsefl adcjed but a ffitatioii, one reasbn being the in- cSa^ingly large number of national Sc-ups arranged' betNy^sen pro- Sacers and manufacturers of almost ^Afervthing Irom clothes to cars. This, did not reduce the amount of ex- ploitation, but did put; a . damper on Srigihality, since most of the big pic- tures carried ready-made stunts, one of the outstanding ideas being the J-red Astaife-Packard tie up, with dar prizes vto the public and to house '^TSfis^and similar stunts /produced a hiiee volume of exploitation for. the soecial pictures adveitised, but like; all such contests reduced the volume of eeheral exploitation on other re- lea^s. • Effort: and advertising ap- propriations, were centered upon these few pictures with the result 'that the run of mill product playing befbreiahd after the big pUsh were apt to suffer,- and Some of these needed exploitation more than, the big releases which required only ah average good bampaign to build oh the national publicity. It is 6etiously to be questioned whether, tnese. big spreads do. npt cost the theatres " more , than they bring into a ;house. Many zone; managers: priyatejy ( ex- tress disaipJ)rov&l, of ' the . idpa, i but are powerless tO: check the ; con- centratidn. upon the favored feW to the detriment' of general seUmg. They cannot well - campaign against ■the:prxictisiev-..■>;;•■.; •^ s^, ■ , PW-ljaps • the /outstanding stunt of the year was worked by Bill Hend- ricks, of' Memphis, when he fore- gathered with' the local merchants to plant dummy figures of cardleiers .on street ebrhers in the retail district, a local tadid 'station relaying carols and songs from 'Gold. Diggers* to the hidden loudspeakers. ; One of the interesting , developr ments was the discovery Of a new medium for vthe red-^ink extra, one of the • bright; young -nien in. Bill Wright's, Loew's Cleveland district using the leaves '6t a few. copies, of •Anthony Adveirse' as printing stock for a red inked ad for that picture. It was the "first hew development in red ink in several years, that once- honorjable device having been almost forgotten in modern times. But the 'This is no bull* was plastered upon unprotiesting cows in huniierQUs cities and proved to' still be a good: gag. One of the tecent Metro bulletins said a rhouthfUl re- cently in. remarking that it did not matter , whether or not. a stiint was ne>Vi so lon^ as it sold tickets. Thait Metro semi-weekly bulletin, by the way, earns 'a place in the he^ys as one of the few really practical new moves frdm 'a production concern. It is sent to all Metro renters in the shape of brief but fully explanatory .descriptions of stunts worked on Metro pictures. It eliminates the, florid play-up of most suggestion sheets. Joe Weil, of Universal, has been doing, this off and on for years, but Without regular release, working only on certain of the pictures. Metro gives a handful of sane suggestions twice every week and tells them .understandably. ,, . Managershad a chance to sell Shakespeare this year. In most spots it gave a good approach to the schools, and ih this way it probably was helpful, but the average man- ager is willing to wait, anomer century for some company to film .•Macbeth^ br:)'Lear.* Not popular fentertainment and di icult to sell. But by and large the .closing period was a slack time in exploita- tion fields, with most of the few good ideas, cdniing, as: Usual, from the •small town housies, where the rhanr agers. have to use their brains in- istead of heavy exbloitation cdin. And the spread of the chain i is cutting. do\vn the number di small tinie .hustlers. Not a bright outlook. Dental Explpiteer Spokane. ■ Dr. David Gi Coweri, dentist and legislator, gave the largest private theatre party in Spokane hiistor.v when, he: bought out the. 2.300-seater *;ox for a special Christmas Eve inprning showing of 'Stowaway' to . poor children and orphans. He gave ;tnem candy, too. The doctor, once^a newsboy; served turkey dinner to 100 newsies on Christmas Day. Also, fed >v]ld ducks Oh the-Spokane rivep. suffering from cold and ice. V Orphans not taken care of bv Dr. «-owen were treated td a show and candy at the iGrartada by H. D. Mc- "ride, owner and manager. * " co- operation with. Spokane Press. liewsreel Revue . . Reginai Larry Grayburn,. of the .^metropolitan , theatre , gave a review, of the year as a mid- ftlf^^^ Jeature .during the holidays. ine.show included bowling, basket- Sn^ -^,1.^°^^^ donkey baseball. ruchv^' wild animals, table tennis. otherVtt,^^*.^'' .sP°'^ts. fishing and «Owd attend^d'^'"^ Advance Xlbpe Bill Hendricks, the Warner Memphis theatre, vraised .from a pup by. Harold Waughj. .zohe manager, whb has .tui-ned. but a lot; of good men, sends in- stunt 583 from his new book on eiiploitation, which iS: going through ,the mill under Chick: LeVvis,' eye and will, be 'published by him. It's a' Combiriatibn -bf the Christmas Card idea and the Christmas seal, and: ;while .it is too late for' thiS' year's holiday,. Hendricks is going to put . it .over the jumps shbr|;ly as a tryout. The gadget is an adhesive stamp, similar to the Red Cross seals, but several times; larger. Each tieket is serially ., numbered for .accounting purposed, and will be bbiind into books of: 20.-or 25, bound with wax paper interleaves, the same as the pbstoffice stamp books. May be ^bought singly, if desired, .The . face of the stamp .carries the iniOrmatibn that presentatibh of: the card .'at the door will adniit the holder to the iheatre as the giiest ^df the person whpse name is signed to. the card. Two or hibre stamps may be affixed/ if more: admissions., are :sent. Just a variant of an bid idea,-but valuable in that it. will peirmit the senders to use cards'bf their own se;- ■lection and. sentiment instead of - be- ing liniited to. the. theatre's stock card. . And from this .angle it; is- a .distinct advance. That bodk sounds like it is going to be good. ^Boy;Manager ■ Taking a due from .the various boy maydr stunts dn BoyS' .Weekj a. man- ager made a .bieanup; on a- picture with a juVienilC: herd ■'thrbugh. ap- pointing, a local, boy:; as manager of the theatre for the two-day engage- nrient. •There Was .a formal election held by the Boy Scouts with all local troops participating* and. with'four candidates. The lucky boy was per- mitted to. select a press agent and ia. billing crew and with some aid from the manager put on a vigbroUs cam- paign, with every kid. in ..town bdost- ing'for the picture: in various, ways^ The stunt was good for. four ndwsr paper -stories, a scout parade, mer- chant co-operation in windows and on delivery wagons and . a nightly, concert by the scout's bugle' band. Receipts were well above, average and the manager was so pleased with the: result he prbvided the troop to which , the 'manager'- belonged with a new trdop banner. Just ianother instance of capitalizing local interest, and best for th& smaller towns, but it can be rUn off in a city: with a bi -. ger blow-up. ^ With. 'Penrpd and Sam* comihg along presently, it looks , like a nat- ural for this titled, but it can be worked on any kid pictures, and if taken lip in time it is probable that the. studio will arrange for some, co- operation from that end. If. it can be timed in with the regular Boys' Week campaign,, sd niuch the better, but it is godd enough to' stand on its own legs, if that period is. tbp far away, and perhaps can be repe^ated when the local organizaitidn again stages'its drive. Trick Autos :Trick. automobiles seem td haVe gone into ■ the discard lately. "Very few auto stunts are being reported, and yet sdme gags can be easily and cheaply worked. One good gag is the streamer on the 'Windshield, where these . are. permitted; Cars come to the theatre for their strips and ai week iater return to claim :ia paiir of lithograph tickets the: streamer is still in place. Streamers are; pasted td the glass so. they can- not be . removed. before the' payoff' and then replaced for'ticket . claim;-: ing. If a sufficient number of ;cars can be lined, up, the cross-eyed stunt is a good one. Circular discs ,of . trans- parent ..paper are printed ' up with house and title'. These are pasted to the headlights closest to the bonnet; to give a cross-eyed: effect. Ndt easy to . read the printing, but if a suffidient number of dars is lined uU, just the sight of them reminds of the title. These' discs shoiild ba greeri or , red. and not printed on white paper. > Bucking . cars . with bhe or more wheels off-ceiiter on the: axle, are al\yays good for attention if- the bonhet and sides ai'e lettered. Any blacksmith can .alter a wire wheel to allow.a play of two or three'inches'. .Tod much divergence is .bad:;in that it takes; tob much poWen There .used to: be dozens of: these cars in theatre garages. Now they, seem-, to be limited , organization. Units for ■ conventibn purpdses.;: •.- And . don't forget the: -driveriess' car with .the bperatdr: working be-; hihd a black scrim, but Hby the samd token: dbh't forget to, tal^e out special ihsui-ance policy" against.. didents. Cheaper thaii possibly ! ing damages. '.. Conventionaiity Take his paste pot away from the average manager and'he lyould prob- ably get discouraged. He is so Used to pasting up his. niaterial that it never seems to occur to . him these days that he might be. able to write copy better schemed tb his particu-' lar clientele. ,:it never occurs td hirn tb be original. And yet shiart selling does ndt mean fdlldwing the lines of least resistance. It means a different and, striking appeal. An almost historical example ; of what it means, was. the advertising done by the late George Bleich, of Owehsboro, Ky.^ . Bleich had booked Pararhdunt's feature With Enrico Ca- ruso. Then he saw it. When he got back hdihe he Idoked despairingly at !Ms press bbdk dh the pictui'e.;: He knew perfectly Well that if he' u:sed the. fulsome copy and sold his .pa- trons they 'would land on his heck. So he wrote 'This isn't much bf a picture; but you've heard him on his records. Now cbrne and see what, he looks like.',. He capitalized curibsity and wbn without a single backfire. Cariiso Idoked:. all right. It's not often, that such an outr standing opportunity offers, but the same idea can be worked in other ways- As ejtample, a manager started his space with .'Thebdore goes wild.' So wili you; w>ien you see. the way the comedy " this picture builds up. It's not. just another pic:- ture. It's one of the big. laUgh:*; of the season. Ddh't let dth.ers.tell yo.u what you missed, iSee it yourself a.s a personal favor to your funnybone,' This was set in -straight 12-point rornan instead of display. It/Idoked like nothing else on the page, so it got; first reading as against a lot bf conventionaliiy set ad.s. . Put in a little time and thought hqyf and then and collect. leinten Sl;untB Lent is coming pretty sbon, and it's just as'well "to get ready .riow; One.; louse is aliready set on a-'Scheme, tb tie in the vanoiis church aid societies td the usual ticket slump. Any or- ganization registei;ed in advance rrtay obtain tickets to be;Sbld on a 10% commission for the. benefit of the church. There will bei . bonus of $20 to the organization making the largest sale. , Idea behind the gag is that many sales effbrts: may fail aind yet be cashed at the bdx office. It worked that, way in a stunt tried a couple of years ago. . In any eveht the direct approach: .is- to :thdse church people leiast; apt to patronize the . theatre during the pennitentiial period, . . Morning lecture courses, illustrated by travel films and described by some local clergyman or schbdi; offi-? cial are always in order, and: the cooking schOdl idea is another^ stunt that will bring the good ladies out and help reconcile them to the idea of a theatrical performance. Another gag, that is best worked through a local flbrist, is either the. free distributiph, of lily .bulbs:, for forcing;or their isale at;cut prices tq those registered in. a lily contest. Ef dquentiy the , florist, will make. a nice profit oh the sale of additional bulbs. , Blbdms' are judged at' the theatre the ..day befdre Easter, and may then be'done^ted to the churches dr. taken home agairi.V Prizes aS Ib'w as $5, $3 and' $2 ;will bring, out a heavy coinpetitibn ih the sniallei: .spots, but in ohe large ;city: a- mezza nine competitive; display by. seVeral florists got wide . newspa^i" atteri- tion. .> Selection of the -winner was made by audienc.elbaUbt. : :Few. spdts are so free from the Lehteh influence as riof^to need-sonie pumptoring, ;; St. Louis. Newly cdnstructed Star.. Sheldon., Ia., repnened. Harold Schroeder; new owner df Lakeview, Lakeview. Ia., formerly operated by W.. O. Gallowa.y. Grand. Conway, Ark., reopened. ' C. P." Washmdn -recently, sold Rio, 'Van Buren, Ark., to Malcd .Theatres.; Ihc. Cdnipany recently cdnstructed new house, in Pine Bliiff; Ark., to be known as Malco. ■ ;■ Wiggins,' in Paris, Ark,, noW ready for business. L. P. Wallace has purchased Har- lem, Kinloch, Mo„ from R. B; Sexton. C D. . Western has transferred Dixie, Linrieus. Mp., to Jack. Hannoh, Cardwell, Cardwell, Mo., newly constructed, now in operatidn. Padlocks ■ placed on New' Puxico. Puxico, Mo. Lee J ones is riew.owner of. Perkins. Harrisdnville, Mb. Formerly op- erated by.A. T". Perkins,. C.^ D. New has transferred Lathrop, Lathrop, Mo., to B. Waers. Delca. Pbtosii Mo., ndW owned by Harry Blount. Gem. Richland. Mo., formerly op- erated by T. .E. Wilhoit. now under management of R. "Parsons. Civic Junidr, formerly the Mystic. Webb City, Mo., now operated by L, Pi Larsen, C M. Clay, owner Liberty, Mexico, Md., erecting another. hdUse to be kndwn as the Rex, alsp in Mexico, Rialto, Granite City,. Ill,, under management of Sidney, H, Johnson. R; B. Beck and W. E. Waring are new owners of Community, Ziegler. 111. Ritz, formerly; Empire^, same tbwh', ppei'ating again. Princess, Colchester; 111., how un-; der.mana.gement of T. H. Smith,' Dpminic FriSina. Taylorville. III., has taken bver Ahatolei: Bridgeport. 111.;;' V Gem. Beardsto^yri, opened.. Cuba,: Cuba, Mo.:, shirttered. , Lyceum, Manchester, Md., in in pperatibn, Seattle, liffective Jan, 10, ; Hal E. Daigler, inariager of Paramount . theatre^ Portland,, and former,.assistant to John Hamrick, will be assistant td Seattle Manager.. Hamfick, succeed- ing E. E. Barker, ■ ; George; Applyby will be trans- ferred .manager of Goiisetirh to nianagement of Blue Mouse, Music; ;Box and Playhouse, all in Portland, succeeding Herb. Sbbottka. who will become rhahager of . Paramount, Portland'' . , Spokane. ., Wiltar unk) Seale boupht the Rialto ■ ih . illyard; suburb;. and started operating .it Jan, 1, Scale has: been assistant manager of the r- pheum, . .;" Jame.s .Keefe, asst. manager at the FdXi was' moved to the Orpheum in the same capacity, JameS: Ashlockv: a.ssistaht at the Liberty, moved td the Fox. Dick Reed moved up at the Liberty from head dpdrman and was: replaced by Wiliam Bigelow. from the Orpheum, CahtPn, Valentine here, one of the pioneer downtown movie houses has com. pletefd the installation of a modern marquee, Joei Calla, .ihianagi^r, hais announced. • Nat Levy, R:KO district manager^ Herb Greeriblatt;' from Clevelahc and Stanley Jacques, has closed a deal with Tracy Barham for Para- mount- houses at. Marion; Middle- town and' Hamiltdh, O. . A hew : 550 seat- motibn picture theatre will be built at Wadsworth. 0„ ;near Akron,. by- the Wadsworth Enterprises, headed by Earl Seitz artd 'John Dammi pn site already dptioned there.: New Comerstown, O. Harvey and- Clarence Ortt* former owners of . the Ritz here .have pad-, locked the doors of the hbuse. which now is operated by. the -Twin. City Theatre Co. of Uhrichsville. Air though r^either pf the. men would; state the': cause for their action, it was understood they . charged a breach df contract. E, E. Bair^ former manager of \the. Twin City Theatre Co. and now asisistant manager since the appointment of Attorney Matthew Smith as manager was in charge of the house. Lincdln. Yearend divvy for local theatres included handouts of $10. to $30 per employe at the Westland Theaters, flgui-ed at the rate of $10 per year of service. George O; Monroe, indie operator-of the Colonial, gave out $10 all around. Bob Li-wingstdn, Capi'tdl, believeS. iri bonuses oh weekly b'asis. Eveiry good week he. bbdsts. the checks from $3 to $5. Lincoln Thea- ters Corpi; didn't hand over any ddugh direct but:allb.wed every em- ploye: 20% commission for sale of combo greeting and admission cards, SO' sortie: of the group cahje: off -with $15 to $20. •Lds Angeles. Jiack Nelson; mahagef df the Fox- West Coast Parisian theatre, has been transferred to the Nile, Bakers^ field. He replaces 'Walter Mbrris, who Will be given an assighmient here. Lyhdhburg. . Neighbdrhobd Theatres, Irtc;, of Richmondj has bought the site of the Lee Theatre at Sduth . Boston, Va,, which wa.s destroyed by fire, about two: rnpnth.s ago, and will piit up a hew house immediately. Scrantoh. Thomas Killeen is shifted from the Capitol, this city, to Strand; Bing- hamton, N, "Y,. He is Succeeded by Byron Lynn, of the Rodsevelt, this city, who.se plaice in turn was .given to Harold Ma.son. whp had been at the Rialto, alsd» thiis city. Digging for Diggers irvirig Windisch, of the ■ N. Y. Strand, pinned plenty on 'The Gold Diggers Of '37' before it opened at his house. He hodkbd-the Mirror td _ pepigriaim* contest a.; week in ad- vance,, contributing $50 in cash and 10 pairs of tickets for prizes for. the best kidding iteni working ; in.. the title. It brought in an average of 15;000 replies. daily, which is plenty of response. 1Q,000 .small photographs of the girls, solo,; were handed out to men only on street corners .and a splashy ^ cblor.card wasused by Postal Tele- .j,. graph to promote Christmas^ and •'?*-' ^eW Year's greeting wires. Warners Supplied ; the cards and the ::»rire company looked after the distri . ion-and, window .displays. ■ Eor three weeks in advance , a Sil-;. louette cutter made black paper pdr-; : . traits of Strihd patrons. Each was mounted on a card with advejljisin^g; for 'Diggers* and presumably shown, td all the recipient's friendsi ' iving a wide distribution per card. A local dance hall held a two- night waltz contest hameid after the pix with plenty; advertising in- the. hall-and at the: Brdadway. entrance;. Outside sign was 40x60 f eief. • Beauty, shops tb'pk '200 easel, back cards ; of Joah Blondell's' baircomb, and. stills and cards made the. grade in numerous windows' hot'-.generally given to theatre displays^ . About; 15,000 autographed. stills: of Diek Powell were' given/ the :departmeht stores idr distributibh thrbugh: their mUSic::depat'tments, and; Max Factbr came in hekyy With explbitatipn ,x. Smash '• Windows ■ . . .Seemis to be- about tune!-to revive ; one: of' Eli Mi -Orowitz's did ideas. ItV just the old ringed:ifhbto.stunt, but' the way Emb wbked it, it was gdpd for plenty Windows,' Merchants were': contracted in iadvance to do- nate, a generous; space /to the .adver- tising on a picture. Ih fhe'center of each .display was .a ca'rd letteted: .'In . this space oh (date) will be displayed a girdup picture madei.:by the Arcade -.^i^- theatre's itinerant phdtoglrapher. On ' this will be tinged a certain huniber of faces. If yours is <»e of that for*?, tunate :grouip, call at the Arcade and iieceive tWo tickets fOf;'(feature) playing Monday to W^^dnesday of next;Week. The'photograph on dis^ play hiere will be .fdtmd in ho other window* -Be sure to visit bur win* dow on Pfiday. On Thursday the photographer shaitped a. sufficierit hiunber of . crowd exposures, td: give one . for each of the windows con- tracted, but he made nearly 50 ej^r posures without a plate in the cam- era. Cheap throwaways explaiheid the stunt and, listed the: windows where; the. winners: would be dis- played. Friday morning the cards wei-e jplaced in the Windows,, each with three faces ringed. Ticket hunt- ers had:tp visit all the windows, since,. each photo was diffiereht, and tl^t gave the co-operating merchants a real chance to display goods. The same stunt has worked Well as a:'newspaper co-operation, but in a way it is even better as . a store stunt, siiice it spreads the idea over. Orowitz origmated the stunt tot a Philadelphia drug , stote and the traffic cops had to ride the sidewalk to keep pedestrians .inoving. Intensiye Plug Sphiethinff new in exploitation has ^' been devised by Warner Bros.' press department for 'Black Legion.' Un- der the supervision of B. F. Moore, staff nien are contacting the editors of all foreign newspapers in New York and inviting them tb previews. Three, screenings will be given each week pridr to the opening of the Strand late in the ihbnthv Angle is that 'Black Legion' deals with the activities Of that organization against the foreign born, as brought out in the newspaper reports. ;. On the Record . Joe MI'eil, of Universal, wound VP his year With a stunt for New Year'ij eve. Those on the list received an exclusive pressing of special doiible-faced; phonbgraF»h disc re- cdrding two songs sung: by Deahna Durbin in her new pic. Each ; Was numbered, like a limited edition book, and was personally auto- gi-aphed to the recipieht; by the star. All carried out. in Weil's mbst im- pressive style and making for lot of attention. Sacramento. New Yolo theatre, owned by J. F Garrelte, and operated by. "William Cornwcli;.. opened here. Structure replaces house, razed by fire. Seats 800. Tied to Twins Charlotte, Nv C; The News here again.tfed; up. With the Imjperial theatre in- a coupbn clipping stunt. . This time it was promotion for 'Our Relation.^,' .with Stan Laurel and. Oliver Hairdy, fea- turing twins in story. The News carried ;a, coupdn. Thl.s,,: when clipped and filled in by; twins, admitted the pairs to see. the picture. Publicity said twins were guests df the newspaper at the theatre. Coupon was printed on front page of paper's second sectidn. The . paper also grinted a picture df the. first assem- ly of twins that fnpeared v/ith coupons.