Boxoffice-January.17.1953

standout Entries for 'Caribbean
Win Paramount Cash Avfards
Above, award winning entries in lobby
and front displays submitted by F. H.
Stiles, Uptown, Richland, Wash., at left,
and by P. A. Lentz manager of the Palace,
Jacksonville, at right.
Paramount's exploitation contest on
"Caribbean" attracted a volume of campaign
entries from theatremen intent on winning
a share of the $1,000 in prizes offered for outstanding
showmanship in various facets of
promotion.
Theatremen who shared this bounty in
equal prizes of $200 savings bonds were F. H.
Stiles, manager. Uptown. Richland, Wash.;
Phillip A. Lentz, manager. Palace. Jacksonville,
Fla.; John Langford, manager, Strand,
Ogdensburg, N. Y.: R. A. Langston. ad-manager
Florida State Theatres. Jacksonville, and
Eugene Pleshette and Janet Fine, manager
and publicist of the Paramount in Brooklyn.
Two of the winning contenders represented
extremes in theatre operation—the big city
exploits of the Brooklyn Paramount staff and
the smaller town techniques which were demonstrated
by John Langford of the Strand.
Ogdensburg.
In the latter situation, Langford started his
campaign by .selling the local high school on
sponsoring a benefit show with the picture.
Students established inter-class rivalry to sell
the greatest number of tickets. A portion of
the receipts was donated to the year book fund
and in addition to serving as an incentive to
sell tickets, the benefit received excellent
newspaper publicity from the local daily as
well as three Canadian papers.
The unique phase of the Ogdensburg campaign
which was singled out by the exploitation
contest judges was a tieup with the operators
of a ferry which plies between the
community and Canada.
The Strand plays to a large percentage of
patrons who come from Canada. For the first
time, the ferry boats were posted with banners
on both sides proclaiming the theatre
playdates. Advertising had never been used
on these boats previously. There was no cost
involved to the theatre.
To get his ad message firmly implanted in
the minds of residents, Langford posted a .sixsheet
on each side of a local delivery truck.
He got bumper strips on a fleet of cabs and
posted signs on all buses serving the area.
The radio station sponsored a "Caribbean"
guessing contest for eight days at a cost of a
few theatre passes. An u.sher in pirate costume
walked the downtown shopping section
with a sandwich sign and distributed special
heralds.
On opening night of the picture, the high
school band led a parade of students to the
theatre and entertained a large street crowd
before show time.
For the "Caribbean" engagement at the
Paramount in Brooklyn. Manager Gene
Pleshette and publicist Janet Fine promoted
two two-week vacations at a Miami Beach
hotel appropriately named "Caribbean."
Through attractive lobby displays and newspaper
stories, the public was invited to submit
Below, three phases of lohn Langford's
campaign in Ogdensburg show signs on
truck van, American-Canadian ferry and
public transportation buses.
letters on why they would like to win the
vacation trips. Every available space in the
huge theatre lobby was occupied by colorful
poster cutouts, some as big as 25 feet in
height.
The front of the theatre was equally
dramatic in effect. A skull and crossbones
mounted on a black flag was hung across the
corner facade of the building, almost three
stories high. Adjacent to this was a 14-foot
cutout of John Payne in action pose. At sidewalk
level, flanking the entrance, were two
ma-ssive display pieces which had been used
in the lobby to stimulate advance interest in
the picture.
A borough-wide tieup with Barton's candy
shops based on a contest produced 13 displays
in windows and earned the Paramount
team top honors and cash for the best window
tieup.
A ballyhoo couple, attired a-s pirates and
wearing sa.shes appropriately lettered to exploit
the dates, attracted sufficient attention
to rate a five-column picture on page one of
the Brooklyn Daily.
Under the heading of public relations, a
tieup with the Navy Yard Boys club netted
additional newspaper and radio publicity for
the picture. The entire membership of the
club was invited to be guest of the management
at the Saturday matinee prior to the
opening of "Caribbean." To gain admission,
each member had to attend in pirate costume
and Pleshette awarded prizes for the most
unusual and colorful outfits.
30 — 14 — BOXOrnCE Showrmandiser :: Jan. 17, 1953