Page 17 - CinemaRecord #83

city centre at 8pm. Billy Maloney had hired a match them. Hoyts
set of searchlights and an anti-aircraft gun crew continued to fight off any
th
of 30 with four guns from the 15 Battalion as challenge with giveaways
part of a mock air attack on the city. The in the Regent foyer, movie
gunners were stationed on the rooftop of theme nights at the
nearby Heindorff House, while the Avro- Trocadero Dansant where
Avian plane came from Eagle Farm airfield. dancers could win fancy
The stunt was staged as promotion for the dress prizes, and even
movie The Sky Hawk opening the next day at newspaper quizzes for
the Regent. The plane with ‘Sky Hawk’ in theatre passes.
large letters painted under its wings, piloted by
Captain Ronald Adair, also performed some During one night in April
night aerobatics, pinpointed by searchlights, 1931, Maloney’s team
on the following Tuesday evening. cheekily painted a white
line down the footpath in
Not surprisingly, a huge crowd assembled in Queen Street with “Keep to
Queen Street to watch the battle, as did many the Left, Within the Law”
others in the adjoining inner suburbs. A stenciled on each side.
lengthy report appeared in The Brisbane They also painted the same
Courier next day, while other newspapers gave slogan right across the
extensive coverage. A case of mission pedestrian crossing point
accomplished for the publicity team at the near the theatre. Needless
Regent. to say, city hall was not too
impressed and made them
clean it off next day. But
the publicity for the feature
film Within the Law was
priceless.

When the movie Imagine,
which looked 50 years
ahead into the future,
screened at the Regent in June 1931, the
Regent invited Brisbane students to write an often arrange for shop-front displays
essay describing what they thought Brisbane advertising a coming movie. Sometimes
A Gypsy Moth aeroplane was also used for would be like in 1980. The winning entry by theatre tickets could be redeemed at the box
general advertising for the theatre. The 11-year-old Evelyn Marsland was published office for gift packs such as cosmetics, biscuits,
underside of the wings were painted with large in The Telegraph newspaper and she won five cigarettes and chocolates. There was even a
scone baking competition. Entrants had to
“Regent” lettering and it was flown over the pounds five shillings ($340 in today’s value)
Eagle Farm Racecourse during race meetings for her effort. By the late 1930s, the Regent deliver a batch of six plain scones to the Regent
and over inner Brisbane to grab the public’s Teleradio Crossword puzzle was an institution Manager. The prize was a silver cup for the
best batch.
attention. in The Telegraph. Weekly prizes of two
guineas ($136 today) and six double theatre
Throughout the 1930s, city theatres tried their passes were given to the first seven entries, When the Warner’s film The Crowd Roars
opened at the Regent in July 1932, the publicity
best to outdo each other with publicity stunts. later increased to 14 prizes. team again swung into action. They hired the
The Regent held such overwhelming pulling sportiest car in town, a Minerva racer, painted
power for patrons that other theatres’ publicity Depending on the target audience and theme the movie name on its side and, with a pseudo-
departments had to work doubly hard to try to of a movie, the Regent publicity team would
race driver and mechanic on board, drove
around the city in the days prior to the movie
release. Later, the red Minerva with a miniature
version visited local schools and handed out
over 5000 postcards to excited schoolboys.

For The Sign of the Cross in September 1933,
a chariot from the movie drawn by three horses
was driven around the city by a Regent staff
member dressed in the authentic Roman garb
of the leading actor to promote the film. It got
some curious looks, which led to increased
ticket sales that week. Even the city tram fleet
was used to promote movies. So popular were
movies that the tramways company kept several
special slab-sided trams just for theatre
advertising and the passenger less trams were
driven across the city emblazoned with movie
posters.

Billy Moloney was transferred south in 1936
to manage and promote Hoyts’ Sydney theatres.
He later went on to write scripts for Movietone
News and radio serials, worked on radio,
managed a cinema in Cairns, North Queensland
and sat on the Australian Film Board of Review.

CINEMARECORD # 83 17