HOW TO PROMOTE A GOLEM

ballyhoo; noun

bal·​ly·​hoo

1: a noisy attention-getting demonstration or talk

2: flamboyant, exaggerated, or sensational promotion or publicity

3: excited commotion

Aside from the box office attraction of popular stars and the heavy advertising by studios of their films, movie theater owners employed their own kind of promotion to lure customers. One of the earliest and most common was the use of large, colorful and dramatic posters and lobby cards supplied by the studios themselves, but it was left to theater owners to make sure they were plainly visible both on the outside and the inside of their venue. Later, pressbooks were printed by studio publicity departments and distributed to exhibitors with information on how to order posters and other visual displays, as well as suggestions on how to effectively bring added attention to their latest feature using canned radio spot scripts and other ideas. 

Among numerous other promotional strategies was to decorate the interior or exterior (or both) of the theater using thematic elements from the film advertised on the marquee (KING KONG is a good example). Often facilitated by the studios, these marketing gimmicks were dubbed ballyhoo (aka exploitation) by the press, and it was all designed specifically to create interest and excitement, as well as stimulate profits.  

One very early example of ballyhoo was for the 1920 German silent expressionist film, THE GOLEM, starring Paul Wegener, released in the United States on June 19, 1921 by Paramount Pictures.

Paramount exploitation representative Fred V. Greene, Jr. devised an idea that was fairly spectacular for the day: he had a sculpture designed of Paul Wegener as the mystical Jewish avenger known as The Golem for display at the Criterion Theater in New York. Purported to be 18 feet tall, it doesn't look quite that when compared to the man standing next to it in the photo, but it's still visually impressive. The statue was created at Brunton Studios (later bought by Paramount) at a cost of the then-princely sum of 50 dollars! An additional number of 3 foot statues were made for the purpose of window displays. There were also several hundred Golem figures cast in lead (!) and distributed as watch charms.

Greene's second idea was to add advertising for the picture printed on the top of beach umbrellas, which was ingenious as it was the height of summer season in New Jersey.

Exhibitors Herald, September 10, 1921.

A later edition of the EXHIBITORS HERALD (September 24, 1921) more correctly states the height of the Golem statue as being 12 feet tall. Written by another Paramount publicist, Eli M. Orowitz, he emphasizes that exhibitors "will make a gross error if they narrow the appeal [of THE GOLEM] to the Jewish population alone" (it played heavily in New York's East Side, known for its concentrated Jewish population), and goes on to explain the uniqueness of the film and what has been done in the way of ballyhoo to promote the film to all audiences. One of his suggestions to get the word out was to pass out handbills printed in English on one side and Yiddish on the reverse.