Holt of the Secret Service Movie Herald
I posted the Columbia serial pressbook previously. This is the theater herald. Heralds were given out to patrons at the movie theater (or could be distributed through local newspapers), usually before the picture ran, to promote attendance. Heralds came in various sizes and this one is rather long to grab attention. Theaters would print their location on the herald, so room was left for that either on the back side of a one-page herald or on the last page of a four-page one. Heralds were one printed sheet and, depending on the size, could be left unfolded (making two pages) or folded (making four pages). Spanish movie heralds differed from the English theater heralds mostly in size. English heralds leaned to larger sheets while the Spanish heralds were pretty small, pocket-sized, you could say, and two pages. But some of the art on the Spanish heralds is really awesome, like on their lobby cards.
The oldest herald in my collection, so far, dates from 1926 and was for a stage play called The Cradle Snatchers (with a third-billed Humphrey Bogart). For an example of a Spanish herald see The Lady and the Monster. Heralds also came in tabloid size and comic strip style! See Invaders from Mars for an example.
I’ve posted a lot of heralds so do a search on “herald” and experience the art of printed promotion.
