Motion Picture World, 1925
The Unholy Three Ad Spread
Perusing an issue of Motion Picture World, courtesy of Professor Kinema, I was struck by this colorful three-page ad promotion for Lon Chaney's The Unholy Three.
PictureGoer No. 333, 1937
Here's another issue of Picturegoer magazine, courtesy of Professor Kinema. In this issue, No. 333 from 1937, the standouts are: nifty period advertisements; an open letter to actor William Powell, from the editor, congratulating him on his lucrative film contract while condemning the increase in movie theater ticket prices; Max Breen lauds over Maureen O'Sullivan; women dare challenge the pants-wearing in Men Wear the Pants in Pictureland; and Leave It to Anne explains how to keep that slim Hollywood figure the starlets have.
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Picture Show No. 176, 1922
From Professor Kinema's Archives comes this 1922 issue of Picture Show. Page 9's In the Early Days of Pictures provides interesting reading: "Today the production of a single picture is a costly item requiring an army of carpenters, scene painters, electricians, and others, who are frequently at work at the studios day and night." And in Ask the Picture Show on page 23, a reader writes in to complain about "vocals introduced into the programme of a picture theatre he recently visited."
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PictureGoer No. 99, 1933
Courtesy of Professor Kinema's Archives comes this 1933 issue of the British Picturegoer magazine. Aside from the fun of seeing the period ads and getting a glimpse of Hollywood glamour circa 1933, of particular interest to readers of From Zombos' Closet are pages 14 and 15. Did you know that King Kong stood 50 feet high? Or that each of his eyes was 10 inches long?
Comic book reader version: Download PictureGoer Issue 99
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Monster World No. 6, 1965
Here's what I want for Christmas. No, not the magazine! Got that. But every cool send-away-for item in the magazine! In doubles! That's what I want Santa to bring me. While I'm waiting, like the cover says, "Have a Cool Yule" (with or without a ghoul is fine).
Comic book reader version: Download Monster World Issue 6 (Here's more cool monster magazines to read any time of year.)
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Fantasy Magazine Vol. 5 No. 3, 1935
Courtesy of the Professor Kinema's Archives comes another issue of Fantasy Magazine, sent to the Professor by Forrest J. Ackerman some time ago. In this issue, Robert Block writes up a satire, FJA writes another Scientificinematorially Speaking, and Julius Schwartz puts things in focus with The Science Fiction Eye.
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More magazines from Zombos' Closet to drool over.
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Bimbo the Great (1958) Herald
Naming a giant elephant Bimbo just doesn't seem right. What's with the use of names beginning with "B" in circus vernacular anyway?
Sleeping Beauty (1959) Pressbook
Here's the 1970 re-distributed pressbook for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty. When looking at a pressbook from the Disney studios, you first wonder at the amount of merchandising they line up; then you wonder at the care with which they treat their creations. I enjoyed the live-action Maleficent (2014) movie with Angelina Jolie, but not knowing her background makes her all the more sinister fun in this animated movie. She's simply evil. Malevolent beings lose a lot of their mystique and intensity once you start to provide a backstory, don't you think? For instance, for me, Pinhead loses something once we find out who he was. Evil is all the more effective in drama when it simply exists, without reasons for being.
Comic book reader version:Download Sleeping Beauty Pressbook
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A Christmas Carol (Scrooge, 1951)
Mexican Lobby Card
Still the best version of A Christmas Carol on film. At least for me. Eagle-eyed viewers will catch a camera goof: watch closely the mirror that Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim) looks into on Christmas morning. In the right corner of the mirror the camera catches a member of the crew. Oops. There are other goofs, but you'll not notice them. Alastair Sim's Scrooge is too entertaining to miss and the milieu of old London too depressing to ignore.
D.O.A (1950) Mexican Lobby Card
One of the essential film noir movies of the 1950s, D.O.A's grim, deterministic, storyline is captured well in this Mexican lobby card. Film buffs will usually point out the opening tracking shot that follows Bigelow (Edmund O'Brien) as he makes his way to the police detectives who already know who he is, but need the background story to connect the dots. The movie kicks in from there and you feel for the guy. For his neglected gal. And for the crazy, one-in-a-million reason he's dying. The dialog's a bit literary at times, but the momentum from the opening to the ending is always on the mark.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)
Pressbook
There are lots of merchandising tie-ins for Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie: a comic book, a novel, a board game, and Frankie Avalon singing so they could sell some records. Of course the movie version doesn't have space aliens; the television series had the space aliens, and lots of other cool fantasy stuff Irwin Allen tossed in (with lots of sparkly, silvery, and colorfully goofy props and makeup) to make the TV series a must see for kids after Lost in Space became a hit.
Comic book reader version: Download Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Pressbook
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Mad Monsters No. 6, 1963
Charlton Publications joined in the monster magazine mash with Mad Monsters, providing lots of pictures, a little text, and fun monsterkid merchandise to covet. So much to be ordered! So little allowance money to stretch and stretch and stretch. In this issue Queen of Outer Space still looks awful, Boris Karloff is the Man of a Million Horrors, Coffin Capers provides a tidbit of humor, and a Black Zoo Party provides an historical glimpse at movie promotion back in the day.
Comic book reader version: Download Mad Monsters Issue 6
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