From Zombos' Closet

Tarzan's Desert Mystery (1943) Pressbook

Here's the 11x17 inches pressbook for Tarzan's Desert Mystery. While Jane is away helping the war effort, Tarzan must contend with Nazis, hungry plants, and a pesky giant spider. A fun matinee romp in the series, this is the 8th movie for Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. Amazingly, while I'm a big fan of the Tarzan movies, this is the one I have yet to see. It's on my bucket list.

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The Wayward Girl (1957) Pressbook

"Exciting expose of parole racket," The Wayward Girl (not to be confused with The Wayward Girl starring Liv Ullmann) is a 1950s crime movie through and through.  The poster art, especially the color-version, is fairly lurid in mood. 

ComicRack reader version: Download Wayward Girl Pressbook

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Captain Midnight Secret Squadron Code Book and Membership Manual

Captain Midnight's most dastardly villain turned out to be his ex-sponsor, Ovaltine, who owned all the rights to the name. When the television show (he appeared on radio, in the comics, and there was a serial and newspaper strip), went into syndication, Ovaltine forced a name change to Jet Jackson, Flying Commando (see Nostalgia Central). Here is the official code book and membership manual for secret squadron members (you know who you are).

ComicRack reader version: Download Captain Midnight Club Handbook

Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973) Hypnotic Eye Giveaway

Here's a nifty giveaway for Blood Orgy of the She-Devils: the hypnotic eye psychometry test. It's very simple. What do you do to drum up interest in a no-budget horror by Ted V. Mikels? Why, just add orgy and blood in the movie's title and hand out cool stuff like this at the theater. Of course, that would entice me for sure, so I may be biased here. The double-sided card is 4 x 6 inches and I'd die to have a stack of these to hand out as tricks for Halloween. I can see those smiling faces on the kids' parents as I think of it.

 

Sunset Boulevard (1950) British Pressbook

A stunningly sad, desperate, and atmospheric movie, Sunset Boulevard is a flashback narrated by a dead guy, the one you see floating in the middle of the pool at the beginning. How can you not love a story narrated by a dead guy? And he's not even a zombie. He's just really dead. How refreshing. You can read my review.

ComicRack reader version: Download Sunset Boulevard British Pressbook

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2 Nigauds et la Momie (1955) French Pressbook

While the non-American pressbooks can be short on pages and promotional and commercial tie-ins, the artwork and printing layout can be quite creative. Here's the French pressbook for Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.

Mary Poppins (1964) Pressbook Part Two

See Mary Poppins pressbook Part One.

In this second part of the Mary Poppins pressbook is the incredible merchandising. My favorite is the Louis Marx wind-up, but you will find Gold Key comics, Whitman books, records, puzzles, her carpet bag, Golden Books, clothes, and more. Toy merchandising on a grand scale may have started with the Star Wars franchise, but Disney was years ahead in tying loads of merchandise to its movies. 

Mary Poppins (1964) Pressbook Part One

At 44 pages, the pressbook for Mary Poppins is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, indeed. Every Disney pressbook I've seen has an incredible amount of merchandising and promotion packed into it. While the sequel, Mary Poppins Returns was enjoyable, there's magic to be found in the original that cannot be repeated. The Sherman Brothers music score is emotionally compelling and the talent-filled chemistry between Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews certainly does make you want to dance. Using the Edwardian period was a smart move, too. P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins author, may have hated the movie, but boy was she wrong. Everything, from the casting to the set designs, and even the animation, created a wonderful film. Well, maybe except for Dick Van Dyke's cockney accent, perhaps, which he did own up to and apologize for (his voice coach couldn't do one either). But as a kid, I hardly noticed, good or bad. Now that I think of it, it does remind me of when I visited London in 1982 with my father, who couldn't stop himself from using a really bad cockney accent everywhere we went. If looks could kill, we would have been dead for sure. Had I a magic umbrella and a strong wind to carry me away, I'd have left him toot sweet.

ComicRack reader version: Download Mary Poppins Pressbook (this is a big file at 115MB!) See Mary Poppins pressbook part two.

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Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943) Pressbook

It looks like this pressbook for Secret Service in Darkest Africa took quite a trip through the jungle itself. The large format, and at 12 pages, it does still stands out as a promotional seller for this sequel to G-Men vs. the Black Dragon by Republic. This time around the Nazis provide the villainy.

ComicRack reader version: Download Secret Service in Darkest Africa Pressbook

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The Living Dead (1934) Pressbook

The Living Dead, also known as The Scotland Yard Mystery, has another mad scientist somnambulizing people (yes, I think I just made this word up!) into a zombie-ish trance to do his criminal bidding. Since my favorite color is purple I couldn't pass up this pressbook. That poster art is pretty cool too.

ComicRack reader version: Download The Living Dead Pressbook

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Smart Alecks (1942) Pressbook

I'm sure this pressbook was originally eight pages, but six is all I have for now until I can track down another copy. The East Side Kids were quite a movie franchise, especially if you count their various iterations (Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, Bowery Boys) along the way to Monogram. I will say the East Side Kids were my favorite grouping. The ensemble wordplay and relationships were always fun to watch, even if the story wasn't top-notch. Sure, Monogram didn't have a lot of money to kick around, but they made a lot of good, entertaining movies anyway. Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison shows of his hoofing talents in this one.

ComicRack reader version: Download Smart Alecks Pressbook

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Take One Small Step (1949) Pressbook

To see William Powell at the peak of his detection skills, go no further than The Thin Man series. Interestingly, the pressbook tries to play up the humor angle, given Powell's Nick Charles whimsy, but this movie left much of that on the dock before it shipped to theaters.

ComicRack reader version: Download Take One False Step Pressbook

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