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We've recently had the amazing opportunity to look at the Point Blank (1967) press book, and we were charmed by MGM's attempts to do the impossible: market Boorman's neo-noir masterpiece as Lee Marvin's first romantic lead role. Go over on Tough Business and check out the press book highlights for yourself! (x)
Press Workbook for Puss N' Boots (1964) dir. by Roberto Rodríguez and Manuel San Fernando
Puss N' Boots is the English name given to the Mexican film El Gato con Botas (1961), starring actor Santanón in the lead role. Of note from this page of the press book, which was sent to exhibitors, are the specific directions by distributor K. Gordon Murray, who claimed to have a "tried and proven...formula of selling special children's pictures and has been used in the largest cities and the smallest village." This was unusual for press workbooks, which usually left exhibition plans to the theaters.
Below is a transcript of "The Plan" Murray devised:
This picture will be shown on MATINEES ONLY on your play dates.
You will schedule three showings on weekdays at 12 o'clock noon, second at 2 p.m., and the third at t:00 p.m.
On Sundays and Holidays you will schedule TWO showings ONLY, first at 1:00 p.m. and the second one at 3:00 p.m.
You will schedule showings on your regular attractions playing on these dates to fill out your normal schedules.
Running time of features is 91 minutes. The program should run 1 hour 55 minutes, so you will need 24 minutes of shorts, trailers, etc.
There is a "One Price" admission policy of .50 to everyone, so that every person is a child to see PUSS N' BOOTS.
The distributor is furnishing extensive TV coverage in the key spots and all areas will be saturated with TV advertising. The distributor pays for the TV campaign 100%.
TERMS for this attraction are 50%. There are no reductions or adjustments to anyone.
K. Gordon Murray is credited with "inadvertently assisting in the creation of a certain subgenre of film that flourished in and around the 1960s" called "children's grindhouse films," referring to the name for theaters that usually showed low-budget exploitation films.
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
“A metaphor is an expression in which one kind of thing is understood and experienced in terms of another entirely unrelated thing; the metaphors in a language can reveal aspects of the culture of its speakers. Take, for example, the concept of an argument. In logic and philosophy, an argument is a discussion involving differing points of view, or a debate. But the conceptual metaphor in American culture can be stated as ARGUMENT IS WAR. This metaphor is reflected in many expressions of the everyday language of American speakers: I won the argument. He shot down every point I made. They attacked every argument we made. Your point is right on target. I had a fight with my boyfriend last night. In other words, we use words appropriate for discussing war when we talk about arguments, which are certainly not real war. But we actually think of arguments as a verbal battle that often involve anger, and even violence, which then structures how we argue.
To illustrate that this concept of argument is not universal, Lakoff suggests imagining a culture where an argument is not something to be won or lost, with no strategies for attacking or defending, but rather as a dance where the dancers’ goal is to perform in an artful, pleasing way. No anger or violence would occur or even be relevant to speakers of this language, because the metaphor for that culture would be ARGUMENT IS DANCE.”
Linda Light in “Perspectives : An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology”.
SPACE VIKINGS of the future will probably resemble scientists Martha Hyer and William Lundigan in their "Riders to the Stars" get-ups.
What do you think "Space Vikings" would look like?
From the pressbook for Riders to the Stars (1954) dir. Richard Carlson. The full pressbook cover is below the cut.
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
Congratulations! You boiled horror movies down to their bare essentials!
Pressbook for They're Coming to Get You (1975) dir. Sergio Martino
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
Interesting Find of the Week #2: A pressbook for A Warm December (1973), starring Sydney Poitier as an African-American doctor and Ester Anderson as the daughter of an African ambassador.
Pressbooks were sent to movie theaters by distributors with material used for advertising, publicity, and exploitation, and were heavily used between the 1930s and 1980s. (Now, of course, they're mostly digital.) While most pressbooks had posters, newspaper advertisements, and ideas for tie-in events (image 2), the pressbook for A Warm December included a "Fashion Mat" insert to promote the clothing Anderson's character Catherine wore (image 3). The outfits were designed by Thea Porter, Zandra Rhodes, and Alexander McGee. The back cover of the pressbook (image 4) reads:
Thea Porter, Alexander McGee, and Zandra Rhoses are three of the top fashion designers now selling in America. Most of the important department stores sell their clothes and Esther Anderson wears their creations in "A Warm December." Arrange with the local store to do window displays of their lines and give credit to the fact that they dressed Sidney Poitier's leading lady in "A War December." Other outlets for local promotions include: Men's Fashions (Poitier is one of the best dressed stars around), Cameras, Motorcycles and Travel Agencies and Airlines (especially Pan Am which is featured importantly in the film).
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
A teeny tiny pressbook for the film The Red Raiders (1927).
Pressbooks are booklets of information for film exhibitors to use when promoting an upcoming movie. Most of the pressbooks in our collection are about 36cm tall, while the book for The Red Raiders is only 14cm!
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
“Any language variation is the result of a number of social, historical, and linguistic factors that might affect individual performances collectively and therefore dialect change in a particular speech community is a process that is continual.”
Linda Light in “Perspectives : An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology”
