From Zombos' Closet

Pressbook: Chandu on the Magic Island (1935)

Only 4 pages, but packed with promotional material for Chandu on the Magic Island, with Bela Lugosi. The original serial was edited down to 2 movies, The Return of Chandu and Chandu on the Magic Island. One of Lugosi's best roles, but often forgotten between his Dracula and Ygor triumphs.

 

A Study in Terror (1965) Pressbook

I already posted the herald for this movie, so here's the pressbook. Notice anything odd about it? What's a reference to Batman doing here? The first air date for the popular and influential Batman television series, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, was in 1966. American distributors for A Study in Terror must have thought linking Sherlock Holmes with the more campy Batman would be a good butts in seats gimmick. Wow. Great way to sell a horror movie starring two iconic figures, one fictionally good, one all too real evil.

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Movie Herald: A Study in Terror (1965)

Here's the theater giveaway to help promote the showing of  A Study in Terror with John Neville as Sherlock Holmes. While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had engaged in speculation as to who Jack the Ripper really was, his fictional creation never did. 

Return of Chandu (1934) Publicity Pressbook

Here's a very special pressbook from the closet vault. It's the 12 x 17 inches Publicity Book for The Return of Chandu. This, the Advertising Book, and a theater giveaway Chandu Mask were presented in a large, eye-grabbing folder. Quite an impressive promotional presentation for this serial starring Bela Lugosi.

Comic book reader version: Download Return of Chandu

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Pressbook: Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

That look of Richard Denning in the poster art? Priceless. You don't often (pretty much never, really) see a man recoil in terror in movie poster art. Women are the helpless, emotional victims, not men. I wonder what he thought about it when he saw what the marketing team had dreamed up? Love the coloring page. One of these days I'll compile a post on coloring pages used for movie publicity. Kind of odd, kind of fun, they're a promotional gimmick I'm not sure as to their effectiveness, and who the targeted audience was for them.

Double Bill Pressbook: The Abominable Snowman and Ghost Diver

Pressbook: Midnight (1982)

Pressbook: Nurse Sherri (1978)

And since Nurses for Sale wasn't enough for trashy 1970s cinema...here's Nurse Sherri...drawn by Gray Morrow.

Pressbook: The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)

Okay, so the movie's appalling, but the lurid artwork isn't. And there's a 3D version for this movie!?

Pressbook: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Movie Herald: The Abominable Snowman (1957)

This tabloid-sized, 4-page, herald for The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas, is quite an ambitious promotion gimmick.

Pressbook: Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

Originally titled Pajama Party in a Haunted House, this last of the beach party pictures from AIP (although there's no beach, just a pool), left AIP unhappy after wrap-up, so Boris Karloff and Susan Hart were called in to film scenes that would be added into the movie (Wikipedia). Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon didn't make it into this one, although they appear in the other six beach movies.