Princely India

This press sheet for PRINCELY INDIA, a 1949 Warner Bros. two-reel specialty in Technicolor, was found crammed between two pages in a trade magazine of the same year, and caught my attention, largely because it was on bright yellow paper (not so well reproduced in these scans).

Reading more into it, I find that it was written (and I suppose directed) by Owen Crump, who married into the Fairbanks family, and a few years later directed and wrote his most important film, Paramount's 3-D epic about the Korean War, CEASE FIRE! Crump also produced a couple of interesting features in the Central's library-- GUNN, a feature version of the TV show with a more mature Craig Stevens, and wrote and produced ZEPPELIN, the 1971 epic about the disasterous airship.

Doing a bit more quick research, I find that Crump's credit listings between 1942 and 1952 are vague, at least on the Internet Movie Database. Considering how much information is missing from that site, though, it wouldn't surprise me to learn he spent most of the time doing short subjects and newsreels. PRINCELY INDIA seems to be proof that he was, at the very least, working.

The "supervisor" on the production is George Hollingshead, who hailed from Garfield, New Jersey, a stone's throw from where I live. I don't know what the "supervisor" tag was supposed to be, but judging from his MANY credits as a short subject producer, I can imagine it was their way of saying he produced the short.

According to some of the planted articles, who all refer to the film playing at the strand rather than the generic "..." or "your name here" slugs, Lou Marcelle provided the commentary for the film. Marcelle led an interesting career as a character actor on radio in the '30s and '40s, but film buffs will remember his voice as narrator for such classics as CASABLANCA and DESTINATION TOKYO. For a short period, he was the Paul Frees of his time.

Does anyone know where one can get a copy of this obscure film?

Requires only one foot of lobby space!

A Note to Movie Bloggers...

My Favorite Movie/TV Blogs (in no particular order):

Vitaphone Varieties
Lost British Television
Greenbriar Picture Show
Cartoons on Film
Ferdinand Von Galitzien

These blogs will get links on my sidebar. Did I miss any??

Mystery Movie Continued...

April, 1949. It might have seemed like just another ordinary night in Kansas City. It was a brisk evening, and people were out on the town, participating in the usual activities-- shopping, nightclubs, and most importantly, moviegoing. But at the Paramount on Main Street, something very important was occuring...

Those who had read the movie ads in the paper perhaps saw the notice. "Come TONIGHT," the advertisement said. "See the Hollywood SNEAK PREVIEW of the 'Mystery Movie'!" A preview of a Hollywood film was no new concept. It had been done since the 1920s by producers in order to judge the public's reaction to a film. Perhaps it wasn't even all that uncommon in Kansas City-- after all, it is a major city in the country, and certainly had its share of theaters that could lend themselves to all sorts of experimental usage.

The scene was exactly as seen above. If one drove by and was sharp enough to catch the marquee, they were greeted by "SNEAK PREVIEW" emblazoned on it, and a banner that greeted attendees with "MYSTERY MOVIE" just above the doors to the lobby. People were buying their tickets in a steadfast fashion, waiting... anxious to find out what the movie was, and even more thrilled to give it a "dud" or a "go" with the little card and pencil they were handed out on the way into the theater.

The set-up had a new angle, though. M.D. Cohn, the manager, had worked a deal with Paramount, his home office, to sneak preview their new film, BRIDE OF VENGEANCE, with the Paramount's 1,900 seat auditorium as the location for the test. The Paramount, which was previously the Newman, was built in 1918 and had just been bought by Paramount a year or two previous.

Timing was perfect, as BRIDE was not yet scheduled for release, but was finished, and there was enough time to incorporate public reaction in merchandising plans that were then in preperation. The plan, which was apparently of Mr. Cohn's design, was a well-thought advertising blitz, which resulted in the advertisements placed in the papers, as well as blow-up of the advertisements in one-sheet form on the front of the building.

The screen attraction, EL PASO, with John Payne and Gail Russell, had normal matinee showtimes that ceased at 6:00 PM. Members of the last performance's audiences were welcome to stay for free during the 6:00 sneak preview. Two sneak previews followed at 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM.

However, in the lobby of the audience, a tape recorder picked up natural audience reactions to the film. These tapes were then transcribed on disc and sent to Paramount's ad execs. Everything was done to encourage honest opinions by telling them that the criticisms were for the distributor and producer of the picture. I'm sure there were probably stooges planted in the audiences as well.

The end result was an interesting one, which gives us a little idea of what that particular demographic liked-- there were 120 comment cards filled in. 98 of them were outstanding or good. 22 either thought the film was ok or was bad.

Sneak preview tonight!

Update on Mystery Theater

Here is an update on last week's mystery theater post. According to Ken Layton over at Cinema Treasures:

I live in Olympia, Washington and I can confirm that picture of the "Olympic" is indeed the Olympic theater in Olympia, Wash. It first opened in 1924 as the Liberty Theater. In March of 1948 it was extensively remodeled and the name was changed to the Olympic Theatre. In 1982 it was torn down and the Washington Center For The Performing Arts was built in it's place. The city of Olympia owns & operates this place now.

Thanks for the info, Ken! And thanks to Cinema Treasures for featuring my query on their front page.

"For three days only, coming next week..."

Flipping through trade mags, for a movie theater buff, is like a dream come true. Aside from all of the daily gossip between productions, full color trade ads and exhibitor reviews, there are countless photos of new theaters and theater displays. Even as interesting are the "before and after" theater shots that lined articles such as BoxOffice's "The Modern Theater" section, which promoted you, the Exhibitor, change your gaudy, 1920s-style movie palace into a streamlined, art deco masterpiece.

Within these pages are hundreds of ads of popcorn dealers, air conditioning installers, Filmack ads, and general proprietors of theatrical paraphernalia. While flipping through an April, 1949 issue of BoxOffice, this ad caught my eye, and thus, this week's article was born...


Now, I'm an admitted neon freak, and I love theaters, and obviously their marquees, so you can imagine my reaction when seeing this ad for the Wagner Sign Service. It was fantastic-- not only was THIS an ad placed by a major manufacturer of neon marquees, they were showing some samples of their best work!

What killed me, however, was the fact that they didn't list what each of the theaters were. With clues, names and photos in hand, and armed with omnipresent Internet tools such as Google and Cinema Treasures, I went on my quest. Here is what I discovered in a night's worth of research...

Excuse the poor quality images to follow... you'll have to click on these, of course, to get the full picture.

This one was simple enough. A quick search on Cinema Treasures turned this one up quite quickly. The El Monte Drive-In, located at 9700 Lower Azusa Road, El Monte, CA, on the intersection of Lower Azusa and Ellis Lane, was a creation of one S. Charles Lee, who was responsible for some of the nicer theaters in California, including the now-derelict Fox Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

One source says the drive-in was built in 1948, when the photograph in the ad (and seemingly, all of the photos in the ad) was taken.

As seen to the right, courtesy of UCLA's photo archive, the seating capacity was 791 cars, a fairly decent amount for a down-town drive-in. It seems to have been fairly prosperous in the '50s through the '70s, and made several movie appearances, starting in 1958's ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN. During the '70s, it went to an all-Spanish format, which I imagine in Southern California was a good business choice, based on demographics. Apparently, in 1995, Fred Olen Ray made use of it in his film, BIKINI DRIVE-IN. Interestingly, this short film may have been the last time it was captured in a film. Just a few years later, in 1999, the El Monte was no more, torn down to make way for a Home Depot.

The next photograph was a little bit trickier. I had the name of the theater, but "The Imperial" certainly doesn't say where it's located, and is a somewhat regular name for theaters. It is not, as common a name as the Central, however, and therefore was easy to trace quickly.

This marquee seen belongs to The Imperial Theatre in Cincinnati, OH. Built in 1913, it first served local audiences with family programming. By the 1960s, however, it was turning to more adult fare, ending in 1978 as the Imperial Follies Theatre, running X-rated material, with live burlesque acts in between. The building is now gutted, but the marquee, complete with its neon crown, which made it easy for me to track down, and exterior still remain.


There are hundreds of Rialto theaters in the world-- the name caught on like a wildfire after the New York Rialto first opened its doors. This, my search for this Rialto, seen to the right, was next to impossible, but it was done.

At first, I thought it could have been a Rialto in Texas because of the booth and similar positioning of the one-sheet frames in the front, but the marquee was all wrong.

One by one, I clicked on each listing on Cinema Treasures 150-something results. Fate was kind to me, and I found it early in the list-- the Rialto Theater, located on 2616 S. Calhoun Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The 700 seat theater opened its doors in 1924. The theater was augmented by another 300 seats through the addition of a balcony during the 1940s. It was probably around this time that this new marquee was added. The theater saw its good and bad days-- in the early '80s, it was a Spanish movie theater, followed a few years later as a triple-X rated house. It was labeled as a historic landmark in the early '90s, and in 2003, it was taken over by a group called The Reclamation Project, who are apparently in the midst of a restoration of the building. According to them, the original installation organ is still intact, and will be used as part of the theater's revival as a performing arts/urban ministry center.

The Olympic Theater was hard to find, because the listing on CT is of it's recent incarnation, The Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Despite the heavy remodeling the facade has gotten, I'm 75% sure this is the same theater. It opened in 1948, and for sure, this theater is having its grand opening with a 1948 film. If it is the WCPA, the look of the theater has been drastically changed. And, like the previous incarnation as a movie house (which their website doesn't acknowledge, like most PACs), I wonder if the comedies are guaranteed or our laughs refunded.

Does anyone know any more about this one? It would be nice if someone who used to go to this theater could drop me a line and confirm whether or not I'm right or wrong.

Ok, kiddies, here's the mystery photo. No marquee, but from 1948 again, as seen by the re-issue paper for BUCK PRIVATES, and the feature, TEXAS, BROOKLYN AND HEAVEN:

Anyone know?

Printed Paper, Part Deux

Part two of the large poster extravaganza...

The poster to the left is one of my all time favorite posters ever. At first glance, it does not seem particularly colorful, and perhaps by some standards not particularly well drawn either.

But if you sit and study it, and look at the fine detail work that's attached to it, you'll come to realize that it really is quite a masterpiece, not only as a piece of art, but also in a sense of 1930s exploitation advertisement.

The 1932 film promised more than it delivered to its audiences, and it ends up being a travelogue with a little dance at the end tagged on. But it cannot be denied that the poster (or at least, in this case, the three-sheet) employs some striking imagery and false promises to get its audiences in.

As with last week's INGAGI, nude women in a perilous ritual are the centerpiece. While the film was shot mostly in Mexico, the "Fire Ordeal of Singapore" is the centerpiece of the film. In actuality, the final dance scene of the film is so obscured by trees and shaky photography that it could have been shot in someones backyard in Los Angeles, and no one would have been the wiser.

Also of note is the name of the company: Television Productions, a prestigious label for a small-time, British company that made this single picture. "First Division"-- no relation to the more successful First National-- was mainly an independent distributor.

If you didn't know better, you would be forgiven in thinking that the above six sheet promoted perhaps an early or obscure Charlie Chaplin short. It is, in fact, not a Chaplin short, but what Chaplin himself considered the next best thing: Billy West, a Chaplin imitator. Born in Russia in 1892, Roy B. Weissburg grew up in Chicago, and began acting in pictures in 1912.

Interestingly, he was one of the only Chaplin impersonators that the famed comedian did not sue for infringing on his character. Some have speculated it was because West had indeed made the character himself earlier than Chaplin did. In any case, for a brief period, West returned the favor by starring in a number of shorts opposite Oliver Hardy, who portrayed an Eric Campbell-like counterpart. West later went onto his own fame in equally funny shorts for other companies, and did some directing during the sound era.

Believe it or not, I've never seen 1934's GREAT EXPECTATIONS, based on the famous Charles Dickens novel. All the same, the above six-sheet is a great example of the selling power of colorful images-- it makes me want to track it down now. Stone litho meets art deco lettering... simply wonderful.

The above six sheets are for two spectacular poverty row serials that are as good as the artwork that advertises them.

THE PHANTOM EMPIRE was one of Mascot's last serials before being incorporated with Monogram, Consolidated Film Industries and several other companies into becoming the reigning studio of serials, Republic Pictures. The famous robots that were used in the film (and later in serials and TV shows such as CAPTAIN VIDEO) were originally made for the Joan Crawford/Clark Gable MGM musical, DANCING LADY. The scene it was used in ended up being scrapped.

One of the smaller companies of the Republic merger was Principal Pictures, whose serial, THE RETURN OF CHANDU (1934), was actually a cash-in on Fox's 1932 feature, CHANDU THE MAGICIAN, directed by the great William Cameron Menzies. The first serial starred Edmund Lowe as Frank Chandler, aka Chandu, and playing a part not dissimilar to the one he had played the year earlier for Menzies' production of THE SPIDER (with El Brendel!). Bela Lugosi was the villain, Roxor, in that feature, but returns to this serial production as Chandu the Magician, himself!


Several years after his cohort, Gene Autry, had made THE PHANTOM EMPIRE, William Boyd starred in his famous Hopalong Cassidy role in this production, RIDERS OF THE DEADLINE. The film co-starred the usual suspects: Andy Clyde and Jimmy Rogers, but has the added distinction of featuring a young Robert Mitchum as a thug. The above six sheet is a spectacular sight of Hoppy taking up the top right quarter of the image. Quite striking, indeed.

The hero of every child of the '40s and '50s, Columbia's big serial event of 1948, SUPERMAN, did expectantly phenomenal at the Box Office, despite being a poor example of the stories featured in the Action Comics magazines.

The 15-chapter serial features Kirk Alyn as the Man of Steel, with Noel Neill as reporter Lois Lane and ex-Our Gang member Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen. Neil later reprised the role to greater fame on the syndicated TV show of the 1950s with George Reeves as Superman.

Carol Forman, serial femme fatale extraordinaire, and sporting an awful blonde wig, is the villainess, the evil Spider Lady. Just a year earlier, she was Sombra in THE BLACK WIDOW, who killed her victims with the title anachronid. The screenplays of many serials are a lot fun, but highly inventive they were not!

While not Columbia's best serial effort, and certainly not deserving of a 15-chapter run, SUPERMAN is still an action-packed, interesting, alternate-universey look at SUPERMAN at his peak, pre-TV show. The supporting cast is filled with genre veterans, such as Jack Ingram, Charles Quigley, Herbert Rawlinson, Forrest Taylor, and Nelson Leigh.

SUPERMAN was followed up two years later by the admittedly better ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN, in which Lyle Talbot makes Lex Luthor's screen debut, bald head and all. Kirk Alyn, Noel Neill and Tommy Bond repeated their roles.

The final large paper is fitting... this advertisement is literally the "writing on the wall"-- the sound heard 'round the world-- VITAPHONE. A rare 24-sheet, this speaks for itself: