I wish everyone reading this the warmth of friendship and family, the delight of good food, and a day filled with conviviality on Thanksgiving--and everyday, really. To give us some holiday cheer that is film-oriented, I have discovered some interesting advertisements aimed at theater owners preparing fare to get the crowds into their cinemas in holidays past in November. I was not able to reproduce it properly here, but my favorite discoveries were from motion picture industry magazines in which managers were encouraged "to avoid turkeys" on the screen but to drum into the staff to "use the holiday as a sales device!" There were suggested promotions featuring live turkey giveaways ("budget how many you can afford ahead of time") whose feathers could be "dyed various festive colors." (No advice was given about where the poultry might be kept in the theater). Other suggestions were similar to this one in Motion Picture Herald in 1940 in which a theater's staff was exhorted to dress in Halloween costume the month before and then to deck themselves out as Pilgrims and Indians as they served customers popcorn, took tickets, ushered guests to their seats. (Hope they were paid well, but I doubt it).
It was particularly interesting, since many of us see studio era films through an affectionate, glamorous lens, that there were some remarkably frank comments in manager's roundtables rating the business of films in their cinemas. For instance, a manager from a Hermine, PA theater commented that
I Love You Again (1940) with William Powell & Myrna Loy, was a "...much heralded production fell flatter than a glass of beer left on the bar all night." I also found it amusing to see some rather grisly or non-family fare movies being promoted as holiday fare for the Thanksgiving crowd!
I hope these make you smile:
From 1911--nothing says "Happy Thanksgiving" like a prison flick:
In 1922, before his name became synonymous with creepiness,
Tod Browning directed an adventure story that most of us remember from a later version with Ronald Colman and Claudette Colbert as "Cigarette." A copy of the '22 film is said to be archived in the UCLA Film and Television Archives, so there's still hope that someday we may see if the movie lives up to this dashing graphic touted Turkey Day treat here:
In 1941--when you would think most people would want some escapism,
I Wake Up Screaming (1941) is touted as warm, wholesome entertainment but hey, who knew if
Laird Cregar might have been a festive fellow before he clapped eyes on
Carole Landis? I love the suggestion in this ad that a girl be hired to sit in a trailer outside the theater where this was playing and scream into a microphone. The other businesses in the area must have loved that form of ballyhoo:
This turkey-ridin' trio in the 1936 ad is just a little freaky for me--though it is great fun to see
Frank McHugh center stage for once:
This 1951 ad seems to be using Mitzi Gaynor as a pepper mill to season the "turkey" (I'm not sure if that was a subliminal reference to
Golden Girl, which has its charms...yeah, like Dale Robertson!!)
Whoever was making up titles at Pathe in 1931 must have been a bit out of touch with the spirit of the season (and the desperation of their economically pressed clientele).
1937 saw another trip to prison (and the chair) presented as fine festive fare (and boy, it was some show!):
Submarine Patrol (1938) was allegedly packin' 'em in around Thanksgiving, but this now rather obscure film may be of mostly of interest to us because it was John Ford at work just before he launched into a golden period beginning with
Stagecoach (1939).
Here's a compendium of odd if intriguing press agent ideas of tying in clients with holidays:
Silent and sound film actress
Ruth Hiatt (seen in everything from Douglas Fairbanks'
Robin Hood to
The Three Stooges shorts was captured in this slightly undignified pose for Film Weekly in 1924 with the guest of honor:
At the height of his popularity as a child actor,
Jackie Coogan (1914-1984) was pictured in Exhibitors Trade Review in the mid-'20s addressing his turkey and an anonymous cook. The fawning caption for this image read "The king is to die--'Long Live the King.' But what turkey wouldn't be glad to give his life to grace the feast of a movie king like Jackie Coogan? This one is telling the world that he considers himself lucky. In fact everyone is lucky who has had anything to do with this young star. Showmen all over the country are giving thanks because they booked his latest Metro release. It is going to be a grand Thanksgiving."
Colleen Moore (1899-1988) must have been pretty game for anything suggested by a publicity department in 1924 since she agreed to appear with this bird!
Dorothy Jordan (1906-1988) is pictured in a Photoplay image for Thanksgiving in the late '20s...I wonder if Lillian Gish's name was sewn into those pilgrim duds?