Awash in green, orange and purple, this letterhead for the Universal Film Exchanges promoting Bride of Frankenstein (1935) makes for a very unusual and thoroughly gorgeous piece of memorabilia.
A photo of Boris Karloff’s sad-eyed Monster dominates, highlighted in fiery pastels against a Deco background. The overall design closely matches that of an editorial page in the April 6, 1935 issue of the Universal Weekly trade herald (seen here), substituting Valerie Hobson, standing at left, for the editorial page’s spookier grouping of a skeleton, Una O’Connor, and a leering Dwight Frye.
The film’s title swooshes across the page in 3D block letters that predates the famous Superman logo. The images at the bottom are particularly interesting in that they don’t actually appear in the film.
The Monster carrying his Bride is a fantasy image also offered on a large banner for theatrical display. The Bride, in a nightgown-like dress, sheer stockings and pumps, revels in her fractured Romeo’s clutch, swinging a bridal bouquet with abandon.
The next image is the most curious, showing a bandaged Bride reclining, her hands held together. The image is actually from a backstage photograph of Elsa Lanchester, bound in creation scene bandages, reclining in a wicker chaise. In the photograph, you can see she’s holding a cup of tea up to her mouth.
The stunning letterhead was found on the fascinating Letterheady blog.
7 comments:
Oh that letterhead is fantastic!! And I absolutely adore that pic of Elsa!
You would've seen that letterhead long ago on my Blog of Frankenstein, too...
This is really cool. I love seeing old letterhead like this. Thank you.
Absolutely gorgeous!
I wish I could get some of this stationary!
lol..funny they put mummy Elsa down in the corner,like your gonna see that in the movie..
A superb piece of original 1930's graphics great stuff! PLEASE Universal re release this title on blu ray if ANY thirties horror movie deserves the Blu ray treatment this is it!
Ohmygodthatisawesome.
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