April 17, 2013

The Posters of Frankenstein :
Small Run Bride of Frankenstein, 1935

Here’s a nice, small-run typographical poster for Bride of Frankenstein — Adults! 15 cents! — playing in October 1935 at Bird’s Rivoli, a movie house in East Tawas on Saginaw Bay at Lake Huron. The week’s worth of films advertised were all new, all from 1935.

Independent, out of the way and catering to a small-town crowd, films never ran long — Bride played only four times over two days — and it made no sense to spend money and send away for lithographed posters and lobby cards. Simple cards like this one, printed locally, did the job. Only a handful would be produced, jazzed up with yellow, green or orange colors, for front-of-house display and, perhaps, distribution to nearby stores and pasting on fences within the community.

Details are scarce but promoter Herman Bird was active in Michigan, operating several theaters from the silent era and into the Fifties, including the Family Theater, and another Rivoli in Grand Rapids. Bird’s Rivoli on US23 in East Tawas was also known as the Bay Theater for a while. It closed some fifty years ago, its building surviving as a meeting hall. Ultimately, it was leveled and turned into a parking lot.

1 comment:

Melancholy and Menace said...

Such a great poster.

I find it really sad that
perfectly gorgeous buildings
are torn down without a second
thought. My local theatre, with
it's art deco structure has
recently closed and a new, very
basic building has opened in it's
stead. Very sad.

Thank you for sharing.

Yvonne : My Haunted Attic