THE SOUND OF MUSIC PRESSBOOK

movieman1962

My favorite movie, as you can see by my avatar, is THE SOUND OF MUSIC. I know that 20th Century Fox was in a really bad place because of Cleopatra when they made TSOM, but all I have ever seen is one of those 60's Fox pressbooks that are 8 l/2" x 14". It seems to me that while Fox was all but shut down, the film they banked on to save the studio would have a much better pressbook or a kit with larger ads and more than is in this very small pressbook. Has anyone seen any large ad sheets or a bigger pressbook or theater materials for this movie's March 1965 release? It was a 70mm Todd-AO roadshow and I can't believe that is all they made available to promote it or advertise it. The Rivoli in New York had the entire building covered. The pressbook only has 2 pages of typed publicity and one page of merchandising and about 6 pages of ads but they aren't very big either. I have the pink and blue pressbooks of the above mentioned sizes but as I said I can't believe that was all there was yet I have never seen anything else. Anyone?

Bruce

They almost never made pressbooks for super limited releases, and this goes back to the 1920s at least.

I am pretty certain that in many of these cases they also did not use any regular posters, which makes sense, because why would they print posters for a movie that only played in a tiny number of theaters.

Look at candid images from premieres in big cities. They almost always have mostly or only "home made" posters.

So I think you are out of luck in this case.

movieman1962

Thanks Bruce, but do you think then that Fox just sent all those roadshow theaters sheets of advertising (they had alot of full page New York Times ads the same as the small pressbook) without any publicity stories or merchandising or anything for them to work with? For instance, this played at the Rivoli in New York for its premiere, would Fox have handled all the advertising and publicity for them? Have you ever seen sheets of large ads for these roadshows? They had to have been made.

Another strange one was South Pacific. Huge release for the studio, yet with the pressbooks, there are 3 different ones, are all the normal 50's style Fox "exhibitor's campaign book" with about 6-10 pages. Yet look at The King and I and Carousel, HUGE 14" x 18" pressbooks, of course they were promoting Cinemascope 55 with the latter 2.

Have you ever seen any pieces of these "home made" posters from limited roadshow runs show up? I have seen photos of The Sound of Music premiere in NY and the front of the theater all has the same logo and images for it, but they are different than the norm...how were these put together then? From Fox? And what about the huge poster on the front, above the marquee....was that a special print for the theater? It's bigger than a 6 sheet for sure but too tall and not wide enough to be a 24 sheet. It must take 3 floors of the building above the marquee.

Fascinating subject for me. So these marquees were hand made for this theater? What about the one at the Dominion in London (below), that is a 3D type display, must have cost alot of money for them. Was this specially printed for this theater? And what about the bottom one for the shopping center? Did Fox provide these images to hang there cut out, or was it NSS, and have you ever come across these types of things? (Unfortunately I can't find on the web a photo of above the Rivoli marquee where the huge poster went for 4 stories up).


I just hate the 2 Sound of Music dinky pressbooks, Bruce I am sure you know the 2 I am talking about, one had pink the other blue covers but were those flimsy Fox 8 l/2 x 14 editions..

Eisenhower

Whoa! Very cool images!!!

is that a poster below the Dominion bldg? It's...gigantic! 

David

Eisenhower said:

Whoa! Very cool images!!!

Aren't they just?!

Bruce

Yes, that is what I am saying, and the images you posted back it up. I think those giant displays were created one at a time, and as I said, I have seen similar images going back to the 1920s.

Top movies used to get incredibly limited initial releases, with very high ticket prices. Some silent posters say things like "After a one year run at the X theater". I would bet those first theaters solely had home made displays, and only after their run were the regular pressbooks created.

Pressbooks were to "sell" movies to theater owners, and the premiere and roadshow theaters had already been "sold", so this sort of salesmanship would not have been needed.

Yes. many moves HAVE had huge elaborate pressbooks, but that would be to make a giant splash to regular theaters.

Look at what I just learned about Fantasia (from a newly discovered pressbook!). The movie opened in 1940 in a limited number of theaters fitted with special equipment. Those theaters did NOT have the "regular" posters.

All through 1941 RKO negotiated with Disney to make a much shorter version of the movie in mono, so no special equipment would be needed at regular theaters. Disney finally caved and made such a version, and it appears the movie was intended to be widely released in December 1941, and regular posters were printed with a 1941 NSS number, but it appears Pearl Harbor pushed the release back to February 1942, and that is when it got its first general release.

So ALL the known "first release" posters are from that first 1942 wide release (with 1941 NSS numbers) and good luck finding any poster from that 1940 limited release.

And the same is true for a zillion other "big" movies.

P.S. I too loved The Sound of Music, and I wish there was a great giant pressbook, and I wish they had been FAR more elaborate with their ad campaign, instead of mostly using one single piece of art!

movieman1962

Boy I'd love to have that Dominion display above my house hehe.

movieman1962

Bruce, thanks for all of the information. Looking at that shopping mall picture above, those letters of the title are the logo for the film, do you think it was Fox that provided these letters if theaters wanted them? Would that have been through NSS? I've never seen anything like that in pressbooks as available to theaters. Certainly a small theater like that wouldn't go to the expense of having those letters cut. And the image from the movie on the same marquee, is that some type of weather protected cardboard?

movieman1962

Eisenhower said:

Whoa! Very cool images!!!

is that a poster below the Dominion bldg? It's...gigantic! 

I don't know what that is, I would assume it is a poster of some kind.