Missing 1970s daybills
I'm genuinely shocked about the number of (relatively) new daybills that I have never laid eyes on. All of the films listed here had 35mm prints passed with an R rating between 1971 and 1981. Where the Hell are they? Please, PLEASE let me know if you've ever seen daybills for any of these:
- Book of Numbers
- Thumb Tripping
- Mantis In Lace
- Sweet Kill
- Toys Are Not For Children
- Prison Girls
- Astro Zombies
- House Of Lost Dolls
- Seven Women For Satan
- Country Hooker
- Love Exorcist
- Women Behind Bars
- Thursday Morning Murders
- The Erotic Experiences Of Frankenstein
- Satan's Black Wedding
- The Brood
- Terror (AKA Last House On The Beach)
- Criminally Insane
- Killer's Moon
- Trip With The Teacher
- Satan's Spectrum (AKA Asylum Of Satan)
- Three On A Meathook
...and there's plenty more! How can this many films from only a few decades ago be so hard to find daybills for?
- Book of Numbers
- Thumb Tripping
- Mantis In Lace
- Sweet Kill
- Toys Are Not For Children
- Prison Girls
- Astro Zombies
- House Of Lost Dolls
- Seven Women For Satan
- Country Hooker
- Love Exorcist
- Women Behind Bars
- Thursday Morning Murders
- The Erotic Experiences Of Frankenstein
- Satan's Black Wedding
- The Brood
- Terror (AKA Last House On The Beach)
- Criminally Insane
- Killer's Moon
- Trip With The Teacher
- Satan's Spectrum (AKA Asylum Of Satan)
- Three On A Meathook
...and there's plenty more! How can this many films from only a few decades ago be so hard to find daybills for?
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Since this post, I've been able to pick up:
- Mantis in Lace
- Sweet Kill
- The Erotic Experiences of Frankenstein
I've seen:
- Trip With The Teacher
I've found smaller 'odd' posters (like Rick posted above) of:
- The Brood
- Killer's Moon
Not a huge success rate!!
*sigh* the hunt continues...
An image of Mantis In Lace that you have Pancho. Thoughy maybe some other people may like to see it.
I haven't sighted any of the remaining sixteen daybills or possibly some that are only in odd size poster format like The Brood that you don't own or at least have sighted in one case from your original list of twenty two titles.
I have never seen Australian posters of Killer's Moon, Sweet Kill or The Erotic Experiences of Frankenstein that you have mentioned as now having. They would have to be extremely rare along with the Trip With The Teacher daybill that you mentioned that you have sighted. At least you know that one exists.
I will make further comments within the next day or two regarding the remaining sixteen titles.
Of the sixteen that are at this stage we appear to be missing any poster images of, the breakup of distributors and my thoughts are as follows -
The well known distributors where daybills most likely were printed.
20th Century Fox - 2 films
Roadshow - 1 film
Blake Films - 2 films
Regent Tradinfg Enterprises - 1 film
Mutual Film Distributors - 1 film ( Lesser known small distributor but many daybill examples of films that they distributed in Australia are available.
Then there are the most likely unknown smaller distributors that were around a while.
14th Mandolin - 2 films They distributed many films but daybill posters are extremely rare and not too many have ever been sighted.
There are then the obscure independent distributors.
Pan America Productions - 1 film. Pan America commenced distributing films in Australia in the late 1960s and were active at least into the late 1970s. Not aware of a daybill bearing their name appearing on a poster but it is possible that they exist.
Astral Distributing Company - 2 films, Not a clue as to who this distributor is.Possibly they would have had daybills printed, but their product had very limited distribution in Australia.
Finally the importers who may have distributed their films themselves or had them distributed later by unknown established distributors.
Coffs Harbour Drive-In Theatre - 2 films
W.J.Mogridge - 1 film
Penda Investments - 1 film
I don't like you chances of ever finding any daybills for the four titles these importers had submiited to the Australian censors and were passed for public exhibition. You can never say no though. If they did obtain a release at all, they certainly most likely would have been extremely limited in number of bookings. The 2 films imported by the Coffs Harbour Drive-In Theatre one would have to believe had screenings at least at their NSW drive-in theatre , and also possibly at the Mermaid Beach cinema in Queensland that may have been operated by the same person around that time.
Was just about to send off this reply, but just before this I found an image of an Australian poster of sorts for Astro Zombies on Google. The poster is captioned as being a ''Large sized movie poster Double Take Meet The Astro Zombies from the Valhalla Cinema''. This poster now proves beyond doubt that the film did receive some film bookings in at least Sydney and Melbourne in this unusual format. Double Take screenings of this film and some other titles consisted of some performers being at the screenings, turning the sound down at times and delivering scripted dialogue, meant to be funny and encouraging some audience participation. Was there a 14th Mandilin daybill printed for any traditional screenings, if any, of this Z grade movie in anyone's guess.
Double Take Meets The Astro Zombies debuted at the New Mandarin Cinema in Sydney on March 21 1986. 14th Mandolin inported this 1968 film in 1979.
The poster displayed above states ''Direct from a hugely successful 5 month Sydney season''. This then would date the poster as being used starting in the month of August as printed on the poster.
The question then is between 1979 and 1986 did the film receive any tradional bookings in any cinemas at all. and remembering that the film was a 'Z' grade movie by all reports.
The artist who designed the Australian poster strayed away a little from the original artwork to spice it up a bit.
Interestingly in the U.S. the film was rated only GP but in Australia it earned an R certificate,
Are you able to tell me which films you're referring to here?
Pan America Productions - 1 film. Pan America commenced distributing films in Australia in the late 1960s and were active at least into the late 1970s. Not aware of a daybill bearing their name appearing on a poster but it is possible that they exist.
Astral Distributing Company - 2 films, Not a clue as to who this distributor is.Possibly they would have had daybills printed, but their product had very limited distribution in Australia.
Finally the importers who may have distributed their films themselves or had them distributed later by unknown established distributors.
Coffs Harbour Drive-In Theatre - 2 films
W.J.Mogridge - 1 film
Penda Investments - 1 film
Thanks again!
Sure thing Pancho, only too happy to oblidge.
Seven Women For Satan - Pan American Productions.
Satan's Black Wedding & Criminally Insane - Both films Astral Distributing Company.
Satan's Sprectum & Thee On A Meethook - Both films Coff's Harbour Drive-InTheatre.
Love Exercise - W.J. Mogridge.
Terror - Penda Investments.
A couple of things to comment on that you may or may not know about.
14th Mandolin also had the King Of Video videotape label to release their product on.
The Coffs Harbour Drive-In Theatre was only one of a number of hardtop and drive-in theatre owners who imported and distributed films in Australia.
I have located only today that Pan-American Productions address in circa 1971 was listed as being Pan American Productions , Roma Theatre, 628 George Street, Sydney. One of the earliest films that they distribured was The Checkered Flag in 1967. Pan Americam were still distributing films in the 1980s.
If these companies bothered to get the films passed through the censors, you can only assume that they must have produced some advertising for them.
I do wonder, however, if it's likely that the drive-in would have just used stock posters rather than organising printing of actual posters?
Details of this practice taking place with two films imported into Australia are as follows - Horror Rises From The Tomb ( aka Horror From The Tomb ) ( 1973 ) by Alan Chester Prods. and Virgin Witch ( 1972 ) by Chester Film Distribution. As per the following daybill images both films were released in Australia by Regent Trading Enterprises.
For other films that fall into the previously discussed category one would have to think daybills would have been produced in one form or another also.
Night Of The Sorcerers ( 1974 ) .The daybill has minimal information printed on the poster which excludes the distributor's name, but the Australian one sheet has the printer credited as being Edwards Screen Printing ( E.P.S.)., Tamworth, N.S.W., Australia The film's applicant was Jim Wilson Cinemas but obviously he didn't distribute the film. All I can find out about Jim Wilson is in 1970 he was the proprietor of four cinemas in Northern N.S.W. The cinemas were at Gunnedah, Guyra, Bingara and Delungra with populations sourced from previous census records ranging from 575 to 7888 people. He wouldn't have made a profit from screening the film at his Cinemas alone. Was this film eventually acquired by an established independent film distributor for Australian release after the Jim Wilson theatres screenings, or were all the Australian screenings handled by an independent distributor, which used the Jim Wilson organised posters?
A Canberra A.C.T. screening advertisement from 1977. Horror Rises From The Tomb was as previously mentioned distributed by Regent Trading Enterprises, so is it possible Night Of The Sorcerers was also acquired at some point of time by Regent?
Surely all films released in Australia in the 1970s would have had a daybill or odd size poster printed for them, if only in very small quantities.Thinking that a lot of the film posters were deemed to be lacking in quality artwork and of any value to be saved, most were probably disposed of years ago
The National Library Of Australia / Trove wensite - trove.nla.gov.au. Extremely limited availability of material after the year 1954 though, which is probably what you would be after.
Pancho said: Not sure about ''on-selling their films once they were done with them". I am thinking that when an applicant imports a film he had possibly already reached a physical distribution agreement with a distributor, or are just hoping a distributor will be found once the film is classified.
Very expensive to handle self distribution for a film with little box office potential. Some films imported here were so bad that in some cases the films may never have received an Australia release at all.
In the case of The Night Of The Sorcerers the film was possibly sold on to a distributor after the owner screened the film in his own cinemas, but in most cases though I don't belief this was a common practice though.
I have some interesting information on The Coffs Harbour Drive-In Theatre if you are interested Pancho. Just let me know.
This article was published in The Bananacoast Opinion Coffs Harbour newspaper on January 8, 1974.
The Coffs Harbour Drive-In opened in February 22 1972 and closed September 17 1988. Demolished in December 1988.
The story and film advertisements all from Trove.
The Drive-in screened numerous R rated horror and sexploitation films over the years and the above 1974 and 1975 advertisements would possibly indicate why they decided to import some R horror material themselves in the form of Satan's Spectrum in 1974 and Three On a Meathook in 1975. They probably thought they could make a few dollars themselves by doing this. I cannot though find any screening dates at the Drive-In though. One has to wonder if they imported any other titles as well?
Finally you just have to love this ad that was placed in 1974.
A couple of questions for Pancho and Rick, or anybody else. Does anyone have an Australian daybill, or at least have sighted one for Daughters Of Darkness ( 1971 ) ?. The film in 1973 was passed for public exhibition by the Australian Censor ang given an 'R' certificate. The applicant was MGM / BEF Film Distributors Pty.Ltd. so I am unaware if the daybill is an MGM or BEF poster.
Secondly Daughters Of Satan ( 1972 ) and Superbeast ( 1972 ) were passed by the Australian censor witn M certiricates on I Jan 1973 and I Feb 1973. Both films were submitted by United Artists. No sightings of an Australian daybill for either films as yet. The two films were shown in New Zealand and had a N.Z. printed daybill produced advertising them as being a double bill programme.
Does anyone have Australians daybills or have sighted daybills in the form of a double bill design or as individual posters ?
As the three films were released in Australia by major distriibutors it is unusual that no daybills for these 1970s films seem to have surfaced as yet.
Any chance of seeing the Daughters Of Darkness daybill image? I assume no Daughters Of Satan also then.
Thanks Rick for that.Very similar to the image artwork I had included earlier. The daybill image is more effective than a lot of other horror film artwork used in daybill designs from this period.