DRACULA/FRANKENSTEIN re-release press book

[typhooforme]

My photo makes it look faded--the color is still vivid purple.  Dracula on cover, but both films inside...

[poseablemonster]

Those are ad slicks, right?  Back in the late 80's I worked for a newspaper in the ad services department.  We got those slicks from theaters with the size that they wanted to use, and mocked it up for the typesetters.  I probably threw away thousands of those - not any Universal classic stuff, but looking back, I wish I'd have kept some.

[typhooforme]

Andy, Yes, I think ad slick is correct.  This one dates from--oh, I have it buried in the movie room, but I think it's about 1948 or so.  These things were produced, just as you say, by the thousands.  They're fun to collect--nowadays they're old hat, I think--I see what they call "press kits" now, which include 8x10s and slides and other cool stuff besides the press releases for the papers.  Heck, the movie ads of today (locally, anyhow, in the Cincinnati OH area) in the papers are a pale reflection of the heavily illustrated ones of the pre-80s.  The artwork on pressbooks is often a simpler version of the poster art--usually not done in the full colors of the poster art.  And best of all, thousands of pressbooks/ad slicks are easily affordable nowadays.  Rare pieces bring top prices, of course, but you can assemble a really good collection by searching at Ebay.  Great display pieces!

[poseablemonster]

Very cool.  I sure wish I had saved all those that I pitched.  I'll have to keep an eye out for them on eBay.  I'd like to pick some up for my collection eventually.

[1975]

I love press kits, I've got a few in my collection. Nothing like this however, mostly stuff from the mid seventies.

[typhooforme]

I love press kits, I've got a few in my collection. Nothing like this however, mostly stuff from the mid seventies.

Mid-Seventies is just as collectible as the old stuff, and far more affordable.  Collect!  Collect!  It's like eating chips--pressbooks have an addictive quality.  And they're SO findable on Ebay.  When you search, by the way, keep in mind that sellers don't all spell alike--you can search for "press book" (two words) or "pressbook" (one word) and get different results.  Try "press kit" and maybe find more modern stuff.  Lots of great Hammer stuff in the 'Seventies (Hammer, Amicus, Tigon, and on and on!).  And plenty other fun stuff with old stars in the cast--for instance, Elsa Lanchester was still acting in the '70s (hey, add Ernie Borgnine and  J. Pat O'Malley and Almira Sessions and Alan Baxter and you've got WILLARD!.....Elsa plus Carradine and Ray Milland and Brod Crawford and Patrick Knowles and Louis Hayward, and you've got TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM....Elsa plus David Niven and Estelle Winwood (who was 94 at the time) and Peter Falk and Maggie Smith, and you've got MURDER BY DEATH!).  Collect!  Collect!  Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!  Pull up a chair and pass the pressbooks!