Hello!

This item circulated by Joe Dante is something you’ll want to zoom into, or ‘open in a new window’ that will show it full-sized. It’s an ad cooked up by none other than Forrest J. Ackerman. It appears to have been placed in ‘the trades’ sometime in 1958, around when Forry might have been prepping the debut of his magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Ackerman was an enthusiast of Sci-fi — it is said that he coined that contraction — and a rabid collector of books and movie memorabilia. His main job was as a literary agent, an activity that included negotiating for authors and illustrators and finding odd jobs for fellow enthusiasts.

Ackerman heavily promoted artist and movie monster fabricator Paul Blaisdell for a number of years. He uses Blaisdell’s ‘Monsters of Distinction’ to also get attention for his ad. The achievements listed come with familiar names — Ib Melchior, Sol Lesser. He touts his representation of solid Sci-fi authors like Porges, von Vogt, Siodmak, but also can be seen promoting a couple of protégés, Martin Varno and Wyott Ordung.

The movie The Projected Man wouldn’t happen for ten years, while The Volcano Monsters is proof that Ib Melchior was indeed working to adapt the Japanese Godzilla Raids Again into an entire new movie. (Agent’s tip, Forry: spell your client’s name correctly.)

As an agent Forry seems to have at least a few irons in the fire. The promotional ads in trade papers like Variety ranged from pretty classy to really tacky, and Forry’s isn’t bad at all.

 

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Contributor-advisor Gary Teetzel comes back with old Trade Paper clippings about a title that caught his interest. We reviewed it a few weeks back: Jack Holt and Fay Wray in  Black Moon.

A trip through the logs of the Motion Picture Herald found the usual publicity mentions, plus notes from exhibitors writing in to say how the title fared with their particular audience. Thus we read about business at the Bijou in places like Preston, Idaho and Redwood Falls, Minnesota.

The movie Black Moon depicts what threatens to become a black revolt on a Caribbean island. Only one article that alluded to the film’s chances in towns ‘sensitive to race issues’ showed up, from Detroit on September 15, 1934:

 

This next piece comes from the same paper, showing off a theater’s ‘front’ advertising. The Gainesville, Georgia illustration is missing, but we do get a photo of a display in Dallas. Theater manager Louis hired ‘a savage black gent’ as part of the voodoo hoodoo sales ballyhoo.

 

Here are four scattered entries in what Gary says was the Herald’s ‘What the Picture Did for Me’ column. Distributors likely pitched titles as if they were spun from gold, but when exhibitors felt cheated they could vent in the trades:

 

 

 

 

Over in Photoplay Gary found this full page item promoting the film with its star Fay Wray. “Aw, it’s King Kong’s friend with a dog and a cuddly puppy. Let’s go see Black Moon, Earl!”

You should be able to read all of these except the last, so here’s what it says: “Fay Wray conned her canine family into posing for this picture. The mother dog didn’t like the idea at all!  She’s heard too much talk among movie people about kidnapping threats and the advisability of protecting one’s children from publicity. But Fay reassured her. On the lot Miss Wray is hard at work now on Columbia’s Black Moon.”

 

Gary found a  Photoplay article that features a couple of the Black Moon costumes, and a  Lux Soap ad that also makes mention of Black Moon.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson