Showmen, Sell It Hot!

Movies As Merchandise in Golden Era Hollywood

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by John McElwee

Type: Studies
Subject: Economics
Keywords: economics, Hollywood, posters, communication
Publishing date: 2013
Publisher: GoodKnight Books
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 286 pages
8 ¾ x 11 inches (22 x 28 cm)

ISBN

978-0-9711685-9-6

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Book Presentation:
A noted Hollywood historian takes a first-ever marketing look at the selling of classic motion pictures generated by Hollywood's fabled movie factories in this lush coffee-table retrospective. Movie buffs will enjoy seeing the effects of the Depression, censorship, world war, the Cold War, television, and the counter-culture movement on the changing tastes of moviegoers, and the way showmen responded with creative and sometimes zany ad campaigns. Chapters include the sexy and salacious pre-Code pictures; the launch of the new dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio; MGM’s gamble on the Marx Brothers with A Night at the Opera; lavish campaigns for The Wizard of Oz in original release and reissue; creation of a new star, John Wayne, in John Ford’s Stagecoach; Orson Welles’ failed Citizen Kane campaign; Billy Wilder’s unusual and dark Hollywood statement picture, Sunset Boulevard; the selling of Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, and East of Eden following the death of James Dean; Alfred Hitchcock’s personal gamble with Psycho; and much more!

Contents:
Front Cover --
Title Page --
Half Title --
Copyright --
Dedication --
Contents --
Prologue: Unsung Heroes --
1. About Those So-Called "Good Old Days" --
2. All Aboard the Mutilation Express --
3. Titillated to Distraction --
4. When RKO Flew Down to Rio --
5. Metro and the Marxes --
6. Metro's Jean Harlow Closeout Sale --
7. The Pair That Curled Your Hair --
8. The Great Jesse James Box-Office Raid --
9. John Ford's Evergreen Stagecoach --
10. The Three Million Dollar Splurge --
11. Campaigning for Kane --
12. The Thinking Man's Exploitation Shockers --
13. Stateside Theatres of War --
14. Paramount's Road to Sunset Boulevard --
15. Wilder's Ace Goes in the Hole --
16. Forgotten But Not Gone: My Son John --
17. Metro and the Red Badge Blow Off --
18. Columbia and Kazan's Waterfront Haul --
19. The Mighty Monarch of Melodramas --
20. "100 Percent Pure Gravy" --
21. Universal Makes Box-Office Music --
22. Warner Bros. and the James Dean Cult --
23. I Call It "Fashion Noir" --
24. Psycho Salesmanship --
25. A Memphis Screamiere --
26. Exhibition's Baby Jane Blastoff --
27. Warner Bros.' Bull's-Eye Selling of Bonnie and Clyde --
Epilogue: Lights Out --
Chapter Notes --
Index --
About the Author --
Praise for Showmen, Sell It Hot!.