SilentComedians.com

[Marjorian]

I find Educational's Press Sheets really interesting. Each two reel short gets its own little newspaper of chit-chat about the storyline, the stars of the film, the filming process and all sorts of fascinating trivia.

One rather interesting section is the "Ad Cuts and Exploitation" page. Educational were intent on milking everything it could from these titles. This section was full of marketing suggestions. Sporting goods stores and dude ranches were targeted for Sennett's spoof Westerns; ballroom dancing classes for a short about a taxi dancer.

In return Educational had a whole accessory pack ready to send to the interested retailer. Typically this would consist of a poster, lobby displays and slides.

The Library of Congress has a run of the Press Sheets (they seemed to have been lodged by Educational as evidence of copyright) but does anyone know what happened to these promotional packs? Do they still exist? Has anybody ever seen them? What general archival material is there for Educational and where?

Sorry that's a lot of questions, but any information is most welcome.

[Turpinutz]

Hello Marjorian, and welcome to the group.
I haven't seen many - if any at all - of these Educational Press Sheets until Rob Stone posted them at his blogsite a few months ago. But I have seen similar press sheets from the Mack Sennett Comedies.
I don't know that posters, stills, lobby cards, glass slides were given freely to retailers in order to drum up business for the neighborhood theater; those types of materials were usually, exclusively, for the movie houses. But perhaps if a celebrity were coming to town for a personal appearance, maybe local storefronts were decorated and bill posters were tacked up to help get the word out. Short comedies never really got the hoopla the big features would except on rare occasions.
I think most of us here are collectors of short comedy paper. I have 6 Ben Turpin one-sheet posters, at least hundred Turpin lobby cards, at least 300 Turpin stills, glass slides, press-sheets/press-books, etc, etc., because I love the stuff as a "historian" not a deep-pocketed "investor" by any means!
Ah, what a great hobby for history and for arts sake!

SteveR

[Rob Stone]

Hey all,

Just posted a few more Educational pressbooks on the aljoyfanclub.blogspot.com site. I moved everything off my treborenots.blogspot.com site onto the one dedicated to that great comedian Al Joy. Laurel or Hardy stuff is still on laurelorhardy.blogspot.com. Decided to make treborenots.blogspot.com a little less film focused... although you may see something about a drama or a western there.

Rob
_________________
http://laurelorhardy.blogspot.com/

[Marjorian]

Thanks for those really helpful responses. Rob, I've just been on your site and I see you are actually a curator at The Library Of Congress where I got my Educational Press Sheets. So I'm in really in the hands of experts here.

Turpinutz thanks for your welcome. The Press Sheets I have are actually for films produced by Mack Sennett Comedies but they appear to have been published by Educational who were at the time Sennett's distributor. So did Sennett also publish Press Sheets in similar vein to Educational's? Who got the idea from whom I wonder. I suspect Sennett would have worked closely with Educational on the ones I've got- Sennett talkie comedies from 1930 thru to 1932.

Let me give you an example of what I've got here. Page 4 of the Press Sheet for "Dance Hall Marge" a Mack Sennett Comedies production from 1931. It's headed "Ad Cuts and Exploitation". The Sheet is touting for business tie-ups with local dance halls and ballroom dancing schools. It goes on to say "A complete line of accessories is available for Dance Hall Marge...One-sheet Poster. Set of four 11x14 lobby display cards in full color. Set of ten 8x10 black and white photographs. Hand colored slide. Advertising and publicity cuts and mats (mats free). Be sure you have a proper quantity of these accessories".

So you're right Turpinutz they weren't given out free but they were available as a pack. There is no indication of prices on the material I've got.

I don't think The Library Of Congress has anything beyond what I've been sent. But does anyone know anything more about this? Records of how many retailers may have taken up these offers. Any collections of the packs still extant? The Educational material at LOC is I think restricted to what was deposited for copyright purposes. But is there is archival Educational material preserved anywhere else?

Rob, have you any ideas on this?

[Turpinutz]

[Turpinutz]

One mo' thang...
Just came across the packing envelope for the set of 8 sepia lobby cards
from the Ben Turpin two-reeler "Where's My Wandering Boy This Evening?"
Film was released in mid-1923
Price for the set of 8 lobbies:
35¢

Steve

[Marjorian]

Thanks for all that Turpinutz. Any ideas on where I might obtain any of this material referred to in Educational's Press Sheets? I can only get hold of the Press Sheets themselves.

What I'm really looking for I guess is an archive of Educational material over and above the stuff it deposited at LOC for copyright purposes. Has anybody preserved such a thing?

In fact I'm principally interested in the Sennett talkies Educational distributed in the early 1930s.