THE WAR IN SPACE (International Poster/Press Brochure) Toho, 1977

 

Here is the last of my recent haul of international poster brochure-things.  This one is for 1977's THE WAR IN SPACE, which is an...interesting...Toho STAR WARS-inspired film from 1977. Lots of people dunk on this film, but I think it is a lot of fun.  I mean, I like MESSAGE FROM SPACE and I think STARCRASH is fun, too, so if you like those, you're in for a fun ride.

The flying ship in this film is called the Gohten, which is not Gotengo (Atragon), or even the new Gotengo from FINAL WARS, but they are all in the same cinematic lineage. Toho simply loves flying ships with drills on the front!

As a fun bonus, here is a real rarity, the poster flyer-thingy for Toei's LEGEND OF DINOSAURS AND MONSTER BIRDS!

THE SAGA OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (MCA, 1979)

 

Here's another one of those sorts of things that you just can't find anywhere else (and I looked).  After STAR WARS, every big movie seemed to have their own book-and-record, read-along condensed version for kids, but there could also be the long-playing version that skipped the book and the need to "turn the page when you hear this sound." This grown-up version used audio from the actual film, too.

This is the latter version, and in place of turning the page, it actually has new audio recorded by Lorne Greene as narration...which is actually strange, because he is often referring to his own character, which makes for some weird moments where Adama sound like he's speaking of himself in the third person.

This album walks through the initial movie that launched the TV series, in 49 minutes, and it's pretty well-done.  It made me want to go back and watch it again, so it must have been doing something right.  

Another interesting facet of this production is how it forced me to honestly evaluate the series as an adult, rather than when I was young and undiscerning: is it a shameless STAR WARS ripoff?  Back in the day, kids did not sit around on the playground and complain that Glen Larson was ripping George Lucas off.  Instead, we were thrilled to have new space fantasy to devour, while we waited for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Now, however, I can more clearly see some of the reasons George was upset.  After all, some of his own people worked on it, and there are some issues and similarities, of course (suddenly we had another space "Saga").  I read that Lucas issued a laundry list of demans, including vehemently insisting the blasters "fire no beams," which explains why they always lit up at the ends.  I am not sure how he could really claim a copyright on that, but whatever.  In retrospect, Apollo and Starbuck are sort of two Han Solos, and if it were up to me, I would've dialed the music down quite a bit; it's one of the most obviously-borrowed items because it is just so bombastic.  You do have rebels--in a sense--and enemy soldiers that all look alike, which they at least made into robots (before Lucas did, come to think of it). And then there are the dogfights, which are hard to defend in their similarity...again, the same folks worked on them, after all.  

But there are lots of great original things to praise the series for as well.  The cast is great; the designs are amazing (did I mention Ralph McQuarrie worked on the ships?), from the vehicles to the uniforms.  The Cylons are incredible in every way, from appearance to their all-important unique sound.  In the film, the Ovion insect people are a stroke of genius, and the writers invented a casino planet long before the Mouse ever stole the idea and wasted it.

I could go on, but I believe that the series has earned its place in history, and should stand as its own thing.  Unfortunately, it succumbed to what I call the Curse of Television.  Namely, a television series does not usually benefit from the luxury of having a beginning, middle, and definite ending.  Instead, a series tries to last as long as it is allowed, and eventually, funding is cut long before anyone can envision a proper ending to the story, or a way to pull it off, and the show is cancelled.  It's been a problem for literal decades.  

.................and then, GALACTICA 1980 happened instead.  The less said, the better.

One more thing, and this is hilarious--notice on the front cover of the album, despite all of the available artwork from the show, somebody thought it would be a good idea to swipe the MATTEL 12-INCH ACTION FIGURE ARTWORK for their painting.  After all, Cylons probably look exactly like that, right? With the huge chest light and plastic gun beam...and giant backpack push-button sticking up?  It would be a lot of trouble to go watch the show, or ask for more reference photos, right?

LINK:  SAGA OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1979)

GODZILLA 2000 Theatrical Coming Attraction Slide (Columbia Pictures, July 2000)

 

Here is a fast one today. Remember when, before the trailers, movie theatres would show still images, projected with 35mm slides? I guess they still do....I mean, I assume they still do, who goes to the actual movie theatre anymore?  Maybe if there was something good to go see, then people would...but, I digress, sorry--I figure today it's done digitally anyhow, but back in the day, they used slides (and before that, glass slides, such as this one used in 1963 for KING KONG vs. GODZILLA:

This technique goes back to the old "magic lantern" shows, which long ago used a flame as the light source...somehow.  Anyway, what we have here today is a 35mm slide sent out by Columbia Pictures for theatres to show, touting the release of GODZILLA 2000 later that summer!

And not too much later, either, because the slide is dated July 2000, and if I remember right, the movie came out in August (I got to see it in the actual theater, too)! And here is the right-side-up image with a light source behind it:

GODZILLA vs. HEDORAH (International Poster/Press Brochure, 1971)

 

Here is a treasure--a sweeeeet poster for one of my top favorites, GODZILLA vs. HEDORAH.  Like the DESTROY ALL MONSTERS one we looked at the other day, this one also measures 20 & 3/8 inches by 14 & 3/8 inches.  Interestingly, though, this poster features--as its main design--the mock-up artwork with prototype Hedorah, what I refer to as "Steel Wool Hedorah."

I have always been baffled by this Toho mock-up, and they have never shied away from using it.  It's all over the place--here, I should point out, alongside actual finished pictures of what Hedorah's design turned out to be. It shows that this marketing piece wasn't simply made early in the process; it's just that they didn't care!

Then again, I am always reminded of that great Tsuburaya quote, when he was asked about the model horse he used in FRANKENSTEIN vs. BARAGON, and why it was left in, when it wasn't "realistic-looking" enough.  His answer was "because it was more interesting!" I think this says a lot, and this sense of wonder is a quality that is missing in a lot of the world today.

The back gives us several photos of the finished Hedorah, and then Steel Wool Hedorah one more time!

Anyway, there is the usual synopsis on the back.  This is an interesting read, and I think it's actually very well done.  I actually read something the other day that said that Hedorah was the result of material from outer space landing in pollution, and that is certainly not what this synopsis says.  Or the film, for that matter.  Admittedly, this would be a much better blog post if I could remember exactly where I read that....

Incidentally, there is no mention of Godzilla's very last act, probably for reasons of space.  If you are here reading this blog, then you probably know exactly what the white orbs were that Godzilla pulled out of Hedorah's remains: eyes.  However, lots of fans do not know this, and it was certainly several years before I knew it.  I grew up thinking these were eggs somehow, subconsiously, but I stumbled onto an interview with the director, who stated categorically that they were Hedorah's eyes.  If you recall, eyes are a specific theme of the film, in that there are several characters who receive eye injuries...not to mention the scene where Dr. Yano is experimenting with Hedorah tadpoles; he states something about the eyes being the effective parts of the creature.  I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but it's there.  So it actually makes sense that Godzilla destroys both eyes specifically.  This film is so awesome.

Have you seen the jugsaw puzzle of this image that's like 2000 pieces? I don't imagine it would be very fun at all.

According to a couple random YouTube videos that keep popping up for me lately, GODZILLA vs. HEDORAH is now finally being acknowledged as the classic that it is, and while I hope that's true, it always has been for me, so "whatever" to what some critic thinks.  This film has everything:  it's innovative in a lot of ways, much cleverer and more complicated than it appears on the surface, deliciously dark when it needs to be in just the right balance, and full of great action.  It never gets old.

Granted, giving it the title of SMOG MONSTER in the U.S. was seen as cheesy to the non-initiated, but I think even that is beautiful.  I mean, among other things, he is a Smog Monster. Unfortunately it comes across as "So-and-So Eats Cleveland" or something like that.  Oh well, most people have no taste and can't enjoy anything.  I've grown to completely accept that.  

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (International Poster/Press Brochure, 1968)

 

Here is an awesome one.  As Toho slowly began to expand their international presence over those early years, their marketing materials got fancier.  What was at first decent brochures (at some point) turned into glossy, smaller versions of the actual movie posters themselves, with press information and photos on the back.  This is super-fortunate for us in this case, because it just happens to be the incredible artwork for DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.

I have to say, the American poster can do no wrong, but I absolutely love the "film title card logo" version of the title used here.  Unfolded, these pieces measured the strange size of 20 & 3/8 inches by 14 & 3/8 inches (which admittedly probably works out to centimeters perfectly if I had checked...we are talking International here).  Still big enought to frame and have it look awesome, though.

Unfortunately, the beneficially-large size makes it too big to scan.  I mean, it could be stitched together, but trust me, you don't want me to attempt that. Besides, it would greatly slow down getting this post completed, and you probably want to see it this decade.  Here instead is the top half, so you can better read the text:

The synopsis is really very well done.  I like the frankness of the sentence "Their goal of course is domination of the planet Earth."  Also, the ending text poses the question of "Who will win?" and then immediately in the next line says "nevermind, Godzilla does."  I mean, it's not that there was ever any doubt, but let's just spoil it hard right off the bat!

The lower half repeats the same information in French and Spanish, which today is commonplace in a marketing piece, but back then, required a separate publication.  Also, we learn that 89 minutes equates to 2471 meters of film!

I have a couple more of these beauties coming up in the near future, so stay tuned.

GODZILLA vs. THE THING Unused Ad Mat #203 (AIP/National Screen Service, 1964)

 

This is another brief one today, but here is an UNUSED vintage Ad Mat (or Ad Mold, or even "flong," which some people call them) from GODZILLA vs. THE THING!

We have looked at a few of these over the years, but if you are new here:  these were ordered through the pressbook, and were made of molded wood pulp.  The idea was that molten lead was poured into them, and added to a block of wood to make a newspaper ad printing block! As such, this destroyed the mold, so as you can imagine, unused ones rarely pop up!

The entire piece measures 4 & 5/8 by 3 & 3/8 inches, but that is including the large border around the ad.  Through the magic of "having the pressbook," we can compare the ad mold to the actual finished product, below!

This of course plays off of the legendary Reynold Brown artwork for the half-sheet poster of this film, which is a masterpiece.  

This ad mold has been added to the newest edition of our Guide to Vintage American Godzilla Theatrical Promotional Items, which you can download for free and see this and much, much more!

KING KONG vs. GODZILLA Unused Ad Mat #102 (Universal/National Screen Service, 1963)

 

It doesn't look like much, and it's only the size of a trading card, but you are looking at a piece of history. 

Here is a rarity that would confuse most people today.  This is an unused Ad Mat (called Ad Molds in some places) for a smallish newspaper ad for KING KONG vs. GODZILLA.  These were shallow trays made of wood pulp, which were designed to be poured with molten metal (often lead) and attached to a wooden piece, creating a printer's block that could be added to the layout of a newspaper page...which looked like this:

It goes without saying that this process would destroy the Ad Mold, and printer's blocks themselves were rarely saved at all, as the lead would be re-used.

As a result, unused Ad Mats are rare as hen's teeth; Godzilla ones even more so.  

This particular Ad Mat isn't cut from a larger piece, but is exactly as it arrived 62 years ago! Amazing.

(Reverse side)

When a theatre owner received the pressbook for an upcoming film, it would often show all of the different permutations of ads that were available (each with a number), and Ad Mats could then be ordered from the National Screen Service Exchange.

This one is "Ad Mat 102," and since we have the actual pressbook at hand, we can show you exactly what that finished ad looked like in print, and how much space it would take up on the page:

You can see an entire unused Ad Mat with multiple ads--ironically, for the same Godzilla movie--at this post here from a few years ago.  If you like this sort of thing, we have an entire page of Vintage Godzilla American Theatrical Promotional Items that collects everything in one place!

Sandy Becker - THE CHARIOT RACE GAME (RCA, 1959)

 

"Mommy! Daddy! Take me to see SOLOMON AND SHEBA, with Yul Brynner and Gina Lollobrigida, please, pleeeeeease! I'll be good, PLEASE!" 

Those were the words spoken by exactly ZERO children in 1959, when this 7-inch record came out.  But what we are looking at isn't a kids' record, right? The back of the sleeve gives you your answer:

Oh.

None of this matters, anyway, because what we have here is another "magic record," or as RCA specifically called them, "Secret Spiral Records," records cut with multiple grooves that give you a surprise outcome when you drop the stylus!

We have looked at a couple of these before (here is a fun Hanna-Barbera one), and there have been quite a few over the years, from one that enabled you to play Bingo (where seemingly random numbers were called), to even one that was a Roulette wheel (were you supposed to gamble with these things?).  

Here, though, we have an exciting chariot race on side 2, where each one of four differently-colored chariots can be the winner! The first side gives you some instructions, and then sets the scene in the context of the movie...then it's on to Side 2, to play the game!

Speaking of the movie (which is regarded as a clunker--making it killed Tyrone Power, even), a keyword search of its lengthy plot on Wikipedia does not even contain the word "chariot." Is it any coincidence that BEN HUR came out right at the same time? I think not.

I can only imagine some fist-fights, drinking games, or at least small bets that were lost, involving this record.  It's always tough to convert these types of records, because invariably there's that last groove that you are trying to randomly hit, and it just won't come up! But fear not, I have provided them all here for you.  Listening to these digitally may not be as fun or random, though, but I'm sure there's a way!

LINK:  Sandy Becker - The Chariot Race Game (1959)

GODZILLA vs. MEGALON 1-inch Type C TV Station Library Master Tape

 

And now, at last, here is something that's been in the works for two or three years now: the one-inch television master tape for GODZILLA vs. MEGALON!

Straight from a TV station library (dated April 3, 1990), this one-inch "type C" format offers more lines of resolution than that of VHS.  This is a good thing, and it gets even better, because the production house that transferred this for me had recently re-built their equipment to include a component that cleaned the tape immediately before the conversion, ensuring the best transfer possible.  

As a result, the film looks better than any home video release up to the time! What's more, there is also an added bonus:

In addition to the film, I was saving this Super 8 conversion that the same company did for me a couple of years ago, to use as bonus material.  This is the U.S. MEGALON theatrical trailer, which was actually released by Steel Valley Film Services--probably via mail order--for the princely sum of $9.95.  While this is the same trailer you've probably seen before (that can be found on YouTube), here it serves as a great example of how much quality Super 8 can actually reproduce.  This widescreen trailer looks and sounds great.

As you can see from the artwork, the film runs 79 minutes, 19 seconds, so a thorough comparison with other released versions, especially the many VHS releases of the day, would be in order (MEGALON famously has some discrepancies, such as the opening credits for example...it always cracks me up how they pan-and-scan their way out of the nude pinups in the truck).  For now though, here it is, at long last! Enjoy!

LINK(includes film, trailer, & artwork):  

GODZILLA vs. MEGALON TV Master Tape

Announcing The Sphinx GODZILLA GUIDE VOLUME 5: U.S. Theatrical Promotional Items!

 

I lost track of how long this project took (maybe three years or so, off and on), but after a long period of concentrated effort, the entire series of Sphinx Godzilla Guides is finally complete.  

This fifth and last volume covers vintage promotional theatrical material from the original series of Godzilla films, plus GODZILLA 1985 for good measure, and because there is a huge amount of stuff for that film.

It's hard to represent this guide in a screenshot or two, but the premise was to use all of the vintage pressbooks (as we have done sporadically in this blog over the years) as a guide, and take a deep-dive look at each one of them along the way, showing all of the known materials that exist for each film. Another little-examined corner of Godzilla history is the vast amount of crazy suggestions that the various distributors made for theatre-owners to promote and exploit the film...some not even legal!

In addition, we will look at ad slicks and ad molds, radio and television spots, and any and all other ephemera produced--several films even had unique items only made for them, such as a mask, a comic book, even a safety vest in one case. We will see examples of finished ads as they ran in newspapers of the day, as well as trade ads and the occasional news stories. It's not only a fun read for the Godzilla fan, but can also serve as a checklist of sorts for the hard-core collector, as nowhere in collecting history has anything like this ever been attempted. I am not sure how interested Toho really is at preserving the history of Godzilla in America, as they seem to be extremely disorganized in their efforts, but here it all is (call me sometime, Toho; let's do lunch).

Of course, these volumes will continue to be updated as new discoveries are made, especially in the Home Video and Comics areas, which are ongoing. I'm always more than happy to receive corrections and additions for any of the volumes, and I hope they are used and enjoyed, because they will be here in perpetuity and at absolutely no cost.  Enjoy! You can download all five at the Sphinx Godzilla Guides page.

Now, on to the next large-scale project; stay tuned!

GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND stand-alone ad slick (Cinema Shares, 1977)

 

More catch-up here, with a one-page, letter-sized ad slick for GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND.  This came by itself, and has no staple holes, so it certainly appears to be  a stand-alone issue. Ad slicks were weird like that.

Stay tuned, because both big forthcoming announcements were each about three years in the making, so you know it's going to be good!

GODZILLA vs. THE THING stand-alone ad slick (American International, 1964)

 

A little catch up work today, as we prepare to finally release the 5th volume of the Sphinx Godzilla guide, which covers theatrical promotional material.  

Here is a stand-alone, 8.5 x 11 ad slick for GODZILLA vs. THE THING.  It is actually a variant of this one below, which I think may have come first:

American International held onto the film for a while, and offered re-releases and package deals with other features, so it's hard to know exactly what the dates of origin are.  I just know the waving Godzilla photo cracks me up.

Stay tuned, some big announcements are forthcoming...

Television Campaign Book Pages (American-International TV, late 1960's)

These were in a lot of promotional stuff I recently acquired, and were (for some reason) cut from one of AI-TV's many television campaign books, where they hyped their film libraries to local TV stations.  

Here we have a random sampling of films that you probably grew up with, on TV! I definitely remember some of these being on.