THE ART OF SELLING MOVIES

John Mcelwee, Goodknight Books, Hardcover $39.95 (304pp), 978-0-9962740-4-3

Let’s say you bought yourself a fancy movie theater back in the 1930s. You probably knew how to make popcorn and tear tickets, but you might not have been prepared to design newspaper ads, often on a daily basis, to get butts into the seats. One day Greta Garbo is on your big screen, followed by the Marx Brothers, with Charlie Chaplin headlining your weekend ahead— get busy, Don Draper; write some compelling ad copy.

Indeed, you and thousands of other theater owners did just that during Hollywood’s Golden Age (silent era through the mid 1960s). The Art of Selling Movies represents the King-kong-sized collection of hundreds of images and clippings gathered by John Mcelwee and reproduced through the use of innovative restoration technology. The three-hundred-plus pages of old newspaper ads, along with witty captions, effectively opens a velvety curtain into movie Americana.