During the silent film era, slides were projected in theaters as a means of alerting the audience to a venue’s future offerings. These coming attraction slides were the equivalent of today’s previews or trailers. Slides might be projected before the feature, or in-between features of a double bill (a sequence of slides also served to give the projectionist time to change reels). Along with slides promoting forthcoming films, there might also be announcement slides (“don’t forget to remove your hat”, “thank you for coming”, etc…), bits of humor, or slides advertising the services of local businesses. Typically, coming attraction slides (also called magic lantern slides) were made of glass and were almost always hand colored; most also included a blank area meant for customization — theater managers could add a brief message like “Coming Nov. 14” or “Starts Thursday”. Most slides were issued with a stapled cardboard frame which protected the glass slide, measured 3¼ x 4 inches (82mm x 101mm), and noted the title of the film and the maker of the slide. Of the slides shown below, most were manufactured by either the Excelsior Illustrating Co. from New York City, Photo Repro. Co. from Long Island, Combined Photo Industries from Long Island, or Consolidated Photo Industries from Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Though manufactured by larger concerns, slides were pictured in studio press books and made available as promotional items that could be purchased from the studio, just like lobby cards, posters, photos of the stars, and even balloons. A look through some of the press books for Louise Brooks’ Paramount films reveal slides such as the one’s shown below could be purchased for only 15 cents. (This price held firm as late as 1937.)
A glass slide was probably issued for just about every feature film from the major studios. Consequently, there were thousands of such slides produced. However, because they were made of glass and usually intended for a single use, few slides survive today. Notably, coming attraction slides were issued for each of Louise Brooks’ American silent films — and a most of her six American talkies. Coming attraction slide were issued and used around the world, including Germany. However, it is not known if slide were issued for Brooks’ two German films, Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. This archive page on the Louise Brooks Society website featured examples of coming attraction slides related to Brooks films. Two or three slides are displayed for some films as they show the different hand-coloring some slides received.
If you are interested in coming attraction slides, the one site you simply MUST VISIT is Robert Byrne’s Starts Thursday. It is an amazing site which contains an informative history of coming attraction slides, as well examples of more than 11,000 beautifully scanned slides. One could spend days looking at the many different slides. And yes, these are a number of examples of Louise Brooks related slides, including some not pictured here. Also well worth a visit is the Coming Attraction Lantern Slides (W. Ward Marsh collection) at the Cleveland Public Library. Though a smaller collection, it is a treasure trove of imagery collected by Marsh, a Cleveland newspaper critic who also happened to have reviewed a number of Brooks’ film for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. [The tinted slide for The City Gone Wild comes from his collection.] And for a little more background, there is this 2014 article on SLATE.
Have a better scan or additional information to share, especially for the placeholder images? The LBS would love to hear from you via its CONTACT page.
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| The Street of Forgotten Men hand-colored, in cardboard border |
The Street of Forgotten Men hand-colored, without border |
The Street of Forgotten Men uncolored, without border |
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| The American Venus hand-colored, in cardboard border |
The American Venus hand-colored, without border |
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| A Social Celebrity hand-colored, in cardboard border |
A Social Celebrity hand-colored, without border |
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| It’s the Old Army Game hand-colored, in cardboard border |
It’s the Old Army Game hand-colored, without border |
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| The Show-Off hand-colored, in cardboard border |
The Show-Off hand-colored, without border |
The Show-Off hand-colored & tinted?, without border |
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| Just Another Blonde hand-colored, in cardboard border |
Just Another Blonde hand-colored, without border |
Just Another Blonde (variant) hand-colored, without border |
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| Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em hand-colored, in cardboard border |
Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em hand-colored, without border |
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Evening Clothes |
Evening Clothes hand-colored, without border |
Evening Clothes (placeholder image) scan from photocopy of press book |
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| Rolled Stockings hand-colored, in cardboard border |
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| Now We’re in the Air hand-colored, without border |
Now We’re in the Air (variant) hand-colored, without border |
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| The City Gone Wild hand-colored, without border |
The City Gone Wild tinted, without border |
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| A Girl in Every Port hand-colored, in cardboard border |
A Girl in Every Port hand-colored, without border |
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| Beggars of Life hand-colored, in cardboard border |
Beggars of Life hand-colored, without border |
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| The Canary Murder Case hand-colored, in cardboard border |
The Canary Murder Case hand-colored, without border |
The Canary Murder Case uncolored, without border |
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| Empty Saddles hand-colored, in cardboard border |
Empty Saddles hand-colored, without border |
Empty Saddles hand-colored, without border |
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| God’s Gift to Women (placeholder image) clipped from scan of press book |
King of Gamblers hand-colored, without border |
When You’re in Love (placeholder image) clipped from scan of press book |
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| Overland Stage Raiders hand-colored, in cardboard border |
Overland Stage Raiders hand-colored, without border |
Overland Stage Raiders hand-colored, without border |