Like the celebrities of today, Louise Brooks’ name and image was used in a number of advertisements and advertising campaigns. Beginning in 1926 with the “Louise Brooks Evening Gown” and running through the LUX soap campaigns of the late 1920s and early 1930s, Brooks’ name, image and likeness was used to sell all manner of products and services — not only in the United States, but also elsewhere around the world. Here are a few examples of movie tie-ins.
In the 1920s and 1930s, it was not unusual for local merchants to arrange for promotional tie-ins around the release of new motion pictures. Sometimes, these tie-in involved a single merchant or business, and sometimes they involved a group of merchants who might band together around the title or theme of a new release. Here are a few such examples. Each appeared in an American newspaper. And, notably, each were filled an entire page.
This full page advertisement for a Mammoth Dress Sale appeared on October 29, 1927 in The True Republican, a newspaper located in Sycamore, Illinois. The four day sale was launched with a “1927 Fall Style Show and Fashion Revue” set to take place on November at the local Fargo Theatre, which was showing the recently released film, Rolled Stockings. This 1927 film was a fashion conscious flicker aimed at the youth market of the day. Set on a college campus, it starred the Paramount Junior Stars, of whom Louise Brooks was a leading member. According to this full-page advertisement, along with the screening of the film there was to be a fashion show featuring “beautiful dazzling girls” modelling the “Correct Frock for the Co-ed Miss or Matron.”
On a few occasions, more than one local merchant banded together in a promotional campaign around the release of a new film. That was the case when a handful of businesses promoted themselves and A Girl In Every Port, the Howard Hawks directed film starring Victor McLaglen, Louise Brooks, and Robert Armstrong. The newspaper page shown below ran on March 28, 1928 in the Manhattan Mercury, which was published in from Manhattan, Kansas. The page features six different ads from six different businesses including the local Marshall theater. The Shagmoor ad on the left claimed “Louise Brooks (Star in — A Girl in Every Port) wears and endorses Shagmoor Top Coats” while adding “Every Girl in any port would be pleased to wear one of our new spring coats or dresses.” The J. A. Hollis ad on the lower right similarly claimed “Victor McLaglen wears and endorses THE GOTHIC JAR PROOF WATCH — you can drop it! Jar it! Shock it! You can’t Hurt It!.” The ad goes on to state “HOLLIS also has LOUISE BROOKS’ watch selection — the famous GRUEN — we have a large selection to choose from — $25.00 up.” Three of the other ads — one of silk hosiery, one for a bookstore which sells wallpaper, and one for men’s clothing — each give a shout out to the film without referencing Brooks.
[Gruen watches were well known in their day. According to https://gruen.watch/, the Gruen Watch Company was a leading watch manufacturer of the 20th century. Originally based in Europe, the company survived the turmoil of economic crises and two world wars, but ran into difficulties after the family withdrew from the business and its production facilities in Ohio were closed in 1958. The company headquarters were moved to New York and until well into the 1970s, high-quality mechanical watches with Swiss movements were sold under the Gruen brand.]Except for the theater advertisement in the middle of the page, each of five other ads contains strings of numbers of either four or five digits which represented telephone numbers. To ensure that Manhattan Mercury readers scoured every ad, the Marshall ad in the middle of the page contains an offer of free tickets which read: “Find your telephone number in the ads, on this page, and present it at the Marshall ticket window for a free admission to A Girl in Every Port. Only one ticket to each number.”
Similar to the A Girl in Every Port page of advertisements shown above, a full page of advertisements and editorial content tied-in with the 1931 film It Pays to Advertise (shown below). This page appeared three years later on March 28, 1931 in the Oakland Post-Enquirer in Oakland, California. There are seven advertisements, nine articles, and one photo related to the Paramount farce, or “riot of laughs.” The ads include those for Florsheim Shoes, as well as a local shop for men’s clothing, a dentist office, a florist, and a beauty salon. (As Brooks was just a supporting player in this film, she is not mentioned in any of the advertisements — though she is mentioned in passing in one of the articles.) The ad for Gambre face powder includes a special offer: “Our Face Powder is the PUREST and FINEST powder obtainable. We believe It Pays to Advertise, and to prove it we offer a regular dollar box of Gambre Powder FREE with the purchase of one dollar or more. Just say ‘I saw Your Advertisement’.”
