Warning! These 1950s Movie Gimmicks Will Shock You

July 30th, 2013

Welcome to summer movie hell—another blockbuster season filled with costly digital effects that disappoint more often than they surprise. During a University of Southern California film symposium in June, two directors guilty of creating this trend, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, predicted the imminent collapse of their mega-budget film industry. In its place, they suggested a future of immersive technologies, where theaters would offer thrills you couldn’t get via Netflix.

“Guaranteed to upset your stomach: No one admitted without a vomit bag.”

In fact, Hollywood tried this more than 50 years ago, when filmmakers like William Castle pushed the boundaries of the movie-going experience to make it more interactive. Equal parts technical innovation and publicity stunt, the gimmick craze of the 1950s put special effects in your face and under your seat, literally: Some audiences got a whiff of the action in scented screenings, while others were jolted out of their seats by electric buzzers.

Richard Peterson, who’s the director of programming for the Smith Rafael Film Center, says that features we take for granted today, like surround sound and widescreen projection, were initially seen as novelties. Even color was originally a gimmick. “In the 1920s,” explains Peterson, “before they had full Technicolor, they had what’s called two-color Technicolor, and films like ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ had these two-color sequences.”

Top: A 1959 poster for "The Tingler" 1959 hints at the film's interactive experience. Above: Launched in 1952, the curved wide-screen projection system called "Cinerama" was a precursor to IMAX.

Top: A 1959 poster for “The Tingler” 1959 hints at the film’s interactive experience. Above: The curved, widescreen projection system called “Cinerama” was a precursor to IMAX.

First released as a silent film in 1925, “The Phantom of the Opera” included black-and-white footage that was tinted various shades to influence the mood, such as blue for night shots or yellow for bright exterior scenes, a fairly common technique for silent films. However, a few select sequences were also filmed with Technicolor’s new Process 2 film, which utilized both red and green tones for an eerie, desaturated version of the full color spectrum. Full-color films began appearing in the 1930s, culminating in the ultimate Technicolor trick, the sepia-to-color opening for “The Wizard of Oz” in 1939.

After the Great Depression hit, the slump in theater attendance inspired the film industry to fill seats through marketing gimmicks like price cuts or prize giveaways. No longer could directors rely only on the strength of a film’s plot or celebrity stars; instead they learned to build hype that would spread through word of mouth. But this was only the beginning.

Following World War II, the film industry was dealt two major blows that compelled filmmakers to explore new forms of gimmickry: the rise of home television sets and a court decision dismantling studio monopolies. With the Hollywood antitrust case of 1948, the Supreme Court ruled against Paramount Pictures, forcing studios to divide their production, exhibition, and distribution streams. As a result, all the major studios, including MGM, RKO, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros., had to sell their national theater chains and slow production efforts to focus on releases with a legitimate chance of box-office success.

Film buff and ephemera collector John Cozzoli, who runs the blog Zombo’s Closet, explains that the Paramount-case decrees helped level the playing field, giving the five biggest studios some competition. “The shortage of movies from the major studios led to a surge of independent production companies taking up the slack,” says Cozzoli, “and the use of even wilder gimmick campaigns to bring people back to the theater experience.”

For decades, studios had produced marketing packets, known as pressbooks, which were distributed to theaters to help advertise each film, with the ultimate aim of growing box office receipts. But in the 1950s, industry executives became nervous enough to try a bunch of wacky new publicity methods and in-theater gimmicks to help fill seats. Elaborate pressbook sections on showmanship, or “exploitation” as it was commonly known, helped theaters plug their films to the local media and potential audiences. “Pressbooks provided ideas like holding a local contest, or maybe doing an impromptu parade down Main Street with people dressed in monster masks, holding up a sign heralding a double-feature of terror not to be missed,” says Cozzoli.

The pressbook for "The Giant Claw" included a variety of inane publicity ideas, like the headless drawing at right.

The pressbook for “The Giant Claw” included a variety of inane publicity ideas, like the headless drawing of the monster at right. Image courtesy John Cozzoli. (Click the image to read more.)

Such campy tactics worked particularly well for horror and science fiction films, where audiences sought to be thrilled in whatever way possible. Pressbooks included all sorts of homespun suggestions, like placing handmade dioramas in the lobby or giving coloring-book sheets to kids, even for adult-themed films. “The coloring page for ‘The Giant Claw’ shows the monster from the neck down—no head,” says Cozzoli. “Given how goofy the head looks in the movie, I could see why they didn’t want to tip off anyone ahead of time.”

Some of these selling points revolved around new technology, like a wave of three-dimensional films. Though experimentation with 3D started with low-tech short films in the 1890s, a modern version of the process was inaugurated with the 1952 film “Bwana Devil,” the first full-color stereoscopic feature. The 1953 hit “House of Wax” starring Vincent Price added stereo sound to the mix, becoming the first 3D film to make the year’s top-10 list, and cementing Price as horror’s leading man.

Ads for "The House of Wax" in 1953 sensationalized the 3D viewing experience.

Ads for “The House of Wax” in 1953 sensationalized the 3D viewing experience.

Most 3D films of the ’50s didn’t use the clunky red-and-blue filter process we think of today; instead they relied on a double projector system with two separate rolls of film (one for the right eye and one for the left), which was improved with inventions like Edwin Land’s Polaroid filters. However, since the two prints had to be perfectly synced for a clean projection, this often resulted in alignment issues that induced headaches, particularly for audience members not sitting in the center of an auditorium.

Peterson believes the desire to contrast the theater experience with television inspired this drive toward new technologies. “Look at developments like Cinerama, the three-screen panoramic projection that started in 1952, which was very quickly followed by Cinemascope, a cheaper way to do wide screen movies,” suggests Peterson. “Cinerama and Cinemascope were parts of this effort to get people out of the house, to go see a movie, because they were bigger and better than ever.”

Publicity for "Bwana Devil" even included an explanation of the film's improved 3D technology.

Publicity for “Bwana Devil” even included an explanation of the film’s improved 3D technology.

However, most gimmicks didn’t involve advanced technology, and instead aimed to encourage audience interaction. Enter William Castle: Beginning with his 1958 film “Macabre,” Castle elevated the shock-factor gimmick to an art form. As a publicity stunt for the release of “Macabre,” Castle secured a life insurance policy from Lloyd’s of London, guaranteeing $1,000 in compensation for any audience member who died of fright while viewing his film.

Cult director John Waters praised Castle’s techniques in his book “Crackpot,” beginning with the “Macabre” setup: “Mock insurance policies appeared in all the newspaper ads. Giant replicas of the actual policy hung over the marquees. Hearses were parked outside the theaters and fake nurses in uniform were paid to stand around the lobbies.

“Audiences fell hook, line, and sinker. Nobody talked about the movie, but everyone was eager to see if some jerk would drop dead and collect. Of course, no one died. But if they had, it would have been even better. A death of any kind inside the theater would only have cost Lloyd’s of London a paltry $1,000, and think of the hype that would have generated!”

William Castle, center, promotes his films with some of his teenage fans.

William Castle, center, promotes his films with the help of some teenage fans.

William Castle’s daughter, Terry, who also works as a writer and producer, says that her father recognized the value of publicity long before his horror-film career. In 1938, Castle convinced Orson Welles to let him take over Welles’ summer stock theater company in Connecticut. Castle concocted a complicated scheme to work with German actress Ellen Schwannake, claiming he had a part that only she could play.

Castle’s “Homicical” included a money-back guarantee, for cowards.

“But it was really hot that July, and they sold very few tickets,” explains Terry, “so my father decided he had to do something. Schwannake had actually gotten a letter from Hitler requesting her presence at some grand ball back in Germany, so my father, who was Jewish, went to Western Union and sent a telegram in response to say that she was acting in his play, she would never go back to Germany, and ‘No!’ to Hitler.

“He took his telegram to the news media, who picked up on it. And then, in the middle of the night, he went to the theater and painted swastikas up and down the stairs and knocked over the box office. The next morning, he made an announcement saying, ‘The show must go on!’ He had the state police there, and the theater was packed. It sold out every night.”

Translating such unconventional methods to the movie industry wasn’t easy, but Castle quickly recognized an important new target—teenagers. “The new theater audience was made up of older kids and young adults,” says Cozzoli, “and lots of dating young adults. Castle’s gimmicks accomplished two things at once: They told these kids that the movie was not their parent’s kind of movie, and they also let them in on the action. Castle wanted them to experience the movie event—not just watch it—to hoot and howl and go wild when the gimmicks kicked in. Teenagers knew Castle was directing and producing these movies for them, and that’s why they were so successful.”

Many of Castle’s gags were integrated directly into the movie, bringing stories to life by letting the audience interact with the action onscreen. For his 1961 film, “Homicidal,” Castle inserted a “fright break” just before the film’s climax, displaying a ticking stop-watch while giving viewers a chance to leave the theater if they were too afraid. Theaters set up a “Coward’s Corner” in the lobby, with a yellow line leading fearful patrons to the booth where they’d sign a certificate stating “I am a bona-fide coward” before getting their money back.

"The Horrors of the Black Museum" was shown in "HypnoVista," whereby the audience was supposedly hypnotized. "Wicked, Wicked" utilized "Duo-Vision" to show two scenes side by side.

“The Horrors of the Black Museum” was shown in “HypnoVista,” whereby the audience was supposedly hypnotized into feeling the events onscreen. “Wicked, Wicked” utilized “Duo-Vision” to show two scenes side by side for double the terror.

During a special preview weekend in Youngstown, Ohio, Castle attended the 9 o’clock screening to see if the stunt would work. “There was a whole line of publicity people, and Columbia Pictures had some of their people there,” recalls Terry, “and my dad’s sitting there, sweating, but people seem to be really into it. And then his voice comes on, and says, ‘This is William Castle, if you’re too afraid to stay in the theater, follow the yellow line to get your full money back.’ And the entire theater got up and left.”

“Hearses were parked outside the theaters and fake nurses in uniform were paid to stand around the lobbies.”

The theater manager later pulled Castle aside to explain that the audience had actually come for the 6 o’clock show, and stayed for a second screening to get a free refund. “My father was so mad,” says Terry, “saying that Youngstown, Ohio, was just a bunch of swindlers. They changed the color of the tickets for each show, and it worked beautifully.”

At the time, films didn’t open all across the country on the same day, so Castle could attend many local premieres, adding his celebrity to the event and helping to ensure the gags were executed properly. “He was a genius marketer,” says Terry. “He wanted to get people into theaters, and he figured out a way to do that. He didn’t trust that the films would stand on their own, and he was terribly afraid of failing, so he created these fantastic reasons to come to the movies.”

Audiences couldn’t wait to see what Castle would come up with next. For the film “Thirteen Ghosts,” black-and-white scenes were superimposed with blue- and red-tinted footage, allowing viewers to make the “ghosts” visible or invisible using a pair of “Illusion-O” glasses filled with colored cellophane. For “Mr. Sardonicus,” Castle created a “Punishment Poll,” whereby audience members could vote for the villain to receive extra punishment or mercy. While many skeptics think there weren’t actually two endings, Terry says an alternate version was definitely made, though it wasn’t ever screened.

Using an “Illusion-O” ghost viewer during Castle’s film “13 Ghosts” allowed viewers to hide or display the spectral figures. Right, a still from the film.

Using an “Illusion-O” ghost viewer during Castle’s film “13 Ghosts” allowed viewers to hide or display the spectral figures. Right, a still from the film.

The effect Cozzoli most regrets not seeing in person is “Emergo,” which sent a fake skeleton flying over the audience during “The House on Haunted Hill.” “I dream of tossing popcorn at it,” says Cozzoli.

Perhaps the crowning achievement of Castle’s gag-filled oeuvre was his 1959 film “The Tingler.” Posters for the film included a guarantee that the monster would break loose during your screening, but that you’d be given instructions on “how to guard yourself against attack.” Castle encouraged audiences to react by creating a climax that takes place in a darkened theater and using a single sequence of blood-curdling color for maximum effect.

On top of all this, Castle also rigged certain theater seats with electric buzzers. “I don’t know how he talked these independent theaters into letting him shock the audience’s butts,” says Terry. “It was a fairly simple device, but he had to work hard to get the studio’s marketing department to buy off on it, and also to persuade the exhibitors to do the gimmick. I can’t imagine that working today.”

Despite his amazing mayhem-inducing record, or perhaps because of it, Castle never felt like he was fully respected by the filmmaking community. In 1967, Castle finally got a potential break from the low budget world of B-movies when he secured the rights to the best-selling novel “Rosemary’s Baby.” Yet Paramount convinced him to let Roman Polanski direct the film, with Castle acting as executive producer. It would be the last movie of his career.

“He didn’t want to be on the fringe,” says Terry. “He wanted to be accepted. It was an industry that he loved so much, and that’s who my father was as a person—he just wanted to be accepted.”

“Castle elevated the gimmick to a national level,” says Cozzoli, “making it an official and integral part of the movie’s advertising campaign. What’s more, he loved doing it and he was a natural sideshow barker, cajoling or daring the audience to watch his movies. His blatant but effective ballyhoo playbook for marketing inexpensive movies to achieve high box-office success even caught Alfred Hitchcock’s attention, helping to propel ‘Psycho’ [1960] to success using the same formula.”

Marketing for Hitchcock's "Psycho" relied on Castle's hype techniques.

Marketing for Hitchcock’s “Psycho” relied on hype techniques similar to those employed by Castle.

Many critics agree that Hitchcock, possibly the world’s most famous suspense director, was influenced by Castle’s techniques. “Castle has been described as a wannabe Hitchcock, but when Hitchcock made ‘Psycho,’ I think he was reacting to William Castle,” says Peterson. In particular, the publicity for “Psycho” included the Castle-esque mandate that “No one will be admitted after the start of the performance.” “Who’d want to walk into a movie midway?” he asks. “I think promoting it that way was borrowing a trick from Castle.”

Castle’s style of viral marketing quickly spread among other studios and directors, who utilized tabloid-style headlines and shocking poster art to sensationalize a film’s potential dangers or its novel special effects. For the 1958 film “The Fly,” 20th Century Fox advertised a $100 dollar prize if you could be the first to disprove the film’s scientific premise. American International created its “D-13 Test” for the 1963 film “Dementia 13,” designed to identify those who might be adversely affected by the movie. Ads for the 1970 film “Mark of the Devil” declared that, due to horrifying violence, no one would be admitted without a vomit bag.

Sensational advertising for “The Fly” and “Mark of the Devil.” Images courtesy John Cozzoli.

A few even attempted to outdo 3D films with technical tricks, like the split-screen projection used for the 1973 film “Wicked, Wicked.” Shown in “Duo-Vision,” the film incorporated two reels of footage simultaneously, but the doubled imagery was difficult to watch and the effect didn’t get much traction.

The 1970s also saw the arrival of “Sensurround,” an illusion using massive speakers to vibrate the theater at moments of intense action. Sensurround was first released with the 1974 film “Earthquake,” but was plagued by high installation costs and the difficulty of containing the effect to a single auditorium in multiplex theaters.

Possibly the most bizarre film gimmick involved screenings enhanced with specific smells. “AromaRama” made its big-screen debut in 1959 with Carlo Lizzani’s “Behind the Great Wall,” using the theater’s air conditioning system to disperse scents through an auditorium. Only a few weeks later, producer Mike Todd, Jr.’s “Smell-O-Vision” premiered with the film “Scent of Mystery.” Todd’s system relied on a network of pipes connected to vents beneath the seats that would release perfumes at specific points during a screening. Both gimmicks were spectacular critical and popular flops, as audiences found they merely distracted from the viewing experience.

Left, producer Mike Todd, Jr. and inventor Hans Lube display the "Smell-O-Vision" "Scent of Mystery" perfume apparatus. Right, a poster for "Scent of Mystery," which incorporate contextual smells.

Left, producer Mike Todd, Jr. and inventor Hans Lube display the “Smell-O-Vision” “Scent of Mystery” perfume apparatus. Right, a poster for “Scent of Mystery,” which incorporated contextual smells.

“I’ve never even heard of anyone trying to re-create that,” says Peterson. “The problem is, how do you get the smells out once they’re in the auditorium? I’m sure it just turned into a mess.” John Waters did revive the scented film concept for his 1981 movie “Polyester,” though his “Odorama” gimmick improved the original technique by giving audience members scratch-and-sniff cards numbered by scene.

As viewers grew more sophisticated in the 1970s and ’80s, producers lost interest in over-the-top gimmicks, preferring to spend money for onscreen effects like realistic violence or computer-animated monsters. Yet, as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg indicated recently, there’s an increasing desire for more immersive technology at the movies.

“I think the idea of smells is not completely off-base,” says Peterson, “though it probably won’t come from pumping perfume into an auditorium. There are ways of making things like holograms and immersive environments part of a narrative, which will probably enter into the picture at some point. I guess the one that still has a foot in each era is 3D, and with the new 3D craze, we’re probably looking at it being part of future technological developments in film.”

The primary difference between mid-century and contemporary 3D is that today, the process is much easier for theaters to implement, and comes with a higher ticket price. “It’s probably even keeping people from going to movies they otherwise would see if they could afford it,” says Cozzoli. “It’s a price-increasing gimmick, and one that’s not worth the cost.”

The Odorama scratch 'n sniff card for John Waters's "Polyester" from 1981.

A scratch-and-sniff card for John Waters’s “Polyester” from 1981.

Terry Castle believes there’s still an opportunity for studios to capture audiences with new gimmicks, particularly using the gadgets we already have available at our fingertips. “If you think what my father would do with iPhones and iPads and augmented reality,” Terry muses, “he would be all over that. He would have something where you’d set your phone to do a certain thing, and you felt like cockroaches were running up your leg—it would be brilliant.”

In a move that William Castle would certainly appreciate, Terry has revived his William Castle Productions for a post-mortem series of young adult horror books. She’s also working on the screen adaption of “The Mind Thing” by Frederic Brown, a classic science-fiction novel Castle first optioned years ago. And although Terry recalls a few of her father’s stunts that never made it into theaters, she’s careful not to reveal them. “There are definitely gimmicks he never used, and I sure hope to use them one day,” says Terry.

Regardless of the potential, Cozzoli doesn’t have high hopes for Hollywood today. “I doubt we’ll be seeing any really good gimmicks anytime soon,” he says, “unless we can dig up William Castle, clone him using his DNA, and give his clone a good cigar, and a national campaign.” Though that might be just what Terry has up her sleeve.

14 comments so far

  1. Katherine Says:

    I wish local theaters would do a retro-night where old movies and their gimmicks were used! I am too young to have experienced any of these, and they sound like so much fun!

  2. Terry O'Brien Says:

    You missed the audience participation gimmick from the end of the movie “The Hypnotic Eye”. Audience members were given a balloon, which they were to inflate and manipulate along with the audience on the screen in response to the directions of the stage hypnotist Desmond. It was all part of the ‘gimmick’ that the movie was supposed to hypnotize the audience.

  3. bcarter3 Says:

    ‘ In particular, the publicity for “Psycho” included the Castle-esque mandate that “No one will be admitted after the start of the performance.” “Who’d want to walk into a movie midway?” [Peterson] asks. ‘

    Uh, lots of people. Before “Psycho’, it was not uncommon for people to arrive in the middle of movies, at least in second run/small town theaters, and especially when there was a double feature.

  4. Charles Watkins Says:

    The Time Machine had costumed Morlocs going up and down the aisles, cracking whips.

  5. J. Theakston Says:

    Good article, but a couple of points:

    1. The screenings of THE TINGLER did not rely on any sort of a shock. Castle bought military surplus airplane wing de-icers. The most audiences got was a rattling on their behinds.

    2. There was never any alternate ending for MR. SARDONICUS, and if you watch the film (and consider where it is on the film print—in the middle of the reel where you couldn’t possible do a changeover), you’ll see there’s no way there possibly could have been.

    3. I’m fairly certain THE FLY advert is a bit of local ballyhoo, and then $100 guarantee was no offered by Fox, but by the theater it was playing at ($100 is a “safe bet” amount for a local theater).

  6. Casey Scott Says:

    Re: WICKED, WICKED. There is no double storyline with the split-screen technique used in the film. It is a simple story of a killer stalking a hotel. It also was not dual projection. It was one film print, one projector, simply split-screen (Duo-Vision) for 99% of the movie. It predated DePalma’s use of the technique in SISTERS, PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, and CARRIE, and was simply trying to use split-screen effectively as had been done in WOODSTOCK, but not many other films. It actually worked quite well, in some sequences showing a character’s flashback on the right side of the screen while the character talks on the left.

  7. Dennis Bartok Says:

    Great article. If you want to see many of the original 1950’s 3-D movies inc. CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, KISS ME KATE, DIAL M FOR MURDER, ROBOT MONSTER, HOUSE OF WAX on the big screen, they’ll be showing Sept. 6-15th in Hollywood at the World 3-D Film Expo III (www.3-dfilmexpo.com). Most of these will likely be showing for the last time ever in their original dual-35mm 3-D format.

  8. Ron Merk Says:

    This is a great piece. It prompted me to write an article on our Indieplex Online Magazine about my personal experiences seeing these gimmicks and new technologies when I was a kid in Newark, New Jersey, back in the mid-50s. The link to my article is: http://www.indieplex.org/the-tingle-factor-what-showmen-used-to-do-to-thrill-us-long-before-digital-technology/
    The piece was published last week on our website which is dedicated to the past, present and future of film, film technology, and filmmaking. http://www.indieplex.org. It’s a free site, and interested parties can join as a member. There are articles on many subjects, as well as a video interview program called The Cinema Scope.

  9. mel Says:

    The publicity material for Bwana Devil talks about Polaroid filters on the projectors and Polaroid glasses that had to be worn by the audience.

    They were not Polaroid,but POLARIZED.

  10. Stephen Haigh Says:

    I have doubts about the gimmick for “The Tingler”. Surely it would have been simpler and cheaper to have a few paid stooges in some of the cinemas who could leap up and scream occasionally?

  11. Lowan Laws Says:

    Wasn’t there a movie years ago (1950s?) that wiggled strings/wands around the ankles of the movie audience to mimic the feeling of the rats that were running around in the movie. Smell-O-Vision / Feel-O-Vision? Do you know the name of movie?

  12. MCM Says:

    I still have my Odorama scratch and sniff card from John Water’s film Polyester and it still smells. LOL

  13. Andy Says:

    I’m disappointed to see the marketing gimmicks described as “inane.” Is this not a celebration of the fun of the period?

  14. Robb S Says:

    As a kid back in the early 60s I went to such a gimmick horror movie which I’ve never found any mention of on-line… which brought me to this website. At some point the theater and screen go dark and when the lights came back on the villain… possibly a mad scientists, comes on to the stage, and grabs a young woman from the front row of the theater. He carries her onto the stage, the theater goes dark again… and they appear in the movie. It’s not the sort of movie that could ever make it to DVD. Obviously the real in-person woman and villain actors are dressed as the actors in the film. Anyone know the name of this film?


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