Chris, I had also first seen this at the Decatur Drive-In in Decatur, IL. in a double feature of “Saturday Night Fever” (Of course), and “American Hot Wax” in March 1979.
But watching this trailer these days, the one thing I find humorous about it is how Paramount boldly goes where no studio has gone before and proclaims that “STAR TREK: The Motion Picture” was “THE MOST EAGERLY AWAITED FILM OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!”
…and then spells DeForest Kelley’s name wrong (at 2:36).
Like they did in 1978, Paramount Pictures released a preview trailer, that was attached to the 1979 edited re-release of “Saturday Night Fever”, focusing on their major releases for 1979. The trailer featured artwork and stills from those movies, but no actual footage from the films.
Incidentally, Walt Disney Pictures also released preview trailers from their release schedules from 1978 to 1981, but since they were only targeted for their summer releases and the previews was released during May in those years, they did feature footage from those films.
But I have a question about the Paramount preview trailer:
1) Since “Meatballs” is not featured in the trailer, but since a full page ad for the film was in an issue of American Film magazine in Summer 1979, does that instantly make it a major release?
In 1972, the MPAA released this ad featuring Charlton Heston explaining the movie rating system, especially directed towards adults. By this time, the MPAA had once again changed it’s rating system, but only slightly.
The GP rating had been changed to the PG rating, and the X rating, although still mentioned, was not, at this time, an actual MPAA rating (The MPAA created the X rating in 1968 after overwhelming requests from theater owners to create an adult rating), and would not officially receive the MPAA seal, which meant that anybody could release a adult orientated film and self-apply the X rating to their film.
The self application of a X rating was a boon for adult film makers, for around this time in 1972, the film “Deep Throat” was released, changing the way people would perceive adult films forever.
The MPAA released this theater ad in 1968 to introduce the rating system to moviegoers. The MPAA would make changes to the rating system two years later in 1970 with the M rating being replaced with the GP rating.
Probably the best known intermission countdown clock of them all, this particular piece of film was cemented into pop culture forever by it’s use as a background visual during John Travolta’s performance of the song “Sandy” in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Grease”
Perspecta Sound was an attempt at a stereo-like sound process on film which was invented in 1954 and was supported by major studios like Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The Perspecta Sound process was not a true stereophonic sound process but actually took sounds that were recorded at certain tones and levels and distributed them along the left, center, and right speakers through the Perspecta Sound processor, thus creating a pseudo-stereo effect from a mono sound source, which was beneficial for theaters that did not want to install new sound heads on projectors in order to take advantage of the stereophonic sound that was available with FOX’s CinemaScope and other widescreen film processes, making Perspecta Sound a cost effective substitute for stereophonic sound, which the only major cost was the processor inself.
Unfortunately, Perspecta Sound was short lived, and fell out of grace with studios in 1958.
Yes, the Rogers theater was bought by person or persons unknown in order to turn it not into a liquor store, but into a night club. The major rumor that circulated around town at the time of the Roger’s fire incident was that it was burnt down in order to get the insurance money. My personal impression on the arson has always been that (again, my personal impression) was that the firesetter really, really, REALLY liked Club 21 too much for another nightclub, located just a few blocks away, to potentially take away business from Club 21.
Chris, I had also first seen this at the Decatur Drive-In in Decatur, IL. in a double feature of “Saturday Night Fever” (Of course), and “American Hot Wax” in March 1979.
But watching this trailer these days, the one thing I find humorous about it is how Paramount boldly goes where no studio has gone before and proclaims that “STAR TREK: The Motion Picture” was “THE MOST EAGERLY AWAITED FILM OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!”
…and then spells DeForest Kelley’s name wrong (at 2:36).
Like they did in 1978, Paramount Pictures released a preview trailer, that was attached to the 1979 edited re-release of “Saturday Night Fever”, focusing on their major releases for 1979. The trailer featured artwork and stills from those movies, but no actual footage from the films.
Incidentally, Walt Disney Pictures also released preview trailers from their release schedules from 1978 to 1981, but since they were only targeted for their summer releases and the previews was released during May in those years, they did feature footage from those films.
But I have a question about the Paramount preview trailer:
1) Since “Meatballs” is not featured in the trailer, but since a full page ad for the film was in an issue of American Film magazine in Summer 1979, does that instantly make it a major release?
In 1972, the MPAA released this ad featuring Charlton Heston explaining the movie rating system, especially directed towards adults. By this time, the MPAA had once again changed it’s rating system, but only slightly.
The GP rating had been changed to the PG rating, and the X rating, although still mentioned, was not, at this time, an actual MPAA rating (The MPAA created the X rating in 1968 after overwhelming requests from theater owners to create an adult rating), and would not officially receive the MPAA seal, which meant that anybody could release a adult orientated film and self-apply the X rating to their film.
The self application of a X rating was a boon for adult film makers, for around this time in 1972, the film “Deep Throat” was released, changing the way people would perceive adult films forever.
The MPAA released this theater ad in 1968 to introduce the rating system to moviegoers. The MPAA would make changes to the rating system two years later in 1970 with the M rating being replaced with the GP rating.
Probably the best known intermission countdown clock of them all, this particular piece of film was cemented into pop culture forever by it’s use as a background visual during John Travolta’s performance of the song “Sandy” in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Grease”
Perspecta Sound was an attempt at a stereo-like sound process on film which was invented in 1954 and was supported by major studios like Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The Perspecta Sound process was not a true stereophonic sound process but actually took sounds that were recorded at certain tones and levels and distributed them along the left, center, and right speakers through the Perspecta Sound processor, thus creating a pseudo-stereo effect from a mono sound source, which was beneficial for theaters that did not want to install new sound heads on projectors in order to take advantage of the stereophonic sound that was available with FOX’s CinemaScope and other widescreen film processes, making Perspecta Sound a cost effective substitute for stereophonic sound, which the only major cost was the processor inself.
Unfortunately, Perspecta Sound was short lived, and fell out of grace with studios in 1958.
@saegerjon:
Yes, the Rogers theater was bought by person or persons unknown in order to turn it not into a liquor store, but into a night club. The major rumor that circulated around town at the time of the Roger’s fire incident was that it was burnt down in order to get the insurance money. My personal impression on the arson has always been that (again, my personal impression) was that the firesetter really, really, REALLY liked Club 21 too much for another nightclub, located just a few blocks away, to potentially take away business from Club 21.