The Art of Selling Movies

John McElwee, Paladin, 304 pages, $39.95. McElwee's lively and informed commentary in "The Art of Selling Movies" runs through more than 400 examples of newspaper advertising from the early teens to the end of the 1960s, providing a panorama of the strident black-and-white collages. The importance of his broad collection is that these ads came not just from the great urban centers, but also neighborhood cinemas across the U.S. — and show just how much competition these theaters had even then. Take a Fort Smith, Ark., theater that had to fight its rivals with not only blockbuster films but comedy shorts and cartoons, star appearances, vaudeville shows, giveaways and marketing tie-ins with local businesses — all of which they highlighted in advertisements. To proclaim such riches in a few square inches of ad space was a challenge, but for the most part, it was expertly done. The ads even addressed politics. By 1952, Charlie Chaplin had been pushed into exile by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI as a political and moral undesirable. His films were picketed by the American Legion. But one Chicago theater bravely risked showing "Limelight," declaring in its advertisement: "We realize that he has been the subject of much controversy. We do not presume to judge his morals or his politics. However, we do recognize genius." McElwee ends this unusual social history at the close of the 1960s, not because the ads became less abundant, but because, he writes, at this point they "drift toward inconsequence" by comparison with TV and burgeoning new media.- WASHINGTON POST