About the project

November 22, 2011 – March 10, 2012

The exhibition The Birth of Promotion: Inventing Film Publicity in the Silent Film Era, created by the Performing Arts Museum, focused on the establishment of the basic elements of the promotion and distribution of film during the silent-film era. Visitors viewed posters, programs, advertisements, and lobby cards that were shown to the public from 1890 to 1930, as well as original gouache designs for posters. Also on view were things that the public was never supposed to see, such as periodicals, calendars, and exploitation sheets giving advice to theater owners and managers on publicity, advertising, and retail tie-ins for films starring Theda Bara, Lillian Gish, Corinne Griffith, Harold Lloyd, Pola Negri, Mary Pickford, Ben Turpin, Rudolph Valentino, and many others, famous and forgotten.

Graphic and Exhibition Designer