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LEADER PRESS

With the boom of 'talkies', studios distributed to the major cities. the smaller surrounding cities would receive their films on a route normally brought by bus. The normal procedure was to send the film and poster together. Then after the designated time for that theater, the film and poster was packed up and put on the bus to go to the next theater.

Quite often the poster would never arrive due to being worn out or the previous theater manager 'forgetting' to include it with the film.

Leader Press, located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, had the idea of supplying an alternative version for theaters.

They entered into an agreement with several major studios to produce posters with the stipulation that the studio name would not appear on the poster.

They carried the latest releases AND made them available 2 weeks before the movie release, allowing smaller theaters to have a poster to use as a 'Coming Attraction'.

Completely different artwork was used and the posters were from 3 to 8 colors. Leader also boasted a cost of 25-50% below studio material.

Leader Press operated from the early 1930s (our earliest is in 1933) until 1937. Oddly enough, they closed about the same time that 'the Other Company' started.

Some of the major ways to distinguish a Leader Press poster

1. No studio tag on the poster

2. Bright colors.. from 3 to 8 colors

3. Most are marked on the bottom border with a Leader Press tag.. like the one below:

Here are some samples of Leader Press posters:


Most of the Leader Press materials were issued as one sheets, although other sizes were occasionally used.

Here is what we have in our database on Leader Press



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