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.
All the major studios considered their advertising
department as a necessary expense and they operated at a loss. They had
no problem with another company producing other material under certain guidelines.
So Leader Press 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
