Kentucky Theatre Promotional Movie Cars

     During the early years of the movie industry promotion for films was limited mainly based on technology of the time. The there were only two major media outlets back when the early days of cinema arose: Radio and newspaper. To help remedy this problem, many theaters had come up with the idea of promotional cars. These vehicles were dressed almost as moving floats. Often times there were workers on the back of these cars that would play music to attract the passing crowds. 

Kentucky Theatre (movie theater); promotional car for "Bird of Paradise" (1932),, 1932 - Part of Lafayette Studios photographs: 1930s decade, 1930-1939

     As odd as this may seem to us today, this was actually a particularly good way of promoting your theatre and the movies that were to be playing that weekend. 

This trend of advertising was seen all around the country, and the Kentucky Theatre was no exception. As seen in these pictures, the Kentucky Theatre was all about advertisement. However, it was particularly hard to find more information on the Kentucky Theatre's use of these vehicles. Currently, the only true information I had found on these cars and their use was from the Kentucky Digital Library's multitude of pictures from the time. 

Unfortunately with these pictures, came absolutely no context or information beyond what the photo was of and when it was taken. 

Kentucky Theatre (movie theater); promotional car for the Marx Brothers film "Horse Feathers" (1932),, 1932 - Part of Lafayette Studios photographs: 1930s decade, 1930-1939

Through further research, I would like to:

- Talk to someone about the use of these vehicles and what made them so particularly effective.

- Ask when they were used and for how long.

- Determine why this sort of advertising was abandoned for the more modern methods.

Kentucky Theatre (movie theater); promotional car for "The Phantom President" (1932),, 1932Part of Lafayette Studios photographs: 1930s decade, 1930-1939