Motion pictures rely heavily on advertising to make sure that their picture is going to be seen by the public. Below you'll find several different examples of how the marketing crews decided to promote Village of the giants


Pressbooks and Lobby Cards

Left: The Village of the Giants Pressbook, containing promo ideas, and even newspaper ads. Several of the items in it are displayed down this page. Center: Lobby Cards featured color images of the film and were usually displayed in film lobbies. Right: This is a Mexican lobby card for the film, under the title El Pueblo De Los Gigantes(Thanks to DC Letcher for the observation).

European Pressbook

Left: The cover to the European Pressbook. Right: The inner 2-page spread consisting of promotional images. A truly rare find, this is a European pressbook, which gives us some proof that 'Village of the Giants' was released overseas. This book consists of 4 pages, consisting of what seems to be pencil drawings of some of the teens, and a number of photo collages. Some of the images can be seen in our keybook stills gallery, but there are some that I have not come across, such as the close-up profile shot of Toni Basil in her 'fringe bikini,' and the image of Tommy Kirk and Charla Doherty as Mike & Nancy laying in the grass. Also of value is the rather lavish cover painting, depicting Beau Bridges dancing with several girls that don't seem to fit any of the giant girls in the film. Also of note is the hand, which (with it's uber-detail) makes it look a bit 'scary.'

Full-Color Movie Posters

What is a movie without movie posters? Village of the Giants had 3 different poster variations. The most common is the standard 27x41-inch poster (Left). A standard 22x28-inch poster was released as well (2nd from left). This poster is commonly called a 'quad,' for it's rectangular dimensions. The rarest of all 3 designs is the large 40x70-inch poster (2nd from Right). Up until a year ago, I had never found an example of this poster, until one popped up on eBay. Unfortunately, years in poor storage had torn and stained the poster, but it was enough evidence that I created the 'reproduction' for this information page. Just recently, fellow VOTG fan DC Letcher and I saw this interesting poster pop up on eBay (Right). The pressbook had shown nothing of this poster, and up until the fall of 2006, no trace of it's whereabouts had ever been found (at least, not by us). DC speculates that this could have been printed when the film made it's circuit through the drive-in theaters. Like a regular one-sheet poster, this one also measures 27'x41'. It could stand to reason that this poster was made after the 1965 release, given that it's style is very simple, and seems to have been pulled from the simple newspaper ads.

2-Color Advertising Herald

The equivalent of a flyer, these 2-color printed heralds could be distributed at theaters, or printed off and left around town.

Magazine Promotions

Finding magazine articles involving Village of the Giants is very difficult. But it's also difficult to find any kind of behind-the-scenes articles. Thankfully, the studio at the time allowed Bert I Gordon to talk about his filming technique with American Cinematographer, who published Bert's 4-page article in it's September 1965 issue.
The article is a wonderful look into the 'process shots' that Bert used, as well as his use of the wide-angle lens and angles to sell the illusion of normal-sized teenagers being over 30 feet tall. There is even a great article telling just how he created the duck sequence with them dancing with the other teens at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go.
Above you can click on any one of the small pages, and it will open a full-size image that you can read. The article even contains some small but interesting behind-the-scenes photos of the 'mud-dancing' sequence, showing more of the location, as well as the lighting and camera set-ups.



In September of 1965, Embassy Pictures took their promotion of the film to one of the teen magazine publications, Teen Screen. The magazine published an image of the film as their Pic of the Month.' The image they use shows Gail Gilmore as Elsa clinging to one of the giant prop legs used in the film.
Above you will also find a copy of the page large enough to read the information that Teen Screen provides. Take note that many of the facts in the summary of the film are wrong. The publication calls the town of Hainesville by the name Grandville, and states that Tommy Kirk and Johnny Crawford are two of the teens who grow to 30 ft tall. . (Note: due to the previous owner of this magazine, two holes were cut out of the image, due to someone wanting the faces of singers Chad Stewart and Jeremy Clyde on the other side.
The magazine also contains a contest for the film's crooner Mike Clifford (see image top right), and makes reference to his involvement with Village of the Giants, though mentioning that he sings 2 songs in the film. (There is even a reference that Mike Clifford recorded a song called 'No One Can Stand in My Way.' There was mention of a song in the film's opening credits titled 'Nothing Can Stand in My Way.' Maybe this Mike Clifford performance was filmed but cut from the final release?

Nifty Newspaper ads

To advertise in newspapers, most studios will buy space for ads to show off their up and coming movies. Large cities would most likely get most of the large ads seen above.

These 3 ads were found by resident Village of the Giants and Joy Harmon fan, DC Letcher. During his years trying to garner info on the film (and this was before the internet, folks), DC began to scour microfiche and other sources. Left: This is a picture of an advertisement that ran in a Chicago newspaer. It appears to be cobbled together from one of the ads, and two of the images from the film's keybook. Center: Another ad for the film from the same Chicago paper. Right: This ad is not for a theatrical run, but advertises the showing of the film on television in 1971, on KTLA-5, a Los Angeles television station. DC also says that in his searches, he couldn't find the film advertised in the Los Angeles area during it's theatrical run. Strange that it was released in Chicago, IL, but not in the heart of California.

Theater Tune-ins

Back in the days before movie theaters had Television sets in their lobbies to entice people, there were speakers in the ceiling, advertising about upcoming films. The record here (above) was one of many that were programmed to promote the film and included music tracks from the film. The record alternated between the song 'Woman' by the Beau Brummels, and the title track of the film, which was performed by JAck Nitzsche. In between music tracks, Murray the K would come on and tell about the film, which utilized audio clips that were also used in the radio ads.

Rockin' Radio Ads

Back in the day, another popular way to advertise was on local radio stations. Embassy Pictures publicity department arranged for famed Radio personality 'Murray the K' to narrate several radio spots for the film. Extra special thanks goes to our good friend D.C. Letcher for finding these clips. Murray the K narrates these 6 radioclips that range from 12 seconds to a full minute. Click on any of the links below to Hear Murray the K tell you all about the film where 'Young Rebels Explode 30 Feet Tall!'

59 Sec. Clip 29 Sec. Clip 20 Sec. Clip 12 Sec. Clip 60 Sec. Clip 32 Sec. Clip


Tantalizing Theater Trailer Tidbits

Sure, still images, radio ads and posters are one way to get out the word on your film, but there's one sure way to make sure that a 'captive audience' gets the chance to see those images in motion-that's right, movie trailers.
The trailer for Village of the Giants runs a little less than 2 1/2 minutes, and (just like most of the trailers that are made today) gives away much of the plot. Though the large majority of the clips contain references to the giant teens and animals, the story involving Mike (Tommy Kirk), Nancy (Charla Doherty) and Genius (Ron Howard) is not really touched upon.
Fellow Village of the Giants fan D.C. Letcher pointed out a rather interesting factor in the trailer he saw. The clip of Horsey (Johnny Crawford) hanging onto Merrie's (Joy Harmon's) bra straps, has a short 3-5 second shot, where Horsey's hand slips and almost pulls the top down, before the scared young man quickly pats it back in place and grabs back onto the bra strap (the clip is seen in some of the film to the left). This shot could be what is left of what has been considered 'stolen footage.'
When MGM Studios released the film onto DVD, they had a small 'Fun Facts' section set up on the back of the DVD. One of the facts reads: Censored scenes, including Johnny Crawford snatching clothing off Joy Harmon, were stolen from an editing room during production. However, we do not have a source to tell us the true nature of these 'censored sequences.'
We do, however, have the trailer, for viewing, in Quicktime format. Click on the Trailer icon on the left, and a pop-up window will open for you to gawk at the giant teens like it was 1965.