Village of the Giants Information Publicity Materials

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.

American Pressbook

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To drum up interest for the film release, Embassy Pictures created this Exhibitors' Showmanship Manual. The oversized, eight-page manual included such things as articles and images one could have local newspapers print to drum up interest, ad imagery to run in the movie showtimes section of newspapers, and even a page telling about creative promotions that could be run in local communities.

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 Ad Banner

Every once in awhile, it is surprising to find pieces of advertising material, that I never knew existed. Just recently, a aseller on eBay put up a number of advertising banners related to old films, and Village of the Giants was one of them! The orange and black coloration, reminds me of coloration used in a two-page ad, in the September 6th, 1965 issue of Box-Office Magazine (which you can find further down the page). The seller listed the banner as measuring 24 inches tall, and over 82 inches wide, meaning that it was probably one of those advertising banners, that hung below a theater marquee, back in the day when they were plentiful across the country.

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.

Lobby Cards

Lobby Cards featured color images of the film and were usually displayed in theater lobbies. Above are two sets of 8 lobby cards. The top-most cards are from the U.S. release. The still images were actually re-colored keybook stills. Of note is that some of the colors do not match some of the scenes in the film. For example: the teens dancing in the rain and mud are much more colorful than in the same scene in the film.
Underneath is an 8-card set of the film as it was advertised in Mexico, with the title El Pueblo De Los Gigantes., which translates to The Town of the Giants. These cards differ in regards to their their format, and also give the film stills just a small image in black-and-white.

Magazine Promotions

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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.

Searching online, it's amazing what one can find on obscure information. My search across the internet returned a site called issuu.com, that archives and catalogues old magazines. One that turned up in my search was titled Boxoffice, that concerns motion picture distribution.
This article dating back to March 15, 1965, gives information about Bert I Gordon's announcement to make Village of the Giants for the Embassy Pictures studio. Part of a 13-picture deal, Village was the first of the deals, with the article giving never-before-heard-of information, such as the start date of the picture to be on April 1, 1965, with a production budget of $750,000.

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Along with the previous article, I also came across this other remarkable article from the October 25, 1965 issue of Boxoffice. This article helped me to confirm something that Bert I Gordon had told me during my interview with him in February of 2007 (our Q&A can be found in the Interviews section).
Bert told me that a promotional tour was launched in which he took part, along with several of the young stars. The article in Boxoffice catches up to the tour as it arrives in New York. It's pretty neat to see the photo with Bert, along with radio personality Murray the K(who also did radio promotions, that can be found down the page) and several of the cast. While we can recognize Tommy Kirk, Tisha Sterling, Tim Rooney, & Mike Clifford, it also seems that Johnny Crawford was also on tour, but is not pictured.
Of curiosity to me, is the young dancer named Kathy Karr. There's no mention in the credits of her name. Maybe she was just hired for the promotion as a back-up dancer.
Of interest is that the article reveals a number of other projects that Bert was planning to launch into upon the completion of Village of the Giants. The article mentions several projects dealing with science fiction and horror, but the interesting bit is the report that Gordon told the reporter that he was thinking of developing a sequel to Village of the Giants. The project would have been based on the second half of H.G. Wells' novel, and reunite most of the young cast. One can't help but wonder if 1976's The Food of the Gods may have developed from the Village idea that Bert talked about.

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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 used 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.
The magazine also contains a contest for the film's crooner Mike Clifford, 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?
You can also see larger versions of the pages regarding Mike Clifford by clicking on them. This will open them in a new web browser.

Far Left: The cover to Famous Monsters of Filmland for February, 1966. Left: The cover to Famous Monsters of Filmland for September, 1974. Click on the two-page spread image to the right, to view a larger version of this article.

In February of 1966, the publication that Bert I Gordon had given a small cameo in his film (as a magazine that was read by one of the giants) published a 2-page spread regarding a certain giant teenager film.
This article is largely a pictorial, but does tell of Tim Rooney being a big fan of the magazine, and Bert telling that a sequel is "already on the way." Bert could have possibly been talking about his upcoming The Food of the Gods, which was released in 1976 (minus giant teenagers or go-go dancing).
The article was reprinted in the September, 1974 issue which featured Boris Karloff on the cover.

Click on the article's page to view what Rockstar Magazine has to say about Merrie.

**Even though this mention came about almost 41 years after Village of the Giants premiered, I thought I'd include it here because our fanpage was actually recruited for help.**
The UK publication Rockstar contacted us in the Spring of 2006, and wanted to know if we had a reference photo of Joy Harmon to use in their upcoming article, The 10 Most Evil Kids in Movie History. While I had some items, I passed them along to our bigger VOTG and Joy Harmon reference man, D.C. Letcher. D.C. provided Rockstar with the image they were looking for. Though we did not receive complimentary magazines, Rockstar did send along the final pages of the article in PDF form.
The article included such bad eggs as Macauley Culkin's character in The Good Son, as well as the creepy-eyed children from Village of the Damned. Joy Harmon's character Merrie takes spot #10, being the only female 'teenager' to make the list (Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil comes close, but just barely misses the cut as the possessed girl was 12 years old). You can read what the writers of Rockstar had to say about this teen titan by clicking on the article page to the right above.

Nifty Newspaper Articles & Ads

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Information regarding Village of the Giants is often hard to come by. However, I was able to get my hands on some items that shed some light on the film. One source that I gleaned some information from was the trade magazine Variety.
Left: In the June 23, 1965 issue of Variety, an article about Joe Levine reveals more information regarding Embassy Pictures' 1965 film schedule. Along with information regarding the the company's 13-picture deal with Bert I Gordon, the second half of the article talks about the rights acquisition to H.G. Wells' story The Food of the Gods for Bert's filmmaking purposes. The article also makes note of the possibility of a sequel (which of course, never materialized). Click on the article above to view the full article in a new window.
Middle: One bit of information that I saw on the back of the DVD release in 2001, was talk of some footage that was stolen from an editing room. The information that MGM obtained for the DVD release seems to have been taken from this article that ran in the August 25th issue of Variety(though the article mentions a newsdate of August 24). Of course, those of us who are fans still wonder just what it was about these scenes that made Bert cut them for the MPAA ratings board.
Right: One item that has often been talked of and quoted from, is the review of the film that ran in Variety on October 6th. A quote from this article appears on the rear of the DVD re-release of the film. By clicking on the icon above, you will be able to view the full article in a new window. One interesting bit of information, is the article by Variety lists that the film opened in Hollywood on September 30th. In other information regarding the film, the general release date has been listed as October 20th, 1965.

Some newspapers at the time even ran additional articles related to the film. Here are a couple from Chicago, IL.

Upper Left: In the October 24th Sunday issue of the Chicago Sun-Times, a keybook still image and a caption appeared. This was about the only thing mentioned about the film in the Movies section of the newspaper.
Lower Left: Though this could belong in the newspaper ads section(see below), I felt it deserved to be placed here. This ad ran in the Sun-Times on Saturday, October 23, 1965. The box above the film's ad is notable, because it is connected to the promotional tour that Bert I Gordon participated in regarding the promotion of this film(more information of which can be found in the Boxoffice magazine article in the Magazine Promotions if you scroll up the page).
Right: For the now defunct Chicago Daily News, the following article appeared on Thursday, October 21, 1965. Writer Sam Lesner manages to talk to Bert I Gordon regarding his new film.

One publication for the film industry is the magazine titled Boxoffice, which promotes motion picture exhibition. In the September 6th, 1965 issue, this 2-page ad for Village of the Giants appeared, touting it's release close to Halloween. Copies of the magazine have been scanned and can be found at http://issuu.com, though their navigation system is kind of tricky.

Along with the more 'generic' ads found above, it appears that they were modified heavily when put into some newspapers.

Left: This is a picture of an advertisement that ran in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, October 22, 1965. It appears to be cobbled together from one of the ad images, and two of the images from the film's keybook images.
**2nd from left: Another ad for the film that ran in the Chicago Tribune. This one was published a day before the film opened.**
2nd from 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. Our friend D.C. Letcher notes that in many of 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.
Right: An ad that appeared in the October 4th, 1975 issue of Los Angeles' TV Guide. The caption under the image reads: The perfect life for teens...150 feet tall, bikini clad, and terrorizing adults all day! (Special Thanks to resident VOTG & Joy Harmon fan D.C. Letcher, for providing the first 3 ads in this section. These were found during D.C.'s years scour microfiche and other sources for more information on the film).

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

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.'