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Apartheid (sp?) and "Zulu"
Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
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Sheldon,
In your book, you write that the "screening" of "Zulu" on South African television was the same week as the "Election". By "screening" do you mean the first showing? Pardon my ignorance, but "screening" in The States simply means any showing, not necessarily the first showing. Was this the television premiere in SA and if so, which cut was broadcast?
Paranthetically, I just acquired a Spanish one-sheet of "Zulu" tonight! I must say that the artwork seems to be two or three decades ahead of its time! Any thoughts as to why most of Europe was promoted with visually load art, yet Spain was approached with what I would call a tastful (albeit a bit surreal) spin?
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Hi Sawubona,

I don't know if the 1991 showing (which is all I meant) was the first on SA TV - it probably wasn't. I only know of one official 'cut', so unless the TV network made additional edits for violence, running time or 'content' that would have been it. I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than that.

As for European ads, I'm not sure what you mean by 'visually load art' (typo?) and I don't think I've seen an original 1964 Spanish poster. The one reproduced in the colour section of my book comes from a later (1970s) re-release. What is distinctive about the one you've got? (It sounds interesting!)

Sheldon
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Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
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Sheldon,
Sorry, I did mean to type "loud" artwork. The Ebay number is 7509414648 . Do check it out! The graphics are outstanding and unlike anything else I've ever seen from the Sixties, aside from concert posters for The Grateful Dead or The Jefferson Airplane. "ZULU-- LIVE AT THE FILLMORE" (maybe you had to be there for that reference?).
As to the "screening", I just thought it too appropriate that the movie "ZULU" was first broadcast on SA television the same week the country had its first free election in a gizzilion years! Maybe so, though.
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Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
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Sawubona

I think the RSA's first democratic election was not until 1994.

P.
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Rich
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Aw Sawubona..wuz that you in the corner at the Fillmore lighting up that day when I saw Grace and Jorma et al pumping out "White Rabbit", eh????
Anyway if you want some cultural trivia check out some of the music on the "Zulu" soundtrack if you haven't already...some of it its along the lines of "Zulu" meeting the 60's....Wink...
Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
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Rich,
I can tell you been there and done that! Anyone can drop the name "Grace" or "Gracie", as you'll recall she liked to be called, but "Jorma"? You've either got to be a hardcore Airplane fan or an true fan of 60's guitar! And how 'bout "Jack"?
Seriously, the artwork on this poster is 60's psychadelia (sp)! The paper stock is somewhat thinner than what I'm used to and the artwork almost looks like a silk screen. It's "signed" by "Mac", who I've ascertained is one Macario Gomez, who also seems to have done some Godzilla one sheets in Spain in the 50's and 60's as well. I can't imagine that the powers behind the entertainment industry then (or now) would allow such liberty, so was ZULU released in Spain after it had made its rounds of the rest of the world and it wasn't considered to be profitable any longer? Did international film piracy exist in the 60's?
Any input on Macario Gomez would be greatly appreciated.
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Sawubona,

Movie posters in the 60s were a lot more stylish, imaginative and adventurous than they are today (all big-star close-ups and not much else - just like modern Hollywood movies, in fact). It's quite likely that Paramount used Gomez as a local artist with some flair for the unusual. The poster (which is indeed very impressive) is highly unlikely to be for a 'pirate' release.

Sheldon
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Johnny_H


Joined: 19 Feb 2006
Posts: 101
Location: Canada, Halifax Nova Scotia
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Mr.Hall I must say that reading the part about Aparthied was really the most interesting part of the book so far, I was reading it at work. I had no idea just how serious that was back then? I'm only 23, so I would only of been a kid when the aparthied regime fell, I simply had no idea just how crazy it was though.

I looked like a major dork at work, I had two books open on my desk while taking calls going between both constantly ( including yours ) Embarassed

But I'm not self conscious about such things, it just must of looked funny.
Most kids my age arent into British Military history.

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"It looks, er, jolly simple doesn't it? (Bromhead to Adendorff)
Jolly deadly old boy! (Adendorff) "
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Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
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Johnny,
I for one am getting a bit long of tooth and I'm glad to hear that the torch can be passed on with confidence when the time comes!
The Spanish one sheet arrived and it isn't pirate at all. My first impression was that it was unusual enough to be "out of the mainstream", but all of the authenticating markings are there, including "DEPOSITO LEGAL B. 14539 - 1964" (not sure what that means, but it looks pretty official!) Macario Gomez apparently did the artwork on many Spanish one-sheets in that time frame and I must say that I'm impressed with some of the examples of his art on the Internet. Thanks for the kudos, Sheldon-- I myself thought it was a something of a find and I'm gratified that you seem to agree.
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Sawubona


Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 1179
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Sheldon,
Your credentials suggest that you might be qualified to suggest a book that would give a neophyte like myself some idea of how movies were (and are) promoted and distributed. As a youngster, I would be taken to The Liberty in the next town and would get to see a first run movie for 35 cents, and (at the time) that was all I cared about. Now that I'm older and waxing a bit nostalgic, I'm curious as to how said establishment acquired the right to show that movie, how it got the movie and how it came to have all of the wonderful promotional material I would see in the lobby. And where did the movie and the promotional material go after its one week of glory in Bernardsville? Is there a "Movie Promotion and Distribution for Dummies" book out there?
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Sawubona,

Tricky one. I'm not aware of a book which details the workings of theatre promotion and associated materials like posters, etc (which isn't, of course, to say there isn't one out there), though there are plenty of handsome large-format books reproducing posters, e.g. the series called "Movie Posters of the 30s/30s/50s/60s/70s/80s/90s" (all individual volumes, very glossy). There is a good history of film exhibition in the US, though: Douglas Gomery's SHARED PLEASURES, published in the UK by the British Film Institute. This may have some of the info you seek, and is a good, informative read on any account.

The book I'm working on at the moment, EPICS, SPECTACLES & BLOCKBUSTERS, will look at the distribution, exhibition and promotion as well as the production of big-budget Hollywood movies from 1915-2005 (I'm co-writing it with a colleague, Steve Neale, to share the load of material), but you will have to wait till at least 2007 for that one!

Sheldon
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Further to the above, I was forgetting that there are some useful journal articles that deal with distribution, exhibition and promotion. An example is Mark S. Miller, "Helping exhibitors: Pressbooks at Warner Bros. in the late 1930s", in FILM HISTORY vol. 6, no. 2, 1994 (an American scholarly journal), which explores a little-known aspect of film marketing.

Sheldon
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Apartheid (sp?) and "Zulu"
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