When Karloff Played To Multitudes

Holy Andromeda --- The Invisible Ray (1936) Was Once Brand New!

Some cling to notion that Universal horror during the 30's were B pictures. Here is proof to fallacy of that. B's didn't get Roxy openings. Management there sized up worthiness of product before any booking. Your show had to fill 5,886 seats, continuous through the day.The Invisible Ray was dying gasp of Universal's first chiller cycle. It began a turn, if tentative, toward science-fiction, a genre fresher to films than at newsstands where such pulps and mags proliferated. Trouble was limit of then-fx to show space travel and takeover of Earth by Martians. Lurid print covers were lots better at that. The Invisible Ray would be more a chamber piece, unknown worlds viewed at distance through Boris Karloff's telescope. He develops a death touch through unwise experiments, that the basis for shivers. The Roxy applied science too with ticket policy, admission a quarter until 1:00, then thirty-five cents till six. All of Broadway knew matinees were a toughest sell. A poor daytime could erase gains from the night before. "Roxyettes" and lavish stage performance made ducats seem a bargain, especially for tourists wowed by Roxy-lush as contrast to Bijous back home. New Yorkers who bargain shopped for movies could wait for The Invisible Ray to show up in boroughs or second run a few months later, doubled with another pic, smaller change the top to get in. Advertising worked against that to make first-runs a must, as in I want to see The Invisible Ray now, so I'll pay more. Ads like here are reminder that everything old, eighty plus in this instance, was once new and exciting and welcomed to a biggest temple of dreams.

Many Thanks to Scott MacQueen for steering me to this vintage ad.