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First Trailer Shown in a US Theatre
The first ever trailer was shown to promote a musical stage show called The Pleasure Seekers. This was produced by Nils Granlund, and simply consisted of short clips of the shows rehearsals. People described Nils' idea as 'an entirely new and unique stunt.' Many movie theatres loved the idea and then began to produce their own 'trailers'. It wasn't until around 1916 that movie studios started to make their own trailers. -
Movie Studios Start Making Their Own Trailers.
It wasn't until around 1916 that movie studios started to make their own trailers. These were kept very simple and consisted of clips of the movie with text overlays. These could include the names of the actors and the film. -
The National Screen Service
Within 1919, The National Screen Service was set up by Herman Robbins. Their firstofficewas opened in New York, where movie studios happily sent their movie stills to be made into a trailer. The NSS dominated the industry all the way through to the 1960s. The trailers followed a simple template style with transitions such as screen wipes and fly in titles. -
The NSS Establishes their London Office.
This enabled them to also create trailers for hundreds of feature films made in Britain (however in 2000 Carlton Communications took over the company and it was then closed in 2007, following increased competition) -
The First Sound in a Trailer
It wasn't until 1927,when the trailer for 'The Jazz Singer' was released, that sound was used in trailers. The 7 minute long trailer makes use of the sound to give a spoke introduction which acts as a sales pitch for the film. The use ofsound wasa massive breakthrough for the industry as it enabled them many more new ways to entice their audiences. -
The NSS Tighten their Grip on the Film Industry
The NSS made exclusive contracts with nealy all of the major studios, such as Warner Bros and Paramount. This meat that any other competition didn't stand a chance, so the Government had no choice but to intervene. In 1955,the NSS was brought to court and they were only allowed to make non exclusive deals, opening up more opportunity for competition. -
Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' Trailer
Alfred Hitchcock managed to make a huge splash with the trailer for his new film 'Psycho' in1960. He made the decision to move away from the basic NSS template as he felt that this would give away too much and would not do the film justice.
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Within this trailer, Alfred takes the consumer on a tour of the Bates Motel. -
"In a world..."
Don Lafontaine voiced over the trailer for "Gunfighters of casa Grande" and then be came known for being the first person to use the phrase "In a world..." This then became a very popular saying in the film industry. This was the first film trailer that Lafontaine recorded. He then went on to record over 5000 trailers. -
Censorship
During the time in which censorship was arising, many trailers now tend to include antiheroes. A good example of this is the 'Bonnie and Clyde' trailer.
This trailer is also symbolic of how trailers were evolving as a lot more emphasis was placed on the music used, and also, it didn't follow a template as trailers did previously. -
The Blockbuster Era
In the 1970's, there was lots of changes in the business as we moved past the 'Golden Era of Hollywood.' The trailer of 'Jaws' in 1975 was a key point in how the times were changing. In the summer of 1975, the trailer was shown on many televisions world wide. This meant that Jaws was the first successful film to have a wide release, as previously, films would start small and then expand to more cinemas. The huge distribution strategy paid off as the film brought made $470 million.