Thought it might be worth a heads-up about the
Pitfalls of Youth poster coming up at Heritage. In spite of what it says in the description I really don't think it's an analog of
Marihuana, Weed With Roots in Hell (or as they inexplicably call it,
Marihuana, the Devil's Weed). The source for this attribution seems to be from Eric Shaefer's
Bold, Daring, Shocking, True! A History of Exploitation Films, but how he came to that conclusion is not elaborated and I think is incorrect.
Here's why:
As you can see, this rather mysterious film does exist with it's original title and was picked up for distribution by Al Dezel in 1934. Dezel was a large midwest distributor of exploitation films including Esper's
Narcotic and
Seventh Commandment. The problem is that the earliest date I have found for
Marihuana is from about July '36, and that was under its original title. Which brings us to issue #2:
Pitfalls of Youth was shown in '36, albeit in late February, months before
Marihuana likely even existed. Notice too that this also has the de rigueur appearance of noted "counsellor" Franklyn D. Doyle, which typically accompanied birth of baby pictures such as its co-feature
Her Unborn or other sorts of sex films, and not reefer movies.
It's certainly possible that this is a States Rights poster for
Marihuana, but I think it's unlikely and thought it might be worth some discussion for the none of us that might be interested.
--Peter