Military Posters

[Simes]

People,

I have just recently taken the plunge into the murky waters of the puddle that is Military posters.

I had seen this Dr No poster floating about, the price seemed ok and it is currently on its way here - the UK.  I had a quick look around and while there only appears to be one other military poster for the Bond films, Thunderball (Is that right?), I was then moved to find out what the deal is with the sense behind printing a whole different poster design, albeit in duo tone, for a subset of American life.

LAMP offers some writing but it doesn't explain the rationale behind the thinking.  Why not just run a few more of an existing design and print run, and post them off to the bases around the world?

Would anyone know?

And would anyone know if from the Bonds, it was just Dr No and Thunderball that were represented?

Thank you in advance.

[kovacs01]

In the mid-60s, the US had over 1000 (yes really) overseas military bases.  Obviously, some of these were very small with minimal people.  But lets say for argument's sake that half of them rated a theater since they were VERY popular sources of morale at the time.  Then each one of those theaters probably got one poster for outside, one for inside, and an extra just in case.  That is 1500 posters.  Add to that fact that studios may well have been footing a significant portion of the bill in support of the troops.  And even if they were not, there was probably a set amount that the DoD was willing to spend on movie posters.  I am not sure the cost of color printing over duotone at the time, but I am guessing it was significant.

[Simes]

Indeed, the cost of the printing may be slightly higher if taken in isolation.

But, a new design, a new print set up, all of which had to be paid for before the cheaper printing took place.  I wonder just how much was saved at the end of the day.

And if the spirit of all this was morale, then I wonder if anyone was upset that they were getting the cut price version of an otherwise morale-boosting colour image of Ursula Andress - for example.

[oldposterho]

This is pure speculation on my part but I suspect the reason was message control.  The military (well, ours anyway) used to be pretty touchy about what our boys were told - they had their own newspapers, etc. - so it wouldn't be a surprise for them to want to make sure the lads weren't seeing anything to turn them into treasonous reds or lustful sinners after seeing a particularly hot Creature from the Black Lagoon poster.  If they were willing to censor mail, it's not much of a stretch to believe they'd want to create their own posters.

Of course, it could be as simple as some regulation forbidding outside promotional material on base, and money to spend on ridiculous sh*t has never been a particular obstacle for our military.

[kovacs01]

Indeed, the cost of the printing may be slightly higher if taken in isolation.

But, a new design, a new print set up, all of which had to be paid for before the cheaper printing took place.  I wonder just how much was saved at the end of the day.

And if the spirit of all this was morale, then I wonder if anyone was upset that they were getting the cut price version of an otherwise morale-boosting colour image of Ursula Andress - for example.

As long as the image on the screen wasn't cut price, then I don't think anyone really noticed........remember, very few people ever give posters (now or then) a second glance.

[Simes]

Ok, .

Does anyone know the tally for military posters for the Bond films?  So far, am only aware of Dr No and Thunderball.