Previously, we looked at the Rare – The Man From Beyond (TMFB) Repro Pressbook in my collection. Today we look at my Days of Thrills Exhibitors Pressbook (plus some related TMFB items), which while not as rare, are still pretty cool.

“Days of Thrills and Laughter” is a trip back into the motion picture past to a day before the talkies, when film stories were told in terms of action instead of words.  It is a compilation of highlights from the funniest of the old comedies, and the most chilling of the old thrillers.  Its cast is one of the brightest ever to light the screen.

“Days of Thrills and Laughter” is divided into a preface and eight parts.

This post will focus on the character Houdini.

Part six reveals another type of film that thrived in the 20’s but has been all but forgotten – the elaborate, imaginative, bang-up, pull-no-punches thriller, Houdini, the great magician and escape artist, who has become a legend in out time, shows his uncanny ability to use his legs, feet, and toes as lesser mortals use their arms, hands, and fingers. In a sequence that was a sensation in its day. Houdini saves the heroine from the very brink of Niagara Falls.

The pressbook included posters, mats, publicity article and a lobby card with Houdini.

Special 40 x 60 Poster:

Mat 301:

Mat 205:

Mat 2J:

Mat 2K:

Mat 111:

Mat 115:

Mat 207:

Mat 202:

Mat 103:

Publicity Article:

Houdini Thrills Anew In Long Films

Harry Houdini, most famous of al magicians and escape artists, died in 1926. Today, the man who could wrestle free from a straight jacket while suspended head-down from a skyscraper or emerge unharmed from a chained trunk flung to the bottom of the sea has become a legend. Many who witnessed such amazing Houdini feats as walking through a brick wall believed he must be endowed with supernatural powers—but this the magician himself always denied.

Now, for the first time in forty years, the great Houdini will be seen on the movie-theater screens. Rare films of the man of mystery have recently been uncovered and are included in the new Robert Youngson production “Days of Thrills and Laughter,” a 20^th Century-Fox release, coming to the Theatre.

The films will doubtless increase the Houdini legend for they prove that the master magician richly deserved his acclaim.

In one sequence, he is shown making an escape by eerily using his legs, feet and toes as lesser mortals use their arms, hands, and fingers. In another, Houdini, who was also a stunt man, hangs by his finger tips from a sheer cliff. In a third, he rescues the heroine from the very brink of Niagara Falls, in a scene singularly devoid of fakery.

Sharing the spotlight with Houdini in “Days of Thrills and Laughter” are such screen immortals as Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Pearl White, Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin, and The Keystone Cops.

14×36 Insert:

3-SHEET:

11X14:

Also available was 8 x 10 B/W stills: