Playboy's Playmates

[Billy A. Anderson]

This is a revival of a thread I did on the old board.

I have found two playdates for this travelling drive-in show, which from the ads, looks very much like the work of Dominant Pictures of the Carolinas.

When I did the thread on the old board, I had identified some of the films, or at least the ad mats for some of the films which might have possibly been run on that program.

The first time I remember it being shown was at the Sunset Drive-in in Columbia, SC, Thur-Sat, June 2-4 of 1966.

In my earlier thread, I ID'd some of the ad mats, correctly, but one remained a mystery, and one was an incorrect ID.

Well, here are the ads for the second showing that I found, at the Hall's Drive in,  in West Columbia, SC, a favorite of Wild Bill Wilkerson of that community.

First ad, one column, opening night, Thursday, April 6, 1967.

Attachments:

[Billy A. Anderson]

Second night, Friday, April 7, 1967, a 2 col. ad.

Attachments:

[Billy A. Anderson]

And, final ad of the 3 night run, Saturday, April 8, 1967.

Attachments:

[Billy A. Anderson]

Don't know if anybody here cares anything about Playboy's Playmates, but I've found two three more playdates for the film: one in South Carolina, one in North Carolina, and one in Virginia.

And, also, some really fascinating censoring of Jayne Mansfield's part of the ad.

If Anyone can ID the source of the photo of Elike Sommer, please do so.

Elke was in so many films that my searches of the promotional ephemera for the films have so far not produced any results.

At first I incorrectly IDd the photo as from Why Bother To Knock?

But, later, a closer look at that film's lobby cards,and posters proved that I incorrectly identified the source of the photo.

[Marxo Grouch]

I found at least one image with 'Elke Sommer in a towel' that definitely seems to be from the same scene, but it doesn't identify it, consarn it. For what it's worth, The Prize with Paul Newman came up a few times in that search and she does seem to sport the same hairdo in that one, but it may have been a common look for her and I found no other evidence to indicate that that's the one.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Thanks for doing some film detective work, Marxo. On the CHFB board, where my friend filmdetective also posted the ads for this unusual travelling drive-in attraction, did some fantastic work, and found the source for that really incredible photo of June Wilkinson, on 2 different thread on that board.

I'll get the links, so that you and anyone else here on ZAQB can see how the photo which, as I guessed, was not from any ads for June's films originally looked, in full color, and large sized, as compared to the reduced size, BW version in those movie ads.

[Billy A. Anderson]

OK, Marxo, here is the link to the first ID of the photo on CHFB, in post #25,and scroll on down to Post #33 for the use of the photo in a magazine, and its current sales.

I think making that photo the centerpiece of the Playboy's Playmates ad collage, really sold the tickets to this drive in attraction.

Also, there is some discussion of "camel toes," something I had occasionally noticed in "pin up" photos, but had never known of that slang term before.

www.tapatalk.com/groups/monsterkidclassichorrorforum/bloop-dr-frankenstein-t50199-s20.html.k

Well, I went back to that CHFB thread, and could not find the references to "camel toe."

It must have been deleted  from the thread.  Also, the photo of June had been posted to a thread on another forum on CHFB, and it has apparently been deleted from that thread, also.

[Billy A. Anderson]

Well, fellow ZAQBers, it's time for a summary on Playboy's Playmates, which I have called a "Road Show," although I don't know if the promoter of this drive-in attraction traveled from town to town, as the Ormonds did with Untamed Mistress, and David Friedman and other promoters of the Sex Education "Hygiene" films did back in the old days.

I've pretty much exhausted the search engine of newspapers.com, typing in Playboy's Playmates and Drive in Movie, getting no such things, only references to Playboy magazine. Finally, using the top and Bottom text of the ads, "Ursula Andress" & "Five Big Hours!" I found three additional showings, all in 1966, in addition to the one other showing in 1966, and one showing in 1967.

On my theory that the film was a promotion of Dominant Pictures of the Carolinas, which distributed films to drive-in theaters in the Carolinas and Virginia, I did a search of newspapers in Florida and Georgia, for "Ursula Andress Five Big Hours!" and got no listings.

Here's the summary of all 5 showings I have found:

(1)-Danville, Virginia, Wed-Sat, March 23-26,1966.

(2)-Greenville, SC, Sun-Thurs, Apr 3-7, 1966.

(3)-Burlington, NC, Fri-Sat, April 8-9, 1966.

(4)-Columbia, SC, Thur-Sat, June 2-4, 1966.

(5)-West Columbia, SC, Thur-Sat, Apr 6-8, 1967.

We have had some comments on how badly the ad mats were censored, some with Jayne Mansfield's photo missing, but a tag line to fill in the blank space.

The very worst censoring was in Burlington, NC, with Miss Mansfield simply whited out, leaving nothing but a blank space, and also very bad censoring of the photo of June Wilkinson, which is the real centerpiece of the ad, which I'm including below.

[Deeky]

Jul 28, 1987 19:11:53 GMT -5 Billy A. Anderson said:

Well, fellow CHFBers....

What?

[Billy A. Anderson]

Deeky, thanks for calling that SNAFU to my attention. I'm using filmdetective's text,from CHFB, highlighted, and pasted in here, and I should have edited it to saw, "fellow ZAQBers."

And, on this thread, I have run into another problem, in attaching the photo files. I get a message they are too big, although I've reduced them down to thumbnail size. I'm going to try one more time, and see what happens, although on this thread so far, I have had no problems at all with the file size on my photo attachemnts.

I'll try logging out, then logging back in, and see if that might correct whatever the problem might be.