by Paula Bosse
I love this 1928 promotional advertisement for the movie Dirigible (see the ad larger here), citing William Wellman as producer and John Monk Saunders as writer and director (the two had worked together on the smash hit Wings — with Wellman the director and Saunders the screenwriter): Wings was the first recipient of the Best Picture Oscar and had a ton of heat, and Dirigible was supposed to be a follow-up of sorts.
“1928 will be a dirigible year,” say the experts. The big ocean liners of the air will flash into the limelight as brilliantly as did Lindbergh in 1927.
Paramount, ever first to sense box office, presents the first spectacular special with dirigibles as a thrilling background.
Made by the producer and author of “Wings” and “Legion of the Condemned.”
Love the poster, too bad the movie was never made. I guess 1928 wasn’t a “dirigible year” after all.
Oddly enough, though, there was a movie called Dirigible — but it was released three years later, in 1931. And it wasn’t released by Paramount. And it didn’t have the involvement of Wellman or Saunders. It did, however, star Saunders’ wife, Fay Wray.
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Sources and Notes
Promotional poster from a Paramount publicity spread of upcoming movies — it appeared in the trade magazine, Exhibitors Herald, in 1928.
The 1931 film starring Fay Wray and Tim Holt and directed by Frank Capra is on YouTube in its entirety, here.
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Copyright © 2017 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
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