Producer/director William Castle, "The King of Ballyhoo", popularized the use of gimmicks for his horror feature films that ranged from a skeleton on a zip line called "Emergo" that sailed over audience's heads in HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) to buzzers built into theater seats called "Percepto" for THE TINGLER (both 1959). The highly successful promotional strategy caught on and soon countless other studio publicity departments adopted their own gizmos, gadgets and gewgaws to the scary delight of moviegoers.
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| The "Emergo" skeleton in action. |
Even the late, great George A. Romero got into the act with this "death certificate" that was handed out to patrons who paid to watch the now-legendary NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. This example, recently up for bidding at Heritage Auctions, is signed by Romero himself.
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