Thanks to our ever vigilant ebay searches we were recently able to pick up these two very rare original 78RPM lobby spots for two classic horror films from director William Castle. Lobby spots are an interesting unknown item of cinema history, being records designed to be played inside the cinema itself to promote upcoming releases. They were never released to the public and were only designed with a shelf life of a few weeks or months, if used at all, then normally thrown out once the film had been and gone, that any survive at all is down to cinema staff taking them home once the films run had finished.
We got hold of these from the USA and have recently had them professional transferred to digital by the great Shaw Sounds, who manged to do an incredible job with two very battered 78s that are now well over 50-years old. So presented below are these two rare finds, the first for The Tingler from 1959 which features narration from the film’s star: Vincent Price and the second 13 Ghosts from 1960.
Both of these records are one sided and the backs are very interesting, featuring a diamond style pattern on them both.
Look for more features on super rare 45RPM lobby spots from our collection later in the year, we’ve got some fascinating UK ones we need to get digitised!