For decades, movie theaters were able to draw people in for a closer look at their current offerings via the use of large posters and lobby cards. For those who are intrigued by such advertising devices, Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library has digitized this fine collection of lobby cards designed to promote silent and western films in the first several decades of the 20th century. Visitors can view all 106 items here, and, all told, they promote a grand total of 68 different films. It's easy enough to perform a keyword search across all of the images, or visitors can see all of the images at one time. To get started, take a look at the rather dramatic image for "The Mollycoddle" and the tense scene depicted on the card for "The Bandit Buster". Visitors can zoom in on each image, and it's fun to scan through the details.
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