Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How did trailers (the film kind) get their name?

This is topic How did trailers (the film kind) get their name? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=004607

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 04-20-2006, 08:15 AM:

I've always wondered why trailers are called trailers. They are played before the feature. Is there some story behind the name?

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 04-20-2006, 09:19 AM:

Perhaps because in the early days it was customery for exhibitors to stuff the program with all kinds of extras "Plus Added Short Subjects" as the snipes said. There would be cartoons and always a News Reel. It was customary to run the Coming Attractions AFTER the short subjects and before the main feature. When they had double features, which was very common years ago, they would play the "B" feature first. The Coming Attractions played at the end of that first feature; the second feature was the main or "A" feature. So as for placement, yes the trailers usually did follow something.

Besides, "Coming Attractions" is too much of a mouthful.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 04-20-2006, 09:27 AM:

It dates back from the thirties and forties. Typically, theatres would always show double features, an “A” and a “B” movie, instead of the single picture as today (with the “B” film, generally considered the lesser of the two pictures, shown first). The coming attractions were generally tacked onto the end of (they trailed) the first film. The first movie was itself usually preceded by a newsreel, cartoon or a dish-night style drawing or promotion, or, in New York and other large cities, a vaudeville act or two. This went out of vogue starting in the mid-to-late fifties/early sixties, as did the cartoon before the show.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-20-2006, 12:20 PM:

When I was around 8 or 9 years old, I remember the Crest Drive-In in Yuma, AZ playing Woody Woodpecker cartoons and things like that before the movie began.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 04-20-2006, 01:11 PM:

Like what I did when I ran a drive-in: Cartoon first, then first feature. Then the snakbar/trailer reel during the "intermission" then into the second feature.

A common policy in operating drive-ins back then was that the screen never goes dark. It stays lit up all the time 'til the night was over.

-monte

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-20-2006, 01:25 PM:

The program ran in my area just as Monte describes, with the exception that we had triple features and just repeated the intermission (usually a 2nd clock trailer) after the 2nd feature.

Yes, always cartoons in the drive-ins when I started working them. Chakeres usually played Universal shorts, so that was Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Beary Family, et.al. Cartoon prints at that time were notorious for being in terrible shape. However, in the summer of '76, we got a run of Fox shorts -- which were the Terrytoons -- and they were absolutely beautiful Technicolor prints! For several weeks, we got these gorgeous new prints of Terrytoon's 1940s series: Gandy Goose, Little Roquefort, Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle. True to form, they weren't very entertaining, but they sure looked good!

Then, to finish out the season, we got standard crappy prints of Terry's later product: Deputy Dawg, Hector Heathcote, Silly Sidney...

Those were the days, though. I sure miss 'em.