Christmastime at the movie houses, part 1

I had planned to spend much of December posting movie ads from various Christmas weeks between the 40s and the 70s but life got in the way. Not even anything sad or happy or weird, just everyday living around the holidays. So I'll post a handful over the next few days.

Christmas of 1943 saw the fabulous Technicolor musical The Gang's All Here playing in New York City. The movie is really nothing special in terms or story or acting, but the production numbers are fun, and the opening number with Carmen Miranda and her Phallic Bananas is justly famous.

In 1947 Los Angeles, this cool double feature was playing, a throwback to the first classic horror era of the 30s--Son of Frankenstein ('39) and Bride of Frankenstein ('35).

A forgotten live-action Disney movie, Westward Ho, the Wagons, was probably relying on the fame of Fess Parker as Davy Crockett on TV to grab Christmas audiences in Atlanta in 1956.

The release of Ray Harryhausen's fantasy The 7th Voyage of Sinbad seems more attuned to holiday family audiences at Christmas of 1958. Seen today, it's a little old-fashioned storywise but the effects are still awfully fun.