Cinema advertising was big business in the 1950s and early 1960s when over thirty million tickets were sold each year. The sales of advertising made up around 2%-5% of a cinema's profits- but they meant much more to the cinema managers who got commission on each ad sold. Managers were often seen around town visiting shops to sign owners up to an advertising package. Free tickets to a popular film were often supplied to sweeten the deal.
Even projectionists got a piece of the action as the advertising slide companies (often owned by the cinema chains themselves) paid a yearly bonus to make up for the hassle of screening dozens of slides with every film. The assistant projectionist who was delegated this job usually was none the wiser about this bonus.
But by the 1970s the gloss was coming off cinema advertising. The commission given to managers was reduced to a small bonus. Local radio was able to change ads on short notice, unlike cinema advertising slides which took weeks to be made and approved. Audience numbers were falling in the face of television and a new culture of going to see a particular film and not visiting the cinema anyway and seeing what was on.
Teleslides was the last gasp of the cinema advertising slide. These were static images projected onto the screen but with a few seconds of audio played through the speakers. The audio for all slides were put onto a vinyl record but it was up to the projectionist to make sure they kept changing the pictures in sync with the words. The slide screenings sometimes became unintentional comedy for the audience!
By the end of the 1970s the era of the advertising slide was all but gone. They were replaced by reels of motion picture film advertising businesses instead.
