Pictorial Souvenir
Following a promotional tradition that had long been used by traveling theatrical companies, Universal Pictures developed this advertising postcard for local theaters to send to their patrons in advance of the film's booking. The one at left was mailed from the America Theatre in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to someone named "L. W. Wright" in the summer, 1928.
Opened up, the card includes 19 different pictures from the movie and a very detailed schedule of "Big Moments In Uncle Tom's Cabin," which plainly indicates the assumption on Universal's part that everyone in the audience already knew the story very well. At least, there is no concern about spoiling the plot by letting movie goers know in advance such things as that at 10:40 p.m. Uncle Tom would die, and that exactly ten minutes later so would Simon Legree.
Actually, Tom didn't die at 10:40 in Colorado Springs. As part of the "Announcement" that appeared on the back page of the unopened souvenir, the American Theatre's manager cautions his patrons that the listed screen times don't apply to the film he's showing. The movie that premiered in New York on 5 November 1927 was 141-minutes long, but mixed reviews and a weak box office led Universal to shorten it to 114 minutes (10 reels rather than 13) before its general nation-wide release in the Fall, 1928. By the same token, 7 of the images on the cards are from scenes that didn't make this cut, so like the SOUVENIR PROGRAM this item helps us recover some of the original film.
