JAMES BOND
FACT FILES

Usually printed on a card stock paper in a set of eight for display purposes in theatre lobbies, these Front of House Lobby Cards (11" X 14") were generally produced in colour, although the colour was achieved using garish photo dyes that a studio retoucher would apply by brush to a black & white photograph to create the artwork from which the Lobby Card would eventually be printed. The majority of magazines in the 1960s were printed in monochrome, hence why the majority of the still photographers on the Bond films shot in black & white up until 1983. It wasn’t unusual for studio retouchers not to have seen the film or to be supplied with colour transparencies to use as colour matches, therefore the retoucher was left to choose his own colour palette when colouring up the original black & white images. These US Lobby Cards have long become very desirable collectibles – and nowadays sets are often broken up and individual cards sold separately to maximise their monetary value. The promotional photographs chosen (mostly shot during scene rehearsals) usually gave a varied overview of the film story; later titles in the Bond series utilised carefully chosen key images seen throughout the whole integrated advertising campaign.

The set displayed below is from the original 1964 US release of Goldfinger. Some later films in the James Bond series also had smaller sized sets produced with identical images which matched the standard UK 10" X 8" dimensions, but removed the portion of the poster artwork usually incorporated into the card design. US Lobby Cards continued to be produced until the mid-2000s, and are rarely seen in cinemas today.

Goldfinger (1964) was re-released in US cinemas on a double-bill with Dr. No (1962) in September 1966, and again in February 1969. Both releases were accompanied by a new advertising campaign with posters in most standard sizes available for display in cinemas and on advertising hoardings across the country. New theatrical trailers, TV spots and a set of Lobby Cards were also produced the by National Screen Service for all ‘official’ United Artists James Bond reissues.

In the case of the Goldfinger/Dr. No there were two sets of Lobby Cards issued with identical images - one was colour (actually hand-tinted black & white stills as seen on the original 1964 release); whilst the other was black & white with a two-colour credits panel. Both sets have the NSS code ‘R 66/297’ in the bottom right-hand corner so were presumably in circulation concurrently, and both issued for the 1966 re-release. The corresponding United Artists Pressbook only lists a set of eight 10" X 14" Lobby Cards with no suggestion of different styles. The advertising campaign for the second ‘official’ James Bond US double-bill also had two different styles of newspaper advertisement blocks [pictured above] for this re-release. One featured the tagline “Miss Honey and Miss Galore Have James Bond Back For More!”; whilst the alternate villains art had the tagline “Goldfinger and Dr. No Say: "We're Getting Another Shot At 007 - Together!"”. The posters for the re-release only featured the Ursula Andress/Honor Blackman artwork also used on the Lobby Card set.

MORE US LOBBY CARDS FROM THE JAMES BOND FILMS (1963-2012)

US Lobby Cards

US JAMES BOND Posters