From Orgy of the Living Dead-Trailer "A":
This man's name is John Austin Fraiser.
He lived in Chicago, Illinois.
He now resides at the state mental hospital.
We are saddened to tell you that this tragic condition was brought about when Mr. Fraiser attended the World Premier of our Triple Nightmare of Horror program- Orgy of the Living Dead.
Since this tragic event, the producers of this explosion of terror have established an insurance policy. Ensuring the sanity of each and every patron who attend this program.
The policy states that in the event you lose your mind or suffer from irrevocable trauma from viewing this avalanche of grisly horror, the producers of this film will ensure that you receive psychiatric care until such time as you are cured -OR- in the event that your derangement is permanent, provide you with interment in an asylum for the rest of your natural life.
Poor John. It isn't surprising, though. After all, murder, mutilation, death, blood-sucking vampires, dead things crawling from their graves, living dead maniacs, slashing, rending, devouring the living, it's enough to drive anyone mad.
If you have any psychological deficiency, you will not be allowed to attend this Orgy of the Living Dead. The insurance is absolutely free. We urge you to take advantage of this protection. Anyone entering without it does so at his own risk.
Ladies & gentlemen, in so much as you are not now insured and in the light of what has happened to Mr. Fraiser, you will understand why we cannot show you any more than these brief glimpses of this triple avalanche of grisly horror- Orgy of the Living Dead. Please pick up your policies from the box office and have them ready when you enter the theater to see- Revenge of the Living Dead, Curse of the Living Dead, and Fangs of the Living Dead.
Bonus!!!! Here are the "A" and "B" trailers for Orgy of the Living Dead. Presented by two different Youtube channels. I am quite sure they both have no idea they uploaded slightly different variants of the trailer.
EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS!!!!
For a very limited time, the ICFH Orgy of the Living Dead Tribute T-shirt!
Created just for this blog post!
Paul:
Oh my, yes, I remember this campaign well. I don't know how many friends I asked to go along. There were no takers because the invitation came with a caveat: Don't go and then wanna leave in the middle of a movie. You gotta stay for all of 'em!
The ORGY OF THE LIVING DEAD triple bill was booked into the Route 35 Drive-In Theater in Hazlet, NJ starting on Wednesday May 30, 1973. I totally bought into the hype. A triple horror show! Monsters and killers and vampires and free Shock Insurance... oh, man! I just HAD to see them and, more than anything else, get that Shock Insurance policy that was promised.
I still recall pulling up…
Thanks for sharing the link to Movie Monsters, Steven.
I had not thought to look there for the book. These days it seems to be the first place to look for everything.
I have heard that more than just a few makeup guys and gals working in the business today were very influenced by Ormsby's book. I know quite a few monster maniacs that have fond memories of it. Alan Ormsby is on my list of people to talk to, so perhaps there will be something in a future It Came From Hollywood book.
I am also a fan of My Bodyguard as well. I'm a big fan of movies shot in my hometown. Ormsby was praised for his writing,…
And I should point out that I've found that the whole book is available free as a PDF on The Internet Archive, bless their obsessive hearts! REVELATION! One of the coolest things about it is that Ormsby goes into detail explaining the secret of the lighting effect that helped transform Fredric March from Jeckyll to Hyde ONSCREEN (as well as the climactic money-shot of Elspeth Dudgeon in the sorely overlooked "Sh! The Octopus!" a few years later), who knows how many twisted tykes in the 70s gave their grandparents attachardia thanks to Ormsby and his enablers at Scholastic books? It's great to see his pen & ink drawings, very reminiscent of the great Jack Davis from the days at EC…
Aside from once again feeling disappointed to see Bava's Kill Baby Kill buried in Europix's triad morass of exploitation advertising brilliance, the credit tag for Alan Ormsby is the biggest revelation of this package. This polymath had an already remarkably varied career as far as I knew, but whether Graphic Artist (with a shingle on the office door!) or simply a convenient available talent for the obscure corporate entity calling itself Europix (which distributed his & Bob Clark's collaborations as well as a few other less stellar cinematic dingleberries so at least his being within their reach makes sense) I'd like to know if Ormsby just did layout & pasteup for these trash-gem ads or if he did the art…