A pile of old movie magazines takes Alan Teh Leam Seng down memory lane to the early days of cinema news and reads
HE collects recyclables from my area regularly. We donate generously because we know that Raja, as he’s called, uses the money to help pay his costs in transporting volunteers to the soup kitchen in town.
I happened to be outside one morning when he came for his usual rounds and proceeded to help him load two large stacks of old newspapers into his van. As I was closing the door, I noticed a worn-looking magazine on his passenger seat. It was an old copy of the Shaw Brothers’ Indian Movie News, and I immediately offered to purchase it, thinking that he had probably got hold of the magazine during one of his recycling trips.
Realising my interest, Raja proceeded to regale me with a story; about how his father, being an avid movie fan, built up a vast collection of movie paraphernalia during his youth. Raja inherited the collection after his father’s demise several years ago. He likes to read about the old movies and occasionally brings the magazines along to read in his van. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked to see his collection.
TREASURE TROVE
When I arrive at Raja’s house that afternoon, I can’t help having mixed emotions. Ecstatic as I was to clap eyes on so many items — from movie ticket stubs and promotional posters to calendars featuring movie stars, film-related magazines, black and white photographs of cinemas, movie fliers and even rare pass out cards — it pained me to see these priceless items just carelessly scattered all over his study. Almost instinctively, I reach out to arrange them in proper order.
Sifting through this veritable treasure trove, it begins to dawn on me just how important marketing and promotions are to the film industry. More so during the golden age of local movies which spanned some three decades, from the mid 1950s to the late 1970s. Movie producers then placed a lot of emphasis on publicity to help sell their films. Their preferred marketing method was to produce magazines so as to constantly position their newly-launched movies in the minds of the fans.
A vast majority of the entertainment magazines in Raja’s collection were produced by the famous Shaw Brothers. There were also other smaller publications such as Arena Film, Berita Film dan Sport, and Bintang. But the magazines produced by Shaw are far superior in terms of content and quality.
Although not the first to produce movie magazines in Malaya and Singapore, Shaw Brothers thoroughly understood their effectiveness. They owned a printing press, the Shaw Printing Works, that soon churned out a continuous stream of publicity materials.
Shaw published film magazines in four local languages under the banner of the Chinese Pictorial Review Ltd, which was incorporated in Singapore.
The first film magazine to come into the market was in English called Movie News. Going by the tagline “...by movie people, for movie goers...”, the 60-page magazine featured reviews and glossy photographs of newly released movies from Hollywood as well as those from the Shaw Studios in Hong Kong and Singapore. To further attract readers, the magazine featured full page photographs of popular stars as well as a series of contests. Fans usually flipped to the contest pages the moment they got their hands on the latest magazine to see if they could answer the quizzes correctly and win prizes in the form of cash and complimentary theatre passes.
The first Movie News issue was printed in July 1948 with 5,000 copies going out to the Shaw stable of cinemas in Malaya, Singapore and Borneo. Shaw wanted the magazine to be affordable to everyone and priced it at only 20 cents a copy, making it the cheapest monthly entertainment magazine in the market.
The first issue was an instant success, selling out in just a matter of days. The magazine was so popular that people would buy, read and then resell them for a profit. Realising the huge demand for the magazine, Shaw increased the print run for subsequent issues.
EXCITING FINDS
Among all the Movie News magazines in the collection, the June 1964 issue has me excited. On the front cover is a picture of a handsome Elvis Presley. By this year, the selling price had already increased by 30 cents from the time of its inception 16 years earlier.
Four new movies were featured in the 1964 June issue: Wild And Wonderful, Sex And The Single Girl, Honeymoon Hotel and Rhino. The personality features for that month included Rock Hudson, Ann-Margret, Claudia Cardinale and Connie Francis. Like most other magazines in the collection, the Film Quiz, Film Flam and Jig Saw contest entry forms are missing. The original owner must have removed these to participate in the contests.
The Editor’s Chair section catches my eye as it talks about the annual Asian Film Festival in Taipei. It seems that Shaw Brothers submitted a total of eight films for the festival, two in the Malay language and the rest in Mandarin. The editor ended the note by advising readers to look out for complimentary postcard-size portraits of film stars included in the magazine.
The reference to the film festival jolts my memory.
Taipei played host to the 11th Asian Film Festival in 1964. I recall the Best Comedy Film category was won by Madu Tiga. This black and white romantic comedy was directed by and starred screen legend P. Ramlee. The plot revolves around a childless couple, Jamil (P. Ramlee) and Latifah (Zaharah Agus). Jamil subsequently marries Hasnah (Jah Hj Mahadi) without his first wife’s knowledge. After that, Jamil meets Rohani (Sarimah) during the course of his work and marries her as well. The scene becomes chaotic when the women realise that they’re all married to the same man. Like most movies of that era, the film ended on a happy note when Jamil promises to be equally fair and loving to each one of his wives. In October 2014, The Straits Times called Madu Tiga a classic and ranked it among the top five greatest Malay films made in Singapore.
Spurred by the success of Movie News, Shaw Brothers branched into other film publications — the Malay version, Majallah Filem and Indian magazine, Indian Movie News.
Movie News circulation topped 30,000 copies by 1980 before declining rapidly due to the introduction of entertainment magazines from abroad. Finally, Shaw stopped the production of all its magazines in the late 1980s.
The Chinese language entertainment magazine was dominated by the 200-page monthly called Southern Screen. It was produced by the Shaw Brothers Hong Kong division.
Southern Screen was first published in 1957 when Run Run Shaw took over the Hong Kong film production from his brother Runde Shaw. Right from the start, Southern Screen showed a marked improvement from Runde’s Screen Voice Pictorial film magazine by increasing content on newly released films, producing high quality photographs of famous stars, and even included lengthy commentaries on the latest gossip and news to come out of the Shaw Studios at Clearwater Bay.
Southern Screen quickly became the bestselling film magazine of all time among all of Shaw Brothers publications. Monthly circulation hit the magical 100,000 mark in the mid 1960s, reaching readers as far away as the Americas and Europe.
WIDER APPEAL
Shaw didn’t solely depend on print publicity to increase its fan base. Personal appearances by stars from Hollywood and Shaw Studios during movie premieres, cinema openings, festivals and charities in Singapore and Malaysia also helped promotional efforts greatly.
Charity premieres were often attended by Prime Ministers of both countries as well as other important government officials. The dignitaries who once graced these gala events include Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Lee Kuan Yew and Yusof Ishak.
Sporting events were also used to promote films. The premiere of the movie Around The World In 80 Days in 1956 was made extra special with a cycling race held in Alor Star. It was reported that more than 1,000 spectators turned up for the event. Two years later, the organisers took the opportunity to promote air-conditioning in cinemas during the Johore-Singapore walking competition.
Signs with the words “Every stride you take means you’re getting closer to a Shaw air-conditioned cinema” greeted participants at each water stop.
In 1960, a Vespa race was organised at the Great World Amusement Park by the Singapore Vespa Club to promote the Ben Hur blockbuster movie. Spectators received car bumper stickers, records, sunshades, postcards, stamps and bookmarks during these promotional events.
I hadn’t realised just how long I’d been lost in movie nostalgia until I caught sight of a bewildered-looking Raja. Smiling, I plastic wrap the last magazine and return it to the shelf. He looks at me in disbelief when I show him the value of the Majallah Filem sold on social media these days. As for me, I nearly fainted when he confides that he nearly brought the items to the recycling shop last year. Fortunately, he had changed his mind because of the sentimental value attached to the items.
Thanking Raja for a most memorable evening, I eave his home with a warm feeling knowing that I’ve helped a friend preserve a most valuable heirloom.