Collectable: Sugar Hill (1974) 8x10 black and white still

Once synonymous with a film’s ad campaign, black and white 8x10 stills gave moviegoers a glimpse of the world they were about to enter once the house lights dimmed. Usually produced in sets of 8, these glossy prints were displayed by the theater’s entrance and reproduced the most exciting scenes from the film, in the days when single screen theaters ruled and ornate movie houses dominated the cinematic landscape. However, by the mid 1980s studios began to phase out 8x10 stills, as well as other promotional material, due to rising production costs and space issues presented by the poorly designed and impersonal theaters within the steadily growing megaplex behemoth.

A black and white glossy for Sugar Hill (1974) is a great example of the energy these black and white stills were meant to convey. The caption could read as such: “Witness a voodoo priest cast partly in shadow and captured midtrance as his transfixed devotees chant in unison.” Not the stereotypical, quasi-ethnographic “jungle” film of yesteryear, Sugar Hill is an entertaining and refreshing film filled with great performances, which the 8x10 print was meant to illustrate.  Although a product of a bygone era, these bits of cinematic ephemera are a prime example of an era when the Saturday night picture show was all you lived for.