Telones publicitarios

Abstract

During the last third of the XIX Century the curtains at the theatres became the medium to exhibit advertising posters. Decades later cinemas inherited this method which occupied intervals during shows until the middle of the XX Century. Filmoteca Española has recovered a series of photographs from 1953 that reproduce advertising posters from several theatres and cinemas of Madrid. This article shows some of those unpublished images and analyses the most outstanding characteristics of an advertising vehicle that disappeared various decades ago. In the text the author also ponders the importance of considering archives as a tool to facilitate and improve research for the history of advertising. The analysis of the documents that are generated by the companies involved in advertising bring forward an awful lot of light about the history and the language of advertising vehicles and therefore about the messages that have built the imagery of our time.