Friday the 13th Jinx Show at the Palace – January 1967

Over the years, the Palace Theater in Lorain used a variety of creative gimmicks to sell tickets.

Some of these gimmicks included a 1957 show featuring a ‘live’ appearance by the late James Dean, a 1957 show by Dr. Silkini & Company and the Frankenstein monster, a 1960 live stage appearance by the Three Stooges, and a 1964 ‘back to school’ cartoon carnival.

Well, here’s another creative effort. Above is the ad for the Friday the 13th Jinx Show, which took place on January 13, 1967 – 50 years ago today. The ad ran in the Journal the day before.

To be honest, though, I’m not sure what the hubbub was about. Despite the great illustration and ominous tone of the ads (“AT THIS SHOW anything can happen… AND PROBABLY WILL!), it seems like it was all just a cute setup to present a 1962 movie called Tales of Terror.

Poster courtesy of cathode13.blogspot.com

Here’s the terrifying trailer.

Apparently, the Jinx tie-in was that one of the Edgar Allan Poe stories that made up the movie was “The Black Cat.” Here’s a jolly frame from the film.

Courtesy of catsonfilm.net

Anyway, all of the ads for the Jinx Show featured the same black cat artwork, so I don’t think there was any advertised stage show to accompany the on-screen mayhem.