The Velvet Vampire (1971) and Scream of the Demon Lover (1970) movie posters and press book
Poster for The Velvet Vampire, featuring Moon Flair, Toronado Interlock, Franklin Gothic Condensed, Univers, Neue Auora VIII, and News Gothic Condensed.
The Velvet Vampire is a 1971 American vampire film directed by Stephanie Rothman. It was distributed by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, and put on a double bill with Scream of the Demon Lover, a 1970 Spanish-Italian horror film by José Luis Merino and originally called Ivanna. The posters and other promotion for the two films feature strong imagery – and some lesser known typefaces.
The title typeface for The Velvet Vampire is called Moon Flair. This all-caps face with “Shotgun” counters is shown by Lettergraphics in their 1976 catalog (but not yet in the 1969 edition), without designer credits. Digital interpretations include Velvet Teen (Pink Broccoli, 2008) and Velvet Vampire (GautFonts, 2019). Both are based on the material designed for the film, and hence are not faithful to the original beyond the glyphs featured in this use.
“She’s waiting to love you … to death” is set in another anonymous design from the Lettergraphics library – this phototype company was located in Culver City, California, and hence in close proximity to Hollywood. Toronado Interlock was shown already in 1968. There likewise is a digitization by Pink Broccoli, under the name Troubled PB (2019).
Poster for Scream of the Demon Lover, featuring Burst Caps, Marschall, Neue Aurora IX, and Venus Condensed.
On the poster for Scream of the Demon Lover, the title is set in Burst Caps. Again, this is a phototype design of unclear origin. The bold sans-serif caps with burst pattern in each glyph appear in Lettergraphics’ 1976 catalog. There are digizations by David Rakowski (as Starburst, 1990) and, more complete, by Dan X. Solo as Burst (1999).
“A walking corpse lusts for revenge” probably is in Monmart, which was the name Lettergraphics used for their phototype adaptation of Marschall. Other aliases for this German design from 1905 include Elefante and Domingo.
Shout-out to John Michael Cozzoli for sharing images of the double bill press book on Zombos’ Closet.
Pages from the press book for The Velvet Vampire and Scream of the Demon Lover. “2 new smash chiller attractions from New World Pictures” is set in all-caps Akzidenz-Grotesk.
Pages from the press book for The Velvet Vampire and Scream of the Demon Lover, with lobby stills. “Order from National Screen Service” uses Helvetica.
Pages from the press book with ads for The Velvet Vampire and Scream of the Demon Lover. “Order from National Screen Service” uses Akzidenz-Grotesk Italic.
