Old magic lantern slides

There’s something historically appropriate about old magic lantern slides — one of the antecedents of cinema — being used as the means to advertise coming attractions in movie theaters. This was done in the silent film era, as this wonderful collection of “Cinema Teasers from the Silent Era” from the Cleveland Public Library shows. 200 images in all, from all kinds of film, well known ones like Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus to relative unknowns like those whose posters I’ve reproduced above: The Brat starring Nazimova, and the 1918 film The Craving, with the intriguing tagline “A dramatic wonder-play with startling photographic effects.”