The Primrose Path

The production company chose to have jazz singer Annette Hanshaw’s face dominate this poster from 1925. Hanshaw’s popularity as a radio star peaked in the 1930s but even at this stage in her career they were clearly confident that her image was the film’s main selling point.  Apparently her name didn’t even need to be included on the poster, only her marketing appellation as ‘The Personality Girl’.

Unfortunately it becomes difficult to have any understanding of what the film is actually about from looking at the poster itself. Henshaw’s disembodied face, eyes averted, with a half-smile, occupies half the poster and looms over what appears to be a murder scene at the bottom.

Oddly the lead actress in the film is in fact Clara Bow, whose name doesn’t appear at all. Bow appeared in 15 films in 1925 alone and would go on to become the quintessential 1920s flapper. Bow is more famously known as the ‘It’ girl. This tag, however, only came into being following her role in the movie It, in 1927.