Promotional Truck

While searching for my next source, I stumbled upon this photograph on the Kentucky digital library’s website.  It is a photo of a promotional car for “the Phantom President” and was taken in 1932.  This photo originally came from Lafayette studios, the studio that originally built the Kentucky Theatre. 

I am not exactly sure what the purpose of this truck was.  I have never seen anything quite like it.  Maybe this truck was so people could vote whether or not this film should play in theaters.  I envision many different trucks driving around, each advertising a different film, and then at the end of a certain time period, whichever film got the most votes was played in the theater. 

While this could have been true, it is probably not.  It is much more likely that these trucks, and the Kentucky Theatre as a whole, were products of the government.  Voter turnout is a major flaw in the United States government and continues to be today.  It plagues the polls making it so only a small percentage of the population, the people who show up to vote, have more say in elections and other policy making.  This truck is evidence that the government sees this problem as well.  It is essentially bribing the American people to vote, and the truck is simply their way of getting the word out. The truck literally says, “ Vote and See the Phantom President”.  What we cannot tell from this picture is how they are going about this bribing.  Are they saying if you attend the polls you get a free movie ticket?  Or are they simply associating voting with something that people actually enjoy (movies)?  We may never know.  Also, while I cannot say whether either of these theories of this truck are correct or incorrect, the second option is definitely more probable.  

This truck lets me into a whole new angle about the Kentucky Theatre.  Just like pretty much anything in America, it has a political advantage to it, and one that the government is not hesitant to exploit.  Since there is virtually no background info on this photo, it raises many questions as well.  Was I right in guessing its true purpose?  Was this tactic useful?  In other words, did it work?  And finally, did it have any effect on voter turnout in Lexington?

Source:  http://kdl.kyvl.org/catalog/xt702v2c8t1s_1228_1/viewer