The Drug Terror (General Film Distributors, 1914). Fine- on Linen. One Sheet (27.75" X 41.25").. ...

Description

The Drug Terror (General Film Distributors, 1914). Fine- on Linen. One Sheet (27.75" X 41.25").
At the time of the release of this addiction drama, the U.S. was amidst a cocaine crisis that saw the drug largely unregulated (available from doctors by prescription) and being added to a number of popular consumer products. Authorities tallied hundreds of thousands of cases of cocaine addiction. The Drug Terror (or Evils of Cocaine) was produced in part by the Sociological Research Film Corporation in alignment with socialite Anne Harriman Sands Rutherford Vanderbilt's public campaign against the use and distribution of all narcotics, but particularly cocaine and heroin. Her campaign and the public outcry against addictive drugs are credited with spurring state and federal law enforcement and Congress to action, leading to the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. That legislation outlawed the sale of narcotics by anyone other than pharmacists and heavily taxed prescriptions of cocaine, opium, and other habit-forming drugs to discourage any and all distribution of narcotic substances. The Drug Terror contributed significantly to Vanderbilt's anti-narcotic narrative by presenting a sensationalized drama of a father who built his wealth on cocaine trafficking, who arranges for his daughter to marry a socialite, not realizing the prominent young man is himself addicted. This leads to the daughter developing her own substance abuse problem and the father then tragically seeing first-hand the evil his drug empire causes. Heritage proudly offers for the first time one of the few copies of the one sheet for The Drug Terror ever seen at auction, which features a literal Devil coaxing the viewer closer with a bottle of heroin. The poster has had parts of its borders replaced, all the borders and the right cheek of the devil's face have been airbrushed, and color and regular touch-up have been applied to parts of the folds, the "T" in Terror in the title and the "AR" in Warning in the lower lettering, some crossfold chips, and other parts of the devil's torso and face.


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