The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
1976’s The Town That Dreaded Sundown was part of a wave of low-budget, regionally produced (and usually cast) slasher films made in the United States in the late 1970s. This particular film is somewhat unique because the film documents an actual event—“The Texarkana Moonlight Murders.” It was directed by Charlies B. Pierce, whose movies often get compared to the works of Ed Wood.
Two styles of Schaedler’s Alpha were used in the film’s promotional campaign, the solid Alpha Midnight and Alpha Sunrise (with perspective shadow). See an overview of all four styles at the end of a previous post.
![The typeface (?) used for the two lines at the top is unidentified. [It’s , see comments.] The letterforms are similar to Filmotype’s Glenlake and Ginger.](https://fiu-original.b-cdn.net/fontsinuse.com/use-images/22/22806/22806.jpeg?filename=town_that_dreaded_sundown_xlg.jpg)
The typeface (?) used for the two lines at the top is unidentified. [It’s Jay Gothic, see comments.] The letterforms are similar to Filmotype’s Glenlake and Ginger.
Lobby card
The Blu-Ray disk cover (2013) maintains the title in two-colored Alpha Sunrise (minus the drop shadow) and additionally uses Trajan and Garage Gothic.
9 Comments on “The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)”
I grew up with the original poster in the family’s lake cabin. It used to scare all the kids! This is where my obsession with Alpha and its origin comes from. Before I could make out that Alpha Sunrise was an existing font, it looked shadow-y and noir-ish. A perfect fit for my hometown’s most famous unsolved mystery!
I know local people that were in the 1976 movie and I was actually present for a lot of the filming for the horrible 2014 remake.
I’m also probably going to digitize the unidentified.
The unidentified is Jay Gothic Bold. Castcraft had a digital version known as Jaffa Gothic Bold in its OPTIFonts range, which included some (but not all) of the original alternates as seen in the below sample:
Right you are! Thanks, Patrick. Jay Gothic is less recognizable without its spurless lowercase glyphs.
Wow Jay Gothic!
Also, this clipping suggests that Photo-Lettering Inc.'s 1963 supplement listed it as Schechter Marksman Gothic. That’s a few years before it winning the VGC sponsored competition. It is listed as Jay Gothic in later PLINC volumes (1965's Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 2 and 1971's One Line Manual of Styles).
Excellent find, Patrick! Thanks for sharing.
While the One Line Manual of Styles claims that Jay Gothic is shown in the Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 2, the face is actually listed in that book under the initial name, Schechter Marksman. Which makes sense: VGC announced the winning entries including Jay Gothic Bold in late 1965, after PLINC’s Vol. 2 was released. The PLINC faces in the 1965 and 1971 catalogs do have the same numbers (5079/5080), indicating that only the name was updated.
I added this info to the typeface page. What’s the source of this clipping? Does “previews” mean it’s from before 1963?
Perfect. I was hoping someone could verify the Vol. 2 listing as I was only working with the info from the One Line Manual.
Source is Art Direction, Volume 14, Issue 10 from January, 1963.
Thank you!