Dawn of the Dead First Public Theatrical Screening Clipping from the US

I was revisiting the 2004 documentary "The Dead Will Walk" from my Second Sight box set recently and experienced quite a WTF moment. At 1:05:15, we're shown a "SNEAK PREVIEW TONIGHT" Dawn of the Dead Theatrical Ad it seems, I had overlooked during my previous viewings. Inspecting the ads surrounding the Dawn of the Dead one revealed that it was published in The New York Times on Saturday 11 February 1978, making it, to the best of my knowledge, the first public theatrical screening ever. As some of you might know, principal photography would wrap up 9 days later, on 20 February 1978. Could this Preview be the same preview shown on the TV program "TV Debut with George Anderson" which aired on 26 February 1978 on WPGH-TV53?

Dawn of the Dead

Work in Progress Cut

11 February 1978 (New York, NY)

- SNEAK PREVIEW -

The New York Times - National Edition, 1978-02-11, p. ??  [1]

(Screenshot from The Dead Will Walk documentary)

I tried to locate the ad myself in The New York Times archives so I could offer you guys the full newspaper page as I've been doing with all other clippings I published on the blog. I was able to locate the New York Times from 11 February 1978 but to my surprise, that Dawn of the Dead ad was not there. The Star Wars ad is there, The Choirboys ad is there, the Kennel Murder Case (FEB. 11 SAT. ONLY!) ad is there, The Lacemaker ad is there, the Starship Invasions ad is there but no sign of that Dawn of the Dead ad I'm looking for.

Doing a bit of research, I found out that The New York Times was published twice daily; one edition named "National Edition", the other "Late City Edition" and from what I understand, The New York Times archives available on their "TimesMachine", only offer the "Late City Edition".

So, it would seem that this Dawn of the Dead ad I'm looking for was only published in the National Edition which I have yet to locate in order to provide the full newspaper page.

Here are the pages where the ad is missing from the "Late City Edition".

(Click to enlarge)

The New York Times - Late City Edition, 1978-02-11, p. 13-14  [2]

To quote this article

Danny Duchesneau@2021, "Dawn of the Dead First Public Theatrical Screening Clipping from the US", Dawn of the Dead Collector's Blog, published on 28 March 2021.

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[1]  PERRY MARTIN, The Dead Will Walk, US, Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2004.

[2]  TimesMachine (The New York Times)