Lewistown Boy Scouts Ride on Fire Truck to Advertise Silent Film "The Third Alarm" in 1922

We might forget it now, almost 100 years after the invention of the sound film, but silent movies were a big business.  Even in the remote climes of Montana, audiences flocked to, and thrilled at, the cinema.  The moving picture was a recent innovation, and seeing even simple stories represented on the screen was enough to constitute a big event. 

In this picture, taken in 1922, a load of Lewistown boy scouts perches on the back of a fire truck in front of the Judith Theater in honor of the latest thriller, a melodrama revolving around firefighters called "The Third Alarm."  

"The Third Alarm" was a melodrama involving a man who, after years of driving a horse-drawn fire wagon, is unable to wrap his head around how to drive a "modern" fire truck.  As a result, his son, who had been going to medical school, can no longer afford his tuition without the financial support of his father - so he becomes a fireman.  In the end, a particularly large fire - the titular "three alarm" fire - brings all of the story's threads to a happy conclusion.  The film was 70 minutes long, and was touted at the time as "the greatest thriller of them all!"

The film was advertised throughout the United States by arranging parades of local fire departments, some of whom helped support the film by sending their fire trucks (or horse-drawn carriages) careening down the street with fire bells ringing until they ended up at the theater. At that point anyone chasing the fire truck in the hope of witnessing a fire would most likely settle for the only slightly less hair-raising spectacle of a film about firefighters.  

In this case, having the boy scout troop involved probably didn't hurt the box office either.  It's easy to imagine that the Judith Theater (which still exhibits films today) sold a lot of popcorn that day.