Barbara Gips Dies: Writer Responsible For Iconic ‘Alien’ Tagline “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream” Was 89
by MarvelsGrantMan136
Barbara Gips Dies: Writer Responsible For Iconic ‘Alien’ Tagline “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream” Was 89
by MarvelsGrantMan136
6 Comments
Her tagline didn’t just sell Alien, it etched isolation into our nightmares. Without it, that xenomorph might’ve slunk into obscurity. What a legacy.
In my opinion, probably the second best tagline to be on a movie poster, just after “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water” from Jaws 2. As someone who collects original one-sheets, I love when a good tagline goes with amazing art. She made a huge impact for sure.
She also created the taglines for:
* *Kramer vs Kramer* – “Ted Kramer is about to learn what 10 million women already know”
* *Fatal Attraction* – “On the other side of drinks, dinner and a one night stand, lies a terrifying love story”
* *No Way Out* – “Is it a crime of passion, or an act of treason?”
* *Silkwood* – “Sometimes the most unlikely person turns out to be a hero”
* *Desperately Seeking Susan* – “It’s a life so outrageous it takes two women to live it”
* *Postcards from the Edge* – “Having a wonderful time, wish I were here”
I hope she was proud of how her tagline became a part of popular culture, even 46 years later. Iconic gets overused these days, but it’s appropriate in this case.
I know she probably did other stuff, but it’s so cool that you could make a decent living off of just writing those at one point.
RIP
[Back in 1981](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/08/archives/oneliner-success.html), she said how the *Alien* tagline came up to her:
> ”IN space no one can hear you scream.” Barbara Gips, a New Rochelle mother of five, thought of that line for advertising the movie ”Alien” while riding along Riverside Drive one evening. ”I looked out at the water,” she said, ”thinking how lonely it seemed at night, how lonely it must be in space. My husband, Phil, a graphic artist, had been working on the advertising for ‘Alien,’ and I had attended a screening with him. All of a sudden, that line occurred to me.”
> ”That’s good,” her teen-age daughter, Dana, one of the four children in the car, told her immediately. That was the first compliment of many. Once her line was accepted for the advertising campaign of the film, it brought Barbara Solinger Gips a favorable mention in a leading reviewer’s column, awards from the Art Directors Club of New York and Communication Arts Magazine and a whole new career.
> ”Since then,” she said, ”I’ve been working on ads for other movies -sometimes with a couple of screenings and three or four meetings scheduled a week. Also, there are new scripts to read all the time.”
> Among other lines she has created for film advertisements is one used for commercials for ”The Competition” (”The one thing that brought them together is the one thing that’s tearing them apart”) and another for advertising ”Kramer vs. Kramer” (”Ted Kramer is about to learn what 10 million women already know”).
> ”But the greatest thrill still was ‘Alien,’ ” she said. ”I’ll never forget going to pick up theater tickets on Broadway and passing this enormous sign with my line on it right on the corner of 44th and Broadway.”