Bank Night

[bangk nahyt]

noun

Informal.

1. (in the 1930s) an evening when prizes were awarded by lottery to members of the audience at a movie theater as part of a promotion to encourage theater patronage.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Bank Night¹

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

Spareribs’ big sister won fifty dollars at a movie bank night.

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The slot she was dropping her love letters into was an old bank night depository.

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A nervous tic excites me and if with all these other things he wore green suits — bank night!”

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He admits that the independents had a share in building up Bank Night but asserts: "We were getting such rotten pictures that we had to do something to get people into the houses."

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His great contribution to campaign entertainment was a political version of cinema's Bank Night.

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