Photoplays!

[mike]

I'm not talking about the magazine, but the book tie-ins that were released to support the film the book was based on!

1880's version of Frankenstein

1917 Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. self-help books! Feeling glum? Buck up chum!

I'll add info to all this soon...

 

[mike]

Wild Bill Wellman's recollections of being a flying ace in WW1. This came out just as he was getting into the film industry and probably had a lot to do with eventually 'landing' the position as director of WINGS! haha

Soft cover version of Tell It to the Marines, Lon Chaney's personal favorite role.

It Happened One Night and Chandu the Magician are both Big Little Books, which were meant for children; large print and many more photos than the average photoplay. This version of the Man Who Laughs is the British version.

1880's printing of She w/pull out glossy reproduction of pottery shard.

 

[Mysterious Mose]

**** me !!! Nice collection! Old books, there's nothing like it. The Unholy Three, Public Enemy... That "Struggles and triumphs " is a beauty.
(I've got the Penguin pocket edition.)

 

[dhermann1]

Mike recently gave me a guided tour of his collection, including some amazing posters as well as the stuff shown here. Totally cool artifacts. Thanks for posting this, Mike!

 

[mike]

**** me !!! Nice collection! Old books, there's nothing like it. The Unholy Three, Public Enemy... That "Struggles and triumphs " is a beauty.
(I've got the Penguin pocket edition.)

Thanks! I agree, I absolutely love the aesthetics and the smell of them! Especially in the case of films that are lost to the ages... this is the only way to experience stories like the Miracle Man, London After Midnight and many, many more! It's especially interesting to see what the original stories were that were altered to cater to a certain actor or director. Plus, since they almost always contain stills from the films, they are original golden age promotional materials that if you know what you're looking for, you can get for nuttin' honey! lol

Also, you can get the reproduction dusk jackets here: http://newportvintagebooks.com/store/dustjackets/photoplays/gallery_DJ_PP_Horror.htm

 

[The Wolf]

Some of my favorite movies, actors and authors are represented there.
I'm envious.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[mike]

A copy of the 1931 Frankenstein photoplay with no dustjacket just sold on ebay for a whopping 25 bucks and sat with a buy it now offer available for 50 bucks all week....!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300354403038&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

[mike]

Aaand here's another duskjacket-less copy of the 1931 Frankenstein photoplay that sold for 38 bucks...!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140356793141&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT


There just giving em away! lol

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I've got Red Headed Woman and The Office Wife. Both are magnificent! That's all the Photoplays I have. All my other kinds are the magazine!

 

[mike]

I've got Red Headed Woman and The Office Wife. Both are magnificent! That's all the Photoplays I have. All my other kinds are the magazine!

Cool! I just got a duskjacketed copy of Red Headed Woman myself! Check out this great artwork...

Have you read it? I wonder how different it may be to the version that made it to the screen. The Unholy Three was altered significantly to give Lon Chaney a more sympathetic role. I wonder if much of the pre-code material was even more over the top in its initial stage?

 

[Amy Jeanne]

The movie is much better. Lil is whiney, spoiled, and unlikeable in the book.

I also have Weekend Marriage! Forgot that one!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

 

[Miss Neecerie]

so where do you live again.....and what shift do you work.....


*plots nefariously*

 

[skyvue]

As I told Mike tonight in person, I have the JAZZ SINGER photoplay book stashed away somewhere, though I'm not sure where.

I also mentioned to Mike a related line of books from Whitman Publishing in Racine, Wisconsin, that featured movie stars as characters in young adult mysteries that are not based on movies (nor, to my knowledge, were any titles in the series ever adapted to film).

My wife owns JUDY GARLAND AND THE HOODOO COSTUME, published in 1945.

Others in the series include BETTY GRABLE AND THE HOUSE WITH THE IRON SHUTTERS, JOHN PAYNE AND THE MENACE OF HAWK'S NEST, ANN SHERIDAN AND THE SIGN OF THE SPHYNX, JANE WITHERS AND THE SWAMP WIZARD, GINGER ROGERS AND THE RIDDLE OF THE SCARLET CLOAK. Other titles featured such performers as Gene Autry, Shirley Temple, and Roy Rogers.

The line also included mysteries featuring popular movie characters, including BRENDA STARR, GIRL REPORTER, BLONDIE AND DAGWOOD'S SNAPSHOT CLUE, RED RYDER AND THE MYSTERY OF THE WHISPERING WALLS, DICK TRACY MEETS THE NIGHT CRAWLER, and others.

 

[Mr. 'H']

A great collection Mike. Thanks for the pictures. :eusa_clap

 

[PADDY]

Thanks Mike.

Wonderful stuff!:eusa_clap

 

[mike]

As I told Mike tonight in person, I have the JAZZ SINGER photoplay book stashed away somewhere, though I'm not sure where.

I also mentioned to Mike a related line of books from Whitman Publishing in Racine, Wisconsin, that featured movie stars as characters in young adult mysteries that are not based on movies (nor, to my knowledge, were any titles in the series ever adapted to film).

My wife owns JUDY GARLAND AND THE HOODOO COSTUME, published in 1945.

Others in the series include BETTY GRABLE AND THE HOUSE WITH THE IRON SHUTTERS, JOHN PAYNE AND THE MENACE OF HAWK'S NEST, ANN SHERIDAN AND THE SIGN OF THE SPHYNX, JANE WITHERS AND THE SWAMP WIZARD, GINGER ROGERS AND THE RIDDLE OF THE SCARLET CLOAK. Other titles featured such performers as Gene Autry, Shirley Temple, and Roy Rogers.

The line also included mysteries featuring popular movie characters, including BRENDA STARR, GIRL REPORTER, BLONDIE AND DAGWOOD'S SNAPSHOT CLUE, RED RYDER AND THE MYSTERY OF THE WHISPERING WALLS, DICK TRACY MEETS THE NIGHT CRAWLER, and others.

How cool! Thanks so much for the follow up, these are really interesting!!! If you find any more pictures of the rest of the series, please post 'em!!

 

[mike]

One still from each Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.'s self-help book....

Lon Chaney in He Who Gets Slapped...

William Wellman's Beggars of Life w/Louise Brooks & Wallace Beery...

Maurice Tourneur, one of my favorite silent film directors, made multiple films that are unfairly lost to time. He was considered one of the big names, equal to Griffith, but today... nuthin. This one is Clothes Make the Pirate...

King Vidor's the Crowd is my favorite film of all time...

 

[mike]

Tell it to the Marines w/Lon Chaney, Sr. is one of the strangest photoplays I have...

Here's a repro of the stage play version of the Dracula photoplay...

Compared to the film version...

The stage play version contains no stills or illustrations. The film version does.

Call Her Savage written by Tiffany Thayer and starring Clara Bow is completely insane. It got me researching the writer to find more of his work. What a piece of work, indeed! haha

Murders in the Rue Morgue...

 

[mike]

I've been very interested in the writer Tiffany Thayer recently. This is a first (only) pressing of his 1934 book Dr. Arnoldi, about a world where no one can die. Literally the ocean fills up with human beings wishing to shuffle off this plane but to no avail. It's out of control.

Frank Capra's Lost Horizon...

It Happened One Night... for kids!

Also for kids, the story of the 1935 Chandu the Magician. Note the large type and there are significantly more photos in these books...

The Invisible Man...