Photoplays!

[mike]

In support of the Roubin Mamoulian masterpiece...

I really dig the artwork...

Lon Chaney, Sr's first major (lost) film...

Does it get any better than this? The 1925 Lost World!

Oh right! The 1916 version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!

 

[mike]

Here's what things looked like a few decades later. Personally, cheap by comparison. Le sigh...

But backing up, I've saved the best for last.

This is the photoplay for King Vidor's the Champ:

And these are the handmade 1932 internal instructions on how to produce the photoplay for a mass market!

 

[mike]

 

[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.

I just finished reading this book.... It was absolutely amazing! Something EC Comics couldn't have imagined in scale or scope. Literally, the author apologizes to the reader in the end and pleads to God if there is an other story idea out there similar, to instead give it to HG Wells to write! lol

I've since then realized that Tiffany Thayer also wrote the source material for the uncanny pre-code film starring a young Myrna Loy, Thirteen Women! I found an original 1932 copy for 3 bucks and it's en route

 

[Mysterious Mose]

More amazing stuff! Never seen a photoplay in the wild, they're fascinating.
I have the regular Beggars of Life in my tramps and thieves collection. I'll try take some pics. tonight, including the Sherlock H.'s.

The Tiffany Thayer illustration reminds me of Arthur Wragg,very dark, heartbreaking stuff:

 

[Gatsby84]

King Kong!

A very impressive collection. Where does one acquire a 'King Kong' novel?
-Allen

 

[mike]

Just won this for a whopping $6.25!

 

[RetroPat]

I always look at books as little works of art. These take it to a whole new level. Thank you all for sharing your beautiful books. Yet another area of vintage collecting for me to get sucked into.

 

[mike]

These are not mine, but they are too terrific to not share....

 

[mike]

These are not mine either. But this first one might be some of the best artwork I've seen on a photoplay dust jacket! (btw - Reader's Library specifically are British issued books)

 

[mike]

1920's Danish circus film photoplay that I picked up for $1.50. It's getting to the point that people may be paying ME to take these off their hands! haha

"A.W. Sandberg was the leading director at the Nordisk Films Kompagni from 1916 until 1926. He broke with the company due to their lack of support of his financial dispositions in connection with the production of The Golden Clown. He finished the film on his own funds. The Golden Clown is one of the best international quality films in Danish silent cinema. It develops the love triangle between the lovable clown, the circus princess and the Parisian bon vivant. Like so many films of the silent era, it is a tale of the old rural world and the glamour and danger in the big city. The Golden Clown is a remake of Sandberg's own highly successful film from 1917, which starred Valdemar Psilander. "

 

[mike]

I found a copy of this WITH original dust jacket for super cheap... Incredible artwork, huh!?!? It would make one heck of a tattoo....

I think one day I could put my kids through college with this stuff... when they pry 'em from my cold, dead hands

 

[mike]

Here's something I love. While on the search, you can find completely overlooked treasures, such as this contemporary to Thea Von Harbou's Metropolis...

"Translation of LES CONDAMNES A MORT (1920). A fine novel of an automated nightmare world of the future. "Told on an almost surrealistic level; cerebral, but imaginative; far superior to the similar METROPOLIS by Thea von Harbou." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years"


...I mean, who knew!??! :eusa_doh: This goes in the "What if...?" category of this could have been one of the golden era's masterpiece films if only it actually made it to the silver screen! And yet, it didn't so all we can do is imagine. Who would have directed it? What if Thalberg said to LB Mayer, "We're getting killed by WF over at Fox Films. They have US distribution rights for that crazy futurist German movie called Metropolis. We can pick up the rights to this French book with similar themes..." The mind boggles! haha

 

[Feraud]

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

In what way is it strange Mike?

 

[mike]

In what way is it strange Mike?

Photoplay paperbacks from the period are mighty hard to find today, and pretty beat up when you do come across them. Whether hardcover, paperback, domestic-made, or International-made, photoplays are very formulaic in how they are packaged and designed. Only the paperbacks have photos interspersed within the body of the text. Otherwise, they are reproduced on glossy, one sided paper which is inserted as a separate page in the book. Am I easily impressed? Sure, why not!

By the way, not to say it is the first, but the earliest example I've seen of a film photoplay is from 1908 of a film titled, The Wolf.

 

[mike]

Not mine, but went for big bucks recently....

This is the basis for what became the lost Lon Chaney, Sr. horror film, A Blind Bargain:

Some great pre-code era artwork here: