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Auction History Result 2a0409 TEST PILOT pressbook 1938 Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Tracy, w/exploitation section, ultra rare! Date Sold 4/17/2022 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Movie Pressbook (pb; measures 14" x 20" [36 x 51 cm]; 10 pages). Also included is the "exploitation section" that has 27 pages, and also 2 ad supplements that have 11 pages and 9 pages. (Learn More) Test Pilot, the 1938 Victor Fleming military Army airplane aviation pilot romantic melodrama ("MGM's Greatest All-Star Thrill-Romance"; "Original Story by Frank Wead"; written by Howard Hawks; nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award; about a devil-may-care test pilot who has a best friend who is his mechanic, and when they make an emergency landing in a corn field, the pilot sweeps the proverbial "farmer's daughter" off her feet!) starring Clark Gable ("'King' of the screen Greater than in 'San Francisco'!"), Myrna Loy ("'Queen' of the screen Greater than in 'After the Thin Man'!"), Spencer Tracy ("Academy Award Winner Greater than in 'Captains Courageous'!"), Lionel Barrymore, Samuel S. Hinds, Marjorie Main, and Virginia Grey. Note that this was one of three movies that Gable and Tracy starred in as best friends (the other two are "San Francisco" and "Boom Town"), and all three are highly enjoyable and have aged really well, and the chemistry between the two men appears to have extended beyond their onscreen time! NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Important Added Info: Note that we have never before auctioned this pressbook! Not only that, but at this time, MGM made some elaborate "exploitation sections" for some of their major movies, and those were printed on a quality paper stock and show everything available for the movie except for the posters, which were shown in the regular pressbook. This auction contains BOTH the regular pressbook AND the exploitation section, which is just as rare (if not more rare) than the regular pressbook! Note that in December 2021, we were consigned a truly remarkable collection of pressbooks (the first 37 were auctioned in our December Major Auction, and the most expensive one sold for $17,500!). In our regular auctions since, we have auctioned hundreds more from this collection. Now we continue to auction more of these pressbooks, which is absolutely the finest collection of pressbooks we have ever auctioned. In this April Major Auction, we are auctioning 32 REALLY excellent and extremely rare ones, "the best of the best", mostly 11" x 15" or larger. Some of them were folded at one time, but they were stored unfolded for many years, so we left them unfolded, and unless the new owner requests otherwise, we will send them unfolded, because re-folding them would likely lessen the condition. These were collected decades ago, which was the only time that many of these could be found, and after these auctions are over it may be years (or decades!) before some of these are offered again. They ARE that rare! Note that pressbooks from the 1930s are almost never found in great condition, and some of them (especially those printed during World War II, including all the MGM ones from that time) are printed on newsprint, and are hard to find in even lesser condition. We have several images from each pressbook. We have given each an overall grade, and ask that you look at our images to get a good sense of the condition of that pressbook, because, since they have many pages, it would take forever to describe their condition in detail. However, EVERY one of these pressbooks is complete and uncut! Note that MGM, being the foremost studio of the 1930s felt they did not need to create wonderful posters for their movies, because they had so many top stars, so often their 1930s posters have simple artwork against a white background with a duotone photo of the top stars! However, they knew that they needed theater owners to book their movies, so they spent quite a bit more money on their pressbooks, often making them close to window card size, with an exact color recreation of the window card image on the cover of the pressbook, and the posters on the back cover in full color, and often a full-color sample herald, "tipped in" to the inside of one of the covers! However, they economized on the interior on these large pressbooks and used newsprint for the interior pages, which in almost every case has aged greatly and is fragile, if not brittle (see below for the exact condition of this pressbook). Condition: fair to good, NO CUTS. The pressbook is complete and uncut. However, the interiors of MGM pressbooks from this period were printed on a newsprint that was exactly like what was used in newspapers at that time, and it almost always ages terribly, resulting in incredibly brittle insides. The color covers were printed on a better paper, but they tend to chip around the edges. On this particular pressbook, the covers were separated down the spine and someone put staples down that area. The interior pages are extremely fragile. The exploitation section is printed on a much better paper and it is in pretty good condition. The pressbook had a tipped-in herald that is no longer present. You can view our multiple images of the covers and the interior pages that should give you a good sense of the pressbook's condition. Learn More about condition grades 
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