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Exhibitors Herald, one of the main trade magazines sent to movie theater owners in the 1920s (it was first published in 1915). In early 1928, this magazine was bought out by the leading magazine, Moving Picture World, and for a short time, publication continued with both names on the cover, but soon publication of this magazine ceased, and Moving Picture World became really massive, having the combined advertising from both publications. There were only a few issues published with both names. Each magazine measured approximately 9" x 12", and each contained around 70 pages. Each weekly issue would be filled with profusely illustrated articles about upcoming movies, statistics about box office grosses of current releases, and sometimes articles about coming developments in motion picture technology, and sometimes sections illustrating how theaters advertised current movies. Of greatest interest to collectors are the dozens of advertisements (most full-page) from all of the major studios! Many of these ads were full-color, and the studios spent a great deal of time and money creating them, for it was through these exhibitor magazines that the studios gained bookings for their upcoming releases, which was the direct income they received from those movies (by contrast, the posters they created helped theaters take in more money, but that did not directly benefit the studios, except when they owned the theaters, or if higher grosses resulted in more bookings). Note that these exhibitor magazines were ONLY sent to theater owners, and the general public never had a chance to buy them. But most theater owners treated them like old newspapers, throwing them away after the movies had played. Consequently, they are extremely rare, especially those from the 1920s and 1930s! Note that we do not have the time to list the contents of each magazine we are selling, but we have pictured the cover, and, in most cases, an interior single page, and an interior 2-page spread. We tried to pick out some of the more interesting interior pages, but we did not spend much time doing so! Each of these magazines, which were NOT printed on newsprint, and were printed on quality paper, is packed with very interesting visual and written material, almost all of which has not been seen since the date the magazine was published. We doubt anyone who buys these magazines will be disappointed by the content!. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

Important Added Info: Note that we have NEVER before auctioned the "standalone" campaign book version of this 1926-27 First National Pictures campaign book!

IMPORTANT! The studios would send copies of campaign books to many theater owners, and it appears that very few examples have survived. IN ADDITION TO SENDING THEM TO THEATER OWNERS, THEY WOULD SOMETIMES HAVE AN EXTRA PRINT RUN OF THE INTERIOR PAGES RUN OFF, WHICH WOULD BE THEN SENT TO AN EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE AND INCLUDED AS AN ADDITION TO A REGULAR ISSUE OF THAT MAGAZINE! I have seen many examples where people carefully removed ALL of the portions of the magazine (the front and back cover plus the non-campaign book interior pages), and they have then sold the remaining material as a "campaign book", which it basically is (and could be done with this magazine!), but realize that it is from the over-run that was created so that it could be included in the magazine. Please do not bid on this item unless you have read the above very carefully, and realize you are getting a magazine containing a campaign book, and not the bound campaign book that was created in a separate print run (and of course, you are receiving more material than just the campaign book!). In the case of this magazine, it contains the First National Pictures 1926-27, the 1926 campaign book, sent to theater owners to encourage them to show First National movies. The book includes many pages with one and two-page spreads on First National's upcoming movies. Some of the movies and stars advertised include Colleen Moore in Twinkletoes, Norma and Constance Talmadge, Richard Barthelmess in The Amateur Gentleman, Harry Langdon, Subway Sadie, The Crystal Cup, The Daring Venus, Hell's Kitchen, and many, many more. Note that, because First National at this time wanted to be one of the leading studios (and they were going to become much bigger when they would soon merge with Warner Bros.!), and they created really wonderful artwork campaigns for their upcoming movies in this campaign book! We have included images of the cover of the book and many of the two-page spreads (and we did not make a big effort to find the best ones!). I have seen many examples where people carefully removed ALL of the portions of the magazine (the front and back cover plus the non-campaign book interior pages), and they have then sold the remaining material as a "campaign book", which it basically is (and could be done with this magazine!), but realize that it is from the over-run that was created so that it could be included in the magazine. Please do not bid on this item unless you have read the above very carefully, and realize you are getting a magazine containing a campaign book, and not the bound campaign book that was created in a separate print run (and of course, you are receiving more material than just the campaign book!).

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Bruce Hershenson,
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