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Columbia Pictures 1932-1933, the 1932-33 Columbia Pictures campaign book, sent to theater owners to encourage them to show Columbia movies. The book includes 83 pages with mostly two-page spreads on Columbia's upcoming movies. Some of the movies promoted include American Madness (Frank Capra), Wheeler & Woolsey (title to be announced), Fury of the Jungle, Brief Moment (sexy Barbara Stanwyck!), No More Orchids (Carole Lombard), That's My Boy! (football), The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra), Child of Manhattan (written by Preston Sturges, identified as "Famous Playwright"!), The Dictator (Frank Capra), Speed Demon (car racing), Transcontinental Flyer (early airplanes!), Buck Jones ("8 Outdoor Productions"), OK America (great deco art!), and much more! Of special note is a two-page spread for Columbia cartoons, with a parade of their characters, naturally led by Mickey Mouse. There is also a separate full-page ad for Mickey Mouse (with pie-cut eyes!), plus a full-page ad for Walt Disney Silly Symphonies and a full-page ad for Krazy Kat, and another full-page ad for Scrappy. Note that many of the pages have signed artwork, by many different (quite talented) artists, including Michelson, Cardiff, Isip, Wynne Davies, R.W. Iligan, Schaeffer, and most of these artists have at least two or three different pieces in the book (Wynne Davies has at least six!). Note that, because Columbia at this time did not have the biggest name stars, they relied on movies with very lurid and sensational material, and they created images for this campaign book that are both extremely colorful and often downright sexy! We have included images of the covers of the book and thirteen of the two-page spreads (and we did not make a big effort to find the best ones!). THIS IS REALLY ONE OF THE NICEST CAMPAIGN BOOKS I HAVE SEEN IN TERMS OF ART! Many of the movies do not even have stars' names on them (because the stars were not that major at all, but Columbia made up for it with really fantastic art, and many of the ones that are not pictured are just as nice as the ones that ARE pictured!). We have included images of the cover of the book and fourteen of the two-page spreads (and we did not make a big effort to find the best ones!). Note that even though this campaign book was sent to many theater owners, it appears that very few examples have survived. I have been a collector of campaign books and related material for many years, and I know for certain that this campaign book is extremely rare! Note that studios almost always spent far more money preparing campaign books than they did preparing movie posters (often hiring very talented and well-known illustration artists), because campaign books directly benefited the studio in getting theaters to book the movies, whereas posters more benefited the theaters, rather than the studios (although of course, what was good for the theaters was ultimately good for the studios as well). Also note that, as was often the case with these campaign books, some of the movies advertised were either never made, had their titles changed before they were released, or were made with different casts than those announced in the campaign book (I do not have time to research the titles in this campaign book to see which had changed titles or were never made, but if anyone has more information about any of these, please e-mail us and we will post it here)! But I certainly know that Barbara Stanwyck did not make a movie called "Brief Moment", and Frank Capra did not make a movie called "The Dictator"! Finally, note that campaign books in general are extremely rare, and the best of them have often sold for hundreds of dollars, and in the case of the very finest, thousands of dollars!
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