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Dead End, the classic 1937 William Wyler New York City poor-people-in-the-slums-living-side-by-side-with-rich-people crime thriller ("Drama that roars fullblooded from the screen"; "As human as life itself... as dramatic as primal passions... there's never been a motion picture life this! A city street... paved with riches and poverty, comedy and tragedy, romance and heartaches,... time that ticks its way to eternity, punctuated by birth, life and death... a block that end at the river's edge, where frustration lives, yet hope never dies! You may not like these people, nor pity them, but you'll never forget this picture!"; "Based on the play by Sidney Kingsley"; nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award; written by Lillian Hellman; about New York City slum children interacting with rich people, and there is a major subplot about a famous killer coming home to visit his mother and former girlfriend!) starring Sylvia Sidney ("Drina... the girl who wanted an 'out' but who wouldn't sell her soul!"), Joel McCrea ("Dave... who wanted to rip down the tenements instead of living in them!"), Humphrey Bogart ("Baby Face... whose mother was sorry she brought him into the world!"), Wendy Barrie ("Kay... who found her 'out' and wouldn't go back... even for love"), Marjorie Main (as Bogart's mother who rejects him), The Dead End Kids (Billy Hallop, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, and Bernard Punsly, in their very first movie!; billed as "The Dead End Kids from the original New York stage cast"; "Tommy, Leo, Angel, Dippy and Spit, played by the children who were the sensation of the New York stage play!"), Claire Trevor ("Francey... who took the 'easiest' way... and found it the hardest!"; nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film; as Bogart's ex-girlfriend, now a prostitute), Allen Jenkins ("Hunk... Baby Face's henchman who met his doom when shadows deepened!"), and Ward Bond (as the doorman!)
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that we have only previously auctioned two examples of this first release pressbook, and the last one was 8 years ago, when it sold for $701! Also note that this is one of a remarkable collection of 47 mostly United Artists pressbooks (mostly from the 1930s) that came from the collection of a very longtime collector who recently passed away. Pressbooks like these are almost all incredibly rare and almost never change hands. This is a wonderful opportunity to obtain one or more of these extremely rare pressbooks, all of which are uncut, and several of them have rare supplements or heralds (and if they do, that is noted above).

Note that the studio was probably afraid of how widespread the appeal would be for this movie that centered around slum kids and hoodlums, so they hedged their bets in pitching it to theaters by presenting it as a movie about "3 Women", even though this was incredibly deceptive (see the cover of the pressbook for this odd ad campaign). Also note that when studios would prepare pressbooks they would often include a sample of the herald. Most often, the herald is no longer still with the pressbook. Sometimes, the herald by itself will sell for almost as much as the rest of the entire pressbook! This pressbook contains the original herald which is pictured next to the pressbook below. Also note that pressbooks were prepared prior to a movie being released. Often, changes would be made in a movie advertising campaign (billing of actors, different images, etc.), and the theaters would print up special supplements that they would send out with the pressbooks that had already been printed. These supplements are very rare, far more rare than the pressbooks themselves! Some pressbooks would have no supplements, some would have one, and some would have several. Almost every Academy Award winning movie would have a special "Academy Award winner" supplement. Also note that we have provided an image of the front and back covers of this pressbook, and of course, the winner of this auction will receive the entire single pressbook we are auctioning (plus any supplements or heralds described above)! Also note that this pressbook is complete and uncut! Given that theater owners purchased pressbooks partly in order to create their newspaper advertising, and quite frequently cut them up for that purpose, it is rare to find a pressbook that IS complete and uncut!

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Bruce Hershenson,
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