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RKO Radio Pictures 1933-34, the 1933 campaign book sent to theater owners to encourage them to show RKO movies. The book includes 64 pages with one and two-page spreads on RKO's upcoming movies and their best stars. Some of the movies and stars promoted include "Son of Kong" (Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack, a wonderful 4-page ad with a 2-page fold-out with incredible art by Karl Godwin), "Flying Down to Rio" (a wonderful 2-page ad with an incredible art by Heyea with an airplane pop-up), "Morning Glory" (Katharine Hepburn & Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), "Green Mansions" (it was supposed to star Dolores Del Rio & Joel McCrea, and there is an incredible 2-page color ad showing McCrea spying on a completely nude Del Rio), "Wild Cargo" (Frank Buck), "Little Women" (Katharine Hepburn), "Of Human Bondage" (Leslie Howard), Ginger Rogers (posing in her lingerie as a "Man Slayer!"), Wheeler & Woolsey, and much more! Note that many of the pages have signed artwork, by many different (quite talented) artists, including (in addition to the two named above) Fredric C. Madan, Seaton, Widhoff, Berman, Cogton, and most of these artists have several different pieces in the book. Note that, because RKO 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 front cover of the book and many of the two-page spreads (but we wish we could have photographed the entire book, because there are so many great images!). THIS IS REALLY ONE OF THE BEST CAMPAIGN BOOKS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN TERMS OF ART (it is not quite as nice as some of the earlier RKO ones, because there is some black & white, but that is offset by having wonderful movies and stars)! We have only pictured a small portion of the book, but many of the ones that are not pictured are just as nice as the ones that ARE pictured!. 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)! 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!
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that this campaign book comes from a newly discovered collection of 15 campaign books, which we are auctioning in 15 individual auctions. They belonged to a man who was a poster artist for a specific theater in the early 1930s, and he would receive these campaign books and then take ideas for posters from them! This meant that sometimes he removed a specific ad or a specific page or pages, so several of these 15 have one or the other defect (or both), which is always clearly noted in the condition section below. While it is sad that they are not in perfect condition, one can also focus on the fact that it is wonderful that he saved these at all, when most theater owners and employees simply threw them out after the movies have played, which accounts for their extreme rarity. Note that not only was he active at a time when many great movies were released, but he also saved some of the books that had the absolute best art, as is immediately apparent when you look at the 15 pressbooks in this collection (in their separate auctions).

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