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Ekstase (released in the U.S. in 1936 as "Ecstasy"), the 1933 Gustav Machaty Austrian/Czechoslovakian romantic melodrama ("Now! It can be shown!"; "The Most Talked of Picture in the World Today!"; "International prize winning motion picture"; "The most whispered about picture in the world..."; "A Bold Story of a Delicate Subject!"; "The Stark Naked Truth of a Woman's Desire for Love!"; "Daring! Revealing! Shocking!"; "Filmed in secrecy!"; "The naked truth of a woman's emotions laid bare!"; "Recommended for adults only!"; "When a woman's love is fulfilled!") starring Hedy Lamarr (billed as "Hedy Kiesler", which was her real name!), Aribert Mog, Zvonimir Rogoz, Leopold Kramer, Emil Jerman, and Pierre Nay. Note that Hedy Lamarr had made four previous movies in her native Austria before she appeared nude in this, her fifth movie, and created a worldwide sensation! She married a rich German manufacturer, who attempted to buy up all the prints of the movie, to no avail. In 1937, she divorced her husband and moved to Hollywood, where she was renamed Hedy Lamarr, and she immediately became a major star. She lived a long and eventful life, and entire books can (and have) been filled with her exploits! In 1940, when she was a major Hollywood star, "Ecstasy" was shown throughout the United States, mostly in midnight shows, and it continued to be shown throughout the 1940s and early 1950s in limited releases around the country. Some posters survive from some of those showings, but next-to-no original 1933 posters from any country are known to exist (because we are likely to never have first release posters, we have included the taglines from the re-releases in our description above, which we normally do not do).
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that nowhere in this pressbook is Hedy Lamarr referred to by her new name, and it seems that if the pressbook was from after she began making Hollywood films, they would surely have referred to her as Hedy Lamarr. There are many references to the recent Supreme Court decision allowing the movie to be shown in the U.S., and one of them is dated 1935, so we think this pressbook is from either that year or early 1936. We know the movie was banned in New York at this time, and one of the ads specifically mentions that it won't be shown in New York. Also, the distributor, Jewel Productions, was also the distributor of a 1933 exploitation movie called "Forgotten Men", so it certainly fits that they would have released this in 1935. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here. Also note that we have provided an image of the front and back covers of this pressbook (if the back cover is not the poster page, we photographed the interior poster page), 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 received 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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