eMoviePoster.com

What are the objects in the corners of some images? Learn More

Fox 1930-31, the 1930 campaign book sent to theater owners to encourage them to show their new movies. The book includes many pages with one and two-page spreads on Fox's upcoming movies, ALL with sensational art! What is fascinating about this book is that Fox had three of the greatest stars ever under contract at this time, and they let all three slip away! One was Humphrey Bogart, one was Paul Muni, and the third was John Wayne! To be fair to Fox, Bogart and Wayne were given a chance and were not very successful, but it is amazing that a studio could let all three of these slip away! Some of the other movies and stars advertised include Up the River (Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy), Sez You, Sez Me (which was re-titled and became Bogart's first movie, "A Devil With Women"), The Big Trail (John Wayne, who is pictured!), The Cisco Kid (Warner Baxter), Just Imagine, A Connecticut Yankee (Will Rogers), Soup to Nuts (which had The Three Stooges, but they are not pictured, although Ted Healy is), and much, much more! There is a section in the back with images of their many stars, and there is a text page that gives those stars upcoming movies, and under John Wayne, they list The Big Trail, No Favors Asked, and Wyoming Wonder, but the last two movies were canceled after the dismal response to The Big Trail! We have included images of the covers of the book and three of the two-page spreads (and we did not make a big effort to find the best ones!). THE ARTWORK IN THIS CAMPAIGN BOOK IS SOME OF THE ABSOLUTE FINEST OF ANY CAMPAIGN BOOK I HAVE EVER SEEN! 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! 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)! 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). 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 we have only previously auctioned one example of this campaign book, and it sold for $415!

Note: We have 15 images of this campaign book, but due to a space limitation, only TEN of the 15 images are displayed above. However, there is a "supersize" link to the right of those images that lets you see the other 5.

Our address for UPS or FedEx only is:
Bruce Hershenson,
306 Washington Avenue, West Plains, MO 65775