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The Universal Weekly ("The paper with a purpose"), the magazine published by Universal Studios, and sent each week to theaters in order to keep them informed about the latest Universal releases. It started publication around 1912, as "Universal Weekly", and each issue was solely devoted to Universal movies. Each issue measured approximately 8" x 10 1/2" and contained between 30 and 50 black & white pages, with covers printed in a single color (sometimes black and white, but often other colors). The issues of most interest to collectors are those from the early 1930s, as many of those contained ads and artwork for the major Universal horror movies of that period, and almost all of that material has not been seen since the original release of this publication. Many of these ads are very striking, as the studios spent a great deal of time and money creating them, for it was through these ads that the Universal Studios gained bookings for their upcoming releases, which was the direct income they received from those movies (by contrast, the posters they created helped theaters take in more money, but that did not directly benefit the studios, except when they owned the theaters, or if higher grosses resulted in more bookings). Note that these exhibitor magazines were ONLY sent to theater owners, and the general public never had a chance to buy them. But most theater owners treated them like old newspapers, throwing them away after the movies had played. Consequently, they are extremely rare, especially those from the 1920s and 1930s! Note that it is quite common for dealers to cut out the one or two-page horror ads and sell them by themselves, sometimes selling for $100 or more each! We do not, of course, recommend doing so, but we can't stop the buyers of these issues from cutting them up should they choose to do so! Note that we do not have the time to list the contents of each magazine we are selling, but we have pictured the cover, and, in most cases, an interior single page, and an interior 2-page spread. We tried to pick out some of the more interesting interior pages, but we did not spend much time doing so! Each issue has a huge amount of visual material, as well as much written material that cannot be found anywhere else, and we doubt that anyone buying any of these issues will be disappointed by their contents!

Important Added Info: Note that this was a time that Universal could not have horror movies to advertise, but they do have some really daring images with mostly nude women that certainly helped bring in the Production Code (see our images)!

Note that we have provided a picture of the front cover of the magazine, and also pictures of one or more interior two-page spreads (but we didn't make much effort to find the best ones!). These images should greatly help you judge the overall condition of the magazine. Please realize that sometimes there were only a few ads in each magazine, and sometimes quite a few, but that often the bulk of each magazine is taken up by stories about current productions and other information of interest to theater owners (and I don't know that this information can be found anywhere else or that it has been reproduced in any book since its first publication!). Please know that these magazines are sealed in bags and are ready for shipping, and we cannot answer any questions about them or look through them for you, so please bid (or do not bid) based on the images we have provided.

Note: We have 13 images of this magazine, but due to a space limitation, only TEN of the 13 images are displayed above. However, there is a "supersize" link to the right of those images that lets you see the other 3.

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Bruce Hershenson,
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