eMoviePoster.com

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Moving Picture World ("The Organ of the Photoplay and Allied Interests"), one of the main trade magazines sent to movie theater owners starting in the early 1900s, when movies were in their infancy ("Founded in 1907 by J.P. Chalmers"). Each magazine measured approximately 9" x 12", and each contained many pages (in the early years, issues would range from 50 to 100 pages, and in their peak years, issues could be 150 to 200 pages, and sometimes even more!). Each weekly issue would be filled with profusely illustrated articles about upcoming movies, statistics about box office grosses of current releases, and sometimes articles about coming developments in motion picture technology, and sometimes sections illustrating how theaters advertised current movies (every issue of this magazine in the 1920s has a great section called "Selling the Picture to the Public", which shows lots of images of theater fronts and theater windows, and other great information about how theaters advertised movies in those years, and sometimes this section is a dozen or more pages!) Of greatest interest to collectors are the dozens of advertisements (most full-page) from all of the major studios! Many of these ads were full-color, and the studios spent a great deal of time and money creating them, for it was through these exhibitor magazines that the 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 we do not have the time to list the contents of each magazine we are selling (this magazine does not have a "table of contents", and of course, the most interesting part of the magazine is the great illustrated ads), but we have pictured the cover, and several interior 2-page spreads. Each of these magazines, which were NOT printed on newsprint, and were printed on quality paper, is packed with very interesting visual and written material, almost all of which has not been seen since the date the magazine was published. We doubt anyone who buys these magazines will be disappointed by the content!

Important Added Info: Note that this is an incredible issue! It appears to be some sort of special issue, but we could not find a reference to what it is exactly, but it has way more pages than usual (206), and it has lots of really cool articles, including one that is called "Publicity - What Is It?" and another called "Campaign Books for Motion Pictures", which explains about the value of pressbooks! There are also tons of great ads, including ones for the best movies of that time. 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 there were only a few ads in each magazine, and that 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.

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