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Auction History Result 3f0283 AT THE CIRCUS pressbook 1939 Marx Brothers, Groucho, Chico, Harpo, includes herald, rare! Date Sold 11/22/2022 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Movie Pressbook (pb; measures 14" x 20" [36 x 51 cm]; 21 pages). Also included is a herald that has 4 pages. (Learn More) At the Circus, the 1939 Edward Buzzell musical circus screwball comedy ("Keep the world laughing!") starring The Marx Brothers (Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx), Kenny Baker, Florence Rice, Eve Arden, Margaret Dumont, Nat Pendleton, Fritz Feld, and Charles Gemora (as Gibraltar the gorilla). Note that this was the movie where the Marx Brothers sing the song "Lydia the Tattooed Lady"! Also note that MGM initially was going to call this movie "A Day at the Circus" (to capitalize on the success of "A Day at the Races"), but that title was dropped (although it is on a few stills). There was a working title of "Marx Bros At the Circus" that is also on some stills, but not the 1939 posters or lobby cards. To make things confusing, when MGM re-released the movie in 1962, the advertising made it look like the title of the movie was "Marx Bros At the Circus". NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Important Added Info: Note that we have only previously auctioned one example of this pressbook! Note that in December 2021, we were consigned a truly remarkable collection of pressbooks (the first 37 were auctioned in our December Major Auction, and the most expensive one sold for $17,500!). In our regular auctions since, we have auctioned hundreds more from this collection. Now we continue to auction more of these pressbooks, which is absolutely the finest collection of pressbooks we have ever been consigned. In this set of auctions, most of the ones we are auctioning are larger pressbooks, mostly 11" x 15" or larger. Some of them were folded at one time, but they were stored unfolded for many years, so we left them unfolded, and unless the new owner requests otherwise, we will send them unfolded, because re-folding them would likely lessen the condition. Many of these are ones we have either never auctioned before or only once auctioned before, sometimes many years ago. These were collected decades ago, which was the only time that many of these could be found, and after these auctions are over it may be years (or decades!) before some of these are offered again. They ARE that rare! Note that pressbooks from the 1930s are almost never found in great condition, and some of them (especially those printed during World War II, including all the MGM ones from that time) are printed on newsprint, and are hard to find in even lesser condition. We have several images from each pressbook. We have given each an overall grade, and ask that you look at our images to get a good sense of the condition of that pressbook, because, since they have many pages, it would take forever to describe their condition in detail. However, EVERY one of these pressbooks is complete and uncut! Note that in the mid 1930s (until at least 1940), MGM spent quite a bit more money on their pressbooks, often making them close to window card size, with an exact color recreation of the window card image on the cover of the pressbook, and the posters on the back cover in full color, and often a full-color sample herald, "tipped in" to the inside of one of the covers! However, starting in 1938, they apparently had great paper shortages already, and they economized on their pressbooks by eliminating the color covers and using newsprint for the entire pressbook, which in almost every case has aged greatly and is fragile, if not brittle (see below for the exact condition of this pressbook). After they made these pressbooks, starting in 1941, they economized even more and made their pressbooks even smaller, and this did not change until well after World War II, when they finally regained access to quality paper! Note: We have 15 images of this pressbook, 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. Condition: fair to good, NO CUTS. The pressbook is complete and uncut. However, all of the pages of each MGM pressbook from this period were printed on a newsprint that was exactly like what was used in newspapers at that time (see above), and it almost always ages terribly, resulting in incredibly brittle insides. This particular pressbook is extremely fragile and has darkening, tears, and paper loss around the edges. The extremely rare herald that is included has a 4" tear in the upper right of the front and back covers. Learn More about condition grades 
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