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Motion Picture News ("The Exhibitors' Medium of Communication"; "Motion Picture News has the quality circulation of the trade"), one of the many trade magazines sent to movie theater owners starting in the early 1910s (it was very similar to Moving Picture World, which apparently was its main competitor in the 1910s). We don't know when this magazine began publication or when it ceased, because issues of it are incredibly rare! Each magazine measured approximately 9" x 12", and each contained many pages. 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. Of greatest interest to collectors are the dozens of advertisements (most full-page) from all of the major studios! The studios spent a great deal of time and money creating the ads, 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! Note that there are two differences between this magazine and Moving Picture World. One is that the ads are almost all in black & white, and that the ads are more separated from the editorial content of the magazine. If anyone knows more about this magazine, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

Important Added Info: NOTE THAT IN THE 1920S AND 1930S, STUDIOS WOULD SOMETIMES "OVERRUN" THEIR ELABORATE STUDIO YEARBOOKS AND HAVE THEM INSERTED INTO EXHIBITOR MAGAZINES (like this one). THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE SEPARATELY BOUND YEARBOOKS, EXCEPT THEY ARE MISSING THE OUTER COVER. BUT OFTEN, THESE MAGAZINES SELL FOR FAR LESS THAN THE YEARBOOK, WHICH DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, BECAUSE THEY ARE IDENTICAL, AND WITH THIS, YOU GET THE REST OF THE MAGAZINE AS WELL! IN THE CASE OF THIS MAGAZINE, IT IS THE ENTIRE UNIVERSAL 1930/31 STUDIO YEARBOOK, WHICH IS INCLUDED (see our images). This is a campaign book I have searched for over 30 years! Why this particular one? Because in early 1931, Universal made "Dracula", and I have always heard that there is an ad for it in the 1930/31 yearbook, which promotes Lon Chaney as Dracula, but I have never been able to find an example of this. Now, this magazine surfaces with what appears to be this yearbook bound into it, but there is a page that has been torn out of it! I would have to imagine that there is a wonderful chance that the missing page might have shown the Dracula ad, but unless someone finds another example of this magazine, I won't know! So the search continues. But there is the rest of the 1930/31 yearbook, which includes an ad for All Quiet on the Western Front, King of Jazz, White Hell of Pitz Palu, and an ad for Oswald the Rabbit, with great cartoon art of him (see our many images).

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