eMoviePoster.com

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

Paramount Pictures 1934-35, the 1934 spiral-bound campaign book ("If it's a Paramount picture, it's the best show in town!"), sent to theater owners to encourage them to show Paramount movies. The book includes 63 pages with one and two-page spreads on Paramount's upcoming movies and stars, with many full-color portraits of their top stars. Some of the movies and stars advertised include Cleopatra (with Claudette Colbert), The Scarlet Empress (with Marlene Dietrich), Lives of a Bengal Lancer (with Gary Cooper), R.U.R. ("Rossum's Universal Robots", which was intended to be directed by Mitchell Leisen, but Paramount never made it), Mississippi (with W.C. Fields), Now and Forever (with Carole Lombard, Gary Cooper, and Shirley Temple), Ruggles of Red Gap (with Charles Laughton), and many more! There is a four-page section that advertises Paramount short subjects, with two great ads for Betty Boop and one for Popeye, plus much more! Note that, because Paramount at this time was one of the very leading studios, and had many of the biggest name stars and directors, and also had lots of money to spend, they made lots of great movies this year, and they also were proposing some unbelievable movies that never got made. It is interesting to note that this campaign book has more than one section about the "Stars of Tomorrow", up and coming actors that Paramount was hoping would turn into the next generation of big stars (probably the most notable of these is Fred MacMurray). We have included images of the cover of the book and eight of the interior pages (and we did not make a big effort to find the best ones, and we really wish we could have pictured them all!). 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! 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). This particular campaign book was made with a spiral binding, which allows the pages to be opened completely flat without damaging the book, which is a real plus! 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, sadly, this book is incomplete and has only 28 pages, whereas the complete book had 64 pages, so many pages are missing. In addition, someone cut out the Paramount logo from the bottom left of the cover (see our image). There are also many creases on the covers. One might purchase this book and sell the included ads separately, but please bear in mind its major defects before placing a bid.

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