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Auction History Result 3y344 SPARTACUS 12x15 exhibitor's kit '61 w/ pressbook, ad sheets, book, order form & more, rare! Date Sold 1/17/2017 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Movie Exhibitor's Kit (measures 11 3/4" x 15"; contains a pressbook, souvenir program book, accessories order form, and a letter; see below) (Learn More) Spartacus, the classic 1960 Stanley Kubrick sword-and-sandal Ancient Wars gladiator sports action adventure epic ("Winner of 4 Academy Awards!"; "They trained him to kill for their pleasure... But they trained him a little too well..."; "A mighty motion picture!"; "Based on the novel by Howard Fast"; written by Dalton Trumbo) starring Kirk Douglas (in the title role as Spartacus), Laurence Olivier (as Crassus, who liked both oysters and snails, or was it truffles and artichokes?), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton (as Gracchus), Peter Ustinov (winner of the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film), Woody Strode (as Draba), Tony Curtis ("as Antoninus"), John Gavin (as Julius Caesar), Charles McGraw (as the gladiator trainer), and Herbert Lom. Note that Kirk Douglas was the producer of this movie and originally Anthony Mann was directing. But three weeks into filming, Douglas fired Mann and replaced him with Stanley Kubrick, who then fired Sabine Bethmann, who had been the female lead, and replaced her with Jean Simmons! Also note that Dalton Trumbo had been blacklisted during the HUAAC hearings in the early 1950s, and he was still blacklisted at this time, so he was not going to receive screen credit. Kubrick heard this and wanted to be given the screenwriter credit (since someone had to be credited), but producer Douglas courageously insisted on Trumbo receiving the credit on screen, which effectively ended the blacklist! NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Important Added Info: Note that this is a REALLY cool exhibitor kit that we have never had before. It consists of a 11 3/4" x 15" folder with Saul Bass art along the bottom and different art that we have never seen before above the title that could also be Saul Bass, but we don't know. The folder has two flaps inside and contained within it is a copy of the 1961 "post Academy Awards" pressbook and the hardcover program book. It also contains a letter (on "Spartacus" stationery) from "Herman Kass", the executive in charge of exploitation, and the letter is attached to ten 10 3/4" x 14 1/4" single-sided sheets, each of which is filled with small newspaper ads to be used when the theater showed the movie. Separately, there are five loose pages the same size, with many small photographic scenes from the movie and of the stars, and each of those are lettered and numbered, and paper clipped to those are three stapled 8 1/2" x 14" sheets, which give captions for those images. Finally, there is a "Spartacus Accessories Home Office Order Form", which measures 8 1/2" x 11", and which gives a list of 25 unusual items which could be purchased, along with the cost per item (most of these are items we have never seen, and we don't know that any exist). There are three different items that are sketches by "Reynolds Brown" (sic!). We can't imagine that virtually any of these exhibitor kits survive! Condition: good to very good. The folder is tattered around the edges, with many small tears and just a few small areas of paper loss. The pressbook has many cuts scattered throughout, with one on the front cover, but none on the back cover. Of course, the pressbook would be the easiest item to replace, as that is something we have seen many times, but the rest of the items (except for the book) in this ultra rare kit we have not seen at all! Learn More about condition grades 
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