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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: IMPORTANT! The studios would send copies of campaign books to many theater owners, and it appears that very few examples have survived. IN ADDITION TO SENDING THEM TO THEATER OWNERS, THEY WOULD SOMETIMES HAVE AN EXTRA PRINT RUN OF THE INTERIOR PAGES RUN OFF, WHICH WOULD BE THEN SENT TO AN EXHIBITOR MAGAZINE AND INCLUDED AS AN ADDITION TO A REGULAR ISSUE OF THAT MAGAZINE! I have seen many examples where people carefully removed ALL of the portions of the magazine (the front and back cover plus the non-campaign book interior pages), and they have then sold the remaining material as a "campaign book", which it basically is (and could be done with this magazine!), but realize that it is from the over-run that was created so that it could be included in the magazine. Please do not bid on this item unless you have read the above very carefully, and realize you are getting a magazine containing a campaign book, and not the bound campaign book that was created in a separate print run (and of course, you are receiving more material than just the campaign book!). In the case of this magazine, it contains the Paramount 15th Birthday Group campaign book, sent to theater owners to encourage them to show Paramount movies. The book includes many pages with one and two-page spreads on Paramount's upcoming movies. Some of the movies listed include "Metropolis" (Fritz Lang's masterpiece, which Paramount co-produced with Germany's UFA, which is why it is advertised here; interestingly, Paramount would also include an ad for Metropolis in their 1927-28 campaign book, and that ad is a completely different full-color ad from this one!), "Aloma of the South Seas", "Fine Manners" (Gloria Swanson), "Harold Lloyd" (titles to be announced), "Glorfying the American Girl" (Ziegfeld), "New York", "Old Ironsides", "The College Flirt" (Bebe Daniels), "The Show Off" (Louise Brooks), "Casey at the Bat", "The Mysterious Rider" (Zane Grey), "Sorrows of Satan" (D.W. Griffith), "The Quarterback" (Richard Dix), "The Wedding March" (Erich von Stroheim), "So's Your Old Man" and "The Wild Man of Borneo" (W.C. Fields), "The Greatest Show on Earth" (P.T. Barnum), "Beau Geste", and many more! Note that many of the pages have signed artwork, by many different (quite talented) artists (and the art for "Glorifying the American Girl" is by legendary pinup Alberto Vargas, and it is signed "Albert Vargas"). 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 created really wonderful artwork campaigns for them in this campaign book! We have included images of the cover of the book and many of the two-page spreads (and we did not make a big effort to find the best ones!). 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! I have seen many examples of exhibitor magazines like this where people carefully removed ALL of the portions of the magazine (the front and back cover plus the non-campaign book interior pages), and they have then sold the remaining material as a "campaign book", which it basically is (and could be done with this magazine!), but realize that it is from the over-run that was created so that it could be included in the magazine. Please do not bid on this item unless you have read the above very carefully, and realize you are getting a magazine containing a campaign book, and not the bound campaign book that was created in a separate print run (and of course, you are receiving more material than just the campaign book!). Finally, note that Paramount ran this campaign book in this magazine (Motion Picture News) on April 17, 1926, and we have never auctioned this exhibitor magazine before, but we DID previously auction the April 17, 1926 issue of Exhibitors Herald, which did include this same Paramount campaign book!

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