Published by Primary Source Microfilm

Previous Title: Mass Communications and Twentieth Century Culture

Cinema is one of the leading art forms of the 20th century. Recent years have seen an exciting and rapid growth in the study of cinema history, but sources for such study are extremely scarce. This collection offers essential information on individual films and their creation and promotion; suggests the rise and fall of particular stars, directors and producers; and enables detailed research into the output of the leading Hollywood studios.

Pressbooks are a basic background source. Posters and still reproductions, publicity blurbs, actor biographies and full technical and promotional details are included in pressbooks--the publicity kit sent with a film print to all distributors. Pressbooks of the major companies thus form a unique and detailed record of the transition from silent movies to talkies and of the golden years of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s.

Warner Bros. is renowned as the pioneer of talking pictures, with its production of the classic "The Jazz Singer" in 1927. Warner was also a key producer of musicals, including "42nd Street" (1933) and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) featuring stars such as Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. Warner totally dominated the gangster and detective movie genre. Promotion campaigns of many of the most famous Hollywood movies are covered in the Warner pressbooks.

The pressbooks of the United Artists (UA) contain a wealth of detail on many important films and their creators. Founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin and D.W. Griffith (prompting the cry -- "the inmates are taking over the asylum") UA made some of the finest movies of the 20th century, as well as distributing films for independent producers. The UA pressbooks also illustrate contributions made by major figures such as Joseph M. Schenck and Sam Goldwyn.

Monogram Pictures pressbooks complement those of the two major film producers--Warner Brothers and United Artists. Charlie Chan and the Dead End Kids guarantee Monogram's place in cinema history. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Frankie Darro worked extensively with this studio. The pressbooks reproduced here are from original studio archives.

A guide accompanies the collection, providing access by role, date or principals (actors/directors).

Section A: The Pressbooks for United Artists, 1919-1949; Warner Bros., 1922-1949; and Monogram Pictures, 1937-1945
19 reels

Section B: The Pressbooks for United Artists, 1919-1949; Warner Bros., 1922-1949; and Monogram Pictures, 1937-1945
19 reels

Complete Collection: 38 reels