Sunday, August 6, 2017

Some more snapshots and scans of my photoplay book collection

My last post, featuring some snapshots and scans of my photoplay book collection, was so well received that I decided to reprise it with some more images. This is a visual bouquet, but I will add a few comments here and there.

These first four images of various book spines all contain some interesting detail, like the swastika symbol on The Squaw Man, the portrait of director Rex Ingram on the Scaramouch, the three movie stars on Imitation of Life, and the notation of "Billie Burke Edition" on The Mind the Paint Girl.



This book, Tess of the Storm Country, is not a photoplay edition, just an old illustrated book. BUT, it is signed by the author and the star of the film made from the book. That makes it unusual. To me, it is curious that this book was signed and dated three years after the film was made. I haven't been able to track down anything on "John A Thomas".



Here are a bunch of attractive covers from some swell films. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea describes itself as a special "Submarine Edition."
 







I am especially pleased to have found a number of small press books, or books not published by Grosset & Dunlap or A.L. Burt, the usual publisher of photoplay books. Here are some examples.







And then there are these cherished Baby Peggy books. I adore this diminutive actress and her films, and am honored to know her. And yes, she did autograph my books.



Here are a few that caught my eye when I found them. Chances are I purchased these in some old dusty bookshop, or from Emil Petaja, who sold off much of his collection long before I got to it. The "Photo Drama Edition" of The Eagle's Mate (pictured below) has an illustrated binding as well as pictorial end papers. Nifty! 




And here are some other favorites. Besides Thomas Hardy, I also have a couple of Willa Cather and Edith Frome photoplay editions.





I will end with this pic of three softcover photoplay editions (published by Jacobsen Hodgkinson), followed by two in the "Little Big" series (published by the Saalfield Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio).


p.s. A few years back, I mounted an exhibit of some of my film related books at the San Francisco Public Library. The exhibit was called "Reading the Stars," and I wrote about it on the San Francisco Chronicle website, SFGate. Check out my article HERE. It contains a few more nifty illustrations.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Some snapshots and scans of my photoplay book collection

Having recently moved, I have finally had the chance to get all of my photoplay editions out of boxes and onto some shelves. And here they are....


I am keeping my Louise Brooks related photoplays (Beggars of Life, Canary Murder Case, and others) with my Louise Brooks related books, which constitute two other bookcases. Perhaps sometime in the future I will snap a picture or two of those cases.


I am note sure how many I have, but while shelving I did uncover a few duplicates which I plan to sell. That should reduce the collection.... My collection is organized by film title (not book title, which sometimes appears on the spine). Along with the Brooks-related titles, I also have a few John Gilbert and Greta Garbo and Clara Bow and Eric von Stroheim photoplays, as well as a number in dust jacket (a scarce thing, and the determining factor in a book's value). A number of my prize possessions came from the collection of the late collector Emil Petaja (who was a dear friend). Emil also authored the first ever book on the subject, Photoplay Edition, back in 1975). I have Emil to "blame" for my interest in this genre.

Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on Photoplay editions, which I wrote a few years back:

Photoplay edition refers to movie tie-in books of the silent film and early sound era at a time when motion pictures were known as "photoplays". Typically, photoplay editions were reprints of novels additionally illustrated with scenes from a film production. Less typically, photoplay editions were novelizations of films, where the film script was fictionalized in narrative form. Today, vintage photoplay editions are sought after by film buffs, bibliophiles, and collectors.
The first photoplay editions were published around 1912, and as a genre, they reached their height in the 1920s and 1930s. Thousands of different titles were issued in the United States. Most photoplays were published in hardback by companies like Grosset & Dunlap or A.L. Burt, and some in soft cover by companies like Jacobsen Hodgkinson. Similar movie related books were also published in England, France and elsewhere.

Typically, photoplay editions of the 1920s and 1930s contained stills and/or a dust jacket featuring artwork or actors from a film. Deluxe editions might also contain a special binding, illustrated end papers, or rarely, a written introduction by the star of the film. Sometimes, the spine or cover of the book will note the edition is a "photoplay edition."

Illustrated movie tie-in books continued to be published though the 1940s, 1950s, and into the 1960s. Today, novels published in conjunction with the release of a film will often feature an actor or actress on the cover of the book, but without the interior illustrations.

Today, the most sought after photoplays are those tie-in editions for favorite films such as Dracula, Frankenstein and King Kong, or lost films such as London After Midnight. Other collectors search for books featuring individuals stars, like Louise Brooks or Rudolph Valentino. Published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1927, The General is today one of the most sought after of photoplay books. Not only did the Joseph Warren novel make its first appearance in print as a photoplay, but the book is the only photoplay edition to feature film star Buster Keaton.

Among the highlights of my collection are a handful of autographed photoplay editions including books signed by Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, and Baby Peggy. I also have a handful of variants. For example, I have three different photoplay editions of Under Two Flags (different formats and bindings and endpapers), and two different editions of The Virginian (both the 1923 silent and the 1929 talkie with Gary Cooper).

I have a few petite English hardcover photoplays of American films, some French softcover photoplays of American films, and a scarce German copy of Fritz Lang's Das Nibelungen. One of the oddest books is also one of the most recent issued in my collection. I have a 1982 softcover edition of The Story of Gosta Berling with Garbo on the cover. (The book, which may or may not be a pirated edition, is in English but may have been printed in Sweden?) When I asked the acclaimed poet Robert Bly to sign this copy -- he translated Selma Lagerlof's novel -- he exclaimed that he had never seen this edition before and wondered about its origin. Nevertheless, he was gracious enough to sign my copy.

Most of my collection focuses on the silent era. However, I also have a few photoplays of early talkies. How could I resist a photoplay with a youthful Barbara Stanwyck on the cover? Among the oddest sound-era titles is Her Unborn Child, the novelization of the 1930 Windsor Talking Picture film. (The book was issued by the equally obscure World Wide Publishing Company.) The film was subject to controversy and censorship, as it deals with premarital pregnancy. The film also marked the film debut of Elisha Cook, Jr., who is listed in the cast at the beginning of the book.

I am especially proud of my small collection of softcover books published Jacobsen Hodgkinson. Printed on pulpy paper, these hybrid books / magazines are especially fragile. I have a couple dozen of them which can be seen in the images below. Another fragile sub-genre were the children's photoplays published by companies best known for making board games: I have a couple of deluxe hardcover photoplays published by the Milton Bradley Company featuring stars Madge Bellamy (Lorna Doone) and Miriam Cooper (Evangeline). Another nifty kids-related photoplay which I own is Little Robinson Crusoe, starring Jackie Coogan and published by the Charles Renard Company in 1925. Here are a couple of scans which suggest why I adore these old books.




I have always collected on a budget, so don't own anything especially valuable. I collect according to my interest in the silent era, especially its forgotten corners. Another unusual title, the brown cloth hardback seen below, is titled Little Stories from the Screen. It is a 1917 collection of illustrated short stories which were turned into films. Among them is actor House Peters, Sr. as the "Cave Man" in The Heir of the Ages. Such unusualness is why I collect such books. They reveal the unusualness of the silent film era.



p.s. A few years back, I mounted an exhibit of some of my film related books at the San Francisco Public Library. The exhibit was called "Reading the Stars," and I wrote about it on the San Francisco Chronicle website, SFGate. Check out my article HERE. It contains a few more nifty illustrations.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

In celebration of Stuart Oderman (1940-2017)

As I type this blog, I am listening to one of my very favorite film soundtracks - Stuart Oderman's piano accompaniment to Pandora's Box. It was Oderman's exceptional, moving, romantic pastiche of classical piano music that helped me fall in love with Louise Brooks - and helped open up a world of music by the likes of Debussy, Satie, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and others. Thank you Stuart Oderman. I owe you.

Back in the late 1990's, I was so desperate to re-enter Oderman's moving score that I made a tape cassette recording of the VHS soundtrack by placing my recorder next to the TV set. Despite its limitations, I have played it many times since -- almost to the point of it wearing out. Admittedly, it was a crude recording, and the fidelity was poor. And once, when I enthusiastically played it for a friend, a pianist, I could sense the look on their face was one of bewilderment. They likely only heard musical noise. I heard scenes from the film.

Stuart Oderman, one of the finest silent film accompanists, died on July 28 at the age of 77. The Louise Brooks Society mourns his passing.

Oderman was many things. Besides a pianist, he was also a writer and film historian. Oderman was the author of five books, including ones on Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Lillian Gish, and the Keystone Cops.

He also authored two volumes of memoirs called Talking to the Piano Player. The first volume includes interviews with some of the most important people of a bygone film era: Marlene Dietrich, Frank Capra, Colleen Moore, Jackie Coogan, Madge Bellamy, Aileen Pringle, Allan Dwan, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Anita Loos, Leatrice Joy, Dorothy Davenport (Mrs. Wallace) Reid, Patsy Ruth Miller, Ann Pennington, Claire Windsor, Betty Bronson, Minta Durfee,  Lois Wilson and Constance Talmadge.The second volume featured interviews with Artie Shaw, Lita Grey, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Harry Richman, Veronica Lake, Marie Windsor, Joan Blondell, Gloria DeHaven, and Tallulah Bankhead

Significantly, for more than 53 years, Oderman accompanied and composed music for silent films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, as well as at theaters, museums and universities across the United States, Canada, and Greece. His scores appear on VHS / DVD releases of Pandora's Box, the Charlie Chaplin documentary The Eternal Tramp, and the Harry Houdini film, The Master Mystery.

Television audiences may be familiar with his Laurel and Hardy series, and his work for the Comedy Channel.

Oderman came to his calling in a special way. While still in high school, the young movie buff used to cut classes in order to see silent films playing locally. In 1954, he snuck off to the Museum of Modern Art in New York to see the Lillian Gish film Broken Blossoms.

A lady sitting next to him took notice and said, "You belong in school." His response was, "I want to play piano for silent films." The woman turned out to be Gish. She took him by the hand down to the piano, Oderman later recounted, and introduced him to Arthur Kleiner, the celebrated silent film pianist.

Kleiner became his teacher and Gish his point-of-entry to the silent era. "She gave me a life," he says of the actress some consider the finest of the era. "I owe her."

For more on this remarkable person, check out these profiles in the Newark Star-Ledger and the New York Times.

Oderman in 1967 with actress Lillian Gish.
Credit Earl Wilson / The New York Times

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Beggars of Life 78 rpm recordings of the film's theme song

In celebration of the forthcoming Kino Lorber release of Beggars of Life (1928), starring Louise Brooks -- as well as the publication of my new book, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, I decided to scan and post images of some of my vintage 78 rpm recordings of that film's theme song, also titled "Beggars of Life." Here they are. Some, like the brown colored disc, are scarce. With so many releases, one might assume it was a somewhat popular song.



Monday, July 31, 2017

Kino Lorber announces release of 1928 Louise Brooks film Beggars of Life

Kino Lorber
Kino Classics Releases William A. Wellman's Beggars of Life
Starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks

Available on Blu-ray and DVD August 22nd
Digitally Restored from 35mm Film Elements Preserved by the George Eastman Museum With Special Features including Audio Commentaries by William Wellman Jr. and Thomas Gladysz, Founding Director of the Louise Brooks Society


"Exciting and brilliantly parsed action scenes." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
New York, NY -- July 27, 2017 -- Kino Classics is proud to announce the Blu-ray and DVD release of Beggars of Life, the 1928 American silent film classic directed by William A. Wellman (Wings, A Star is Born, The Ox-Bow Incident) and starring Wallace Beery (The Champ), Richard Arlen (Wings), and silent screen icon Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box). 

This exciting drama, following the adventures of a band of hobos riding the rails, was inspired by the adventures of writer Jim Tully, who spent years on the road traveling across the country on boxcars and railways as a real-life hobo, and who wrote about these experiences in his 1924 autobiography, also called Beggars of Life.

Beggars of Life will become available on Blu-ray and DVD August 22nd, with a SRP of $29.95 for the Blu-ray and $19.95 for the DVD. 



This edition from Kino Classics is digitally restored from 35mm archival film elements preserved by the George Eastman Museum, and features a musical score compiled and performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, employing selections from the original 1928 Paramount music cue-sheet.

Special features include audio commentaries by actor William Wellman, Jr., and Thomas Gladysz, founding director of the Louise Brooks Society and author of Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, and a booklet essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton. The Blu-ray and DVD also include reversible cover art.

An American silent film classic, Beggars of Life (1928) stars Louise Brooks as a train-hopping hobo who dresses like a boy to survive. After escaping her violent stepfather, Nancy (Brooks) befriends kindly drifter Jim (Richard Arlen). They ride the rails together until a fateful encounter with the blustery Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery) and his rambunctious band of hobos, leading to daring, desperate conflict on top of a moving train. Based on the memoir of real-life hobo Jim Tully, and directed with adventuresome verve by William Wellman (The Ox-Bow Incident), Beggars of Life is an essential American original.


Beggars of Life (1928)
Director: William A. Wellman
Written by Benjamin Glazer and Jim Tully
Starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen, Louise Brooks

Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: August 22, 2017
Blu-ray SRP: $29.95
DVD SRP: $19.95

Special Features:
Audio commentary by actor William Wellman, Jr.
Audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, founding director of the Louise Brooks Society
Booklet essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton
Musical score compiled and performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, employing selections from the original 1928 Paramount cue-sheet

Still images courtesy of the Louise Brooks Society
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