WALTERFILM INSIGHTS AND NEWS

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD’S PROMOTION & MERCHANDISING

By Woolsey Ackerman Once a film has gone through its’ conception, various script drafts, pre-production, filming and post production, it is time for what many film makers see as the real work—- promotion! In the hey-day of the golden era of movies, each studio had a labor intensive, overly creative and overly worked department for the promotion, advertising and merchandising of each of their movies, as well as for their individual contract personalities.  The campaigns for th…

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MGM?

by Woolsey Ackerman A newly released book, THE MGM EFFECT, by Steven Bingen, tells us just what happened. One of the most recognizable of corporate logos is the MGM lion (as seen above).  This is a story of that corporate history.

Walter Film Catalog 50

October 2022, I am pleased to announce the launch of Waler Reuben’s 50th Catalog. As usual, it contains a wide variety of material. Here are the listed categories and an example of their contents:

The Case Of Film Noir

The above image is a 1950 Vintage original 12 x 16” (30 x 40 cm.) Columbia Picture’s Campaign Book, 16 pp. In A Lonely Place, Is classic film noir, now on the National Film Registry, about a screenwriter asked to adapt a trashy bestseller. 

Josephine Baker – An African-American in Paris

THE ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH: Paris: Henri Manuel, (1927). Vintage original 9 1/2 x 7″ (24 x 18 cm.) black-and-white print still photo, France. Photo has on verso a stamp of photographer Henri Manuel and a 1927 date stamp, NEAR FINE. Joséphine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalized French Joséphine Baker; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) at the age of 13 went from being a “street child”,  living in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters, scavenging fo…