Columbian Art

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I’ve blogged before about the amazing yearbooks that Columbia published in the 1930s to promote its slates of films. They go for big bucks at auction, but last year I was able to acquire the 1935 edition for a semi-reasonable price. I did so, of course, because it included a promo for His Scrappiness. But the whole darn thing is kind of amazing.

I don’t know most of the films promoted in its pages, and can’t say whether they were any good. I have no idea who painted these spreads, or whether they were used only in the presumably small-circulation yearbook. But I do know that this is some of the most spectacular promotional art I’ve ever seen.

Whatever happened to the art of movie ads, anyhow?

scrappykrazy1935.jpg

blackroom.jpg

25anhour.jpg

capra1.jpg

edwardg.jpg

featherinherhat.jpg

ladybeware.jpg

onenightoflove.jpg

colbert.jpg

manproof.jpg

iconfess.jpg

thegirlfriend.jpg