Asides - Potpourri

This week's post covers a number of subjects that include an "epic fail", some talented typing, a beautiful cover, a surreal ad, and a few other odds and ends. The magazines were all added to our collection just this week; the other items are fairly recent as well. Recession? What recession, cough, cough (who needs food?).

Click on the images for a larger view.

This photo from the early thirties pictures one of the floats from an annual or semi-annual gala sponsored by the studios. It was held in a local Hollywood or Los Angeles stadium.

There are varying opinions about Mr. Crosby, but one thing is for sure - he was way ahead of his time in terms of using a laptop. This image headed the letters column in the April, 1934, edition of Screen Play magazine.

Motion Picture Magazine - July, 1925. Cover Artist: M. Paddock
I am not familiar with this artist and can find no reference to him or her, but I acquired this magazine solely for the beautiful cover. However, the editorial also caught my attention and it is the next item in this post.

From Motion Picture Magazine, July, 1925, comes our "epic fail". Mr. Eugene V. Brewster's editorial cites his predictions for the future of film. The last four paragraphs miss just about every mark. I had intended to only show those paragraphs, but decided to be fair to Mr. Brewster and include the whole editorial, where he first recalls his predictions from 1913, and those were fairly prescient. I've kept the image fairly large so you can read it.

New Movie Magazine - September, 1933

I'm impressed. Here are the results for a contest sponsored by New Movie Magazine, where the challenge was to use a typewriter to recreate a photograph of June Knight. I have seen this kind of thing done in ASCII on a computer and over the years a couple of people doing it with typewriters, but this was over 75 years ago. I can't imagine how many hours it took the winner to complete it. The shading and overall likeness to the photo are wonderful.

So what did they win? Of course, typewriters.

Two very nice Clara Bow cards from German postcard publisher Ross.

Test your knowledge of thirties film and film folk with this crossword puzzle from the same issue of Screen Play that brought us Mr. Crosby. It should print out fairly well if you really want to take things that far.

Screenland, March 1934 - back cover
Ok- entendre, double entendre, triple entendre, or no entendre, what a surreal headline.