1920s Cinema from Royal Books, Inc.

Hollywood: Paramount Pictures, 1926. Vintage pressbook for the 1926 silent film. Laid in with the pressbook is a small bifold program from the film's showing at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. In the 18th century, a US merchant ship is forced to battle a band of Barbary pirates on the Mediterranean high seas. 9 x 12 inches. Eight leaves,… Read more

Hollywood: N.p., 1927. Vintage program for the premiere of the 1927 silent film at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. One of the most successful Hollywood Biblical epics, and the first film to debut at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The second installment in Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical trilogy, preceded by "The Ten Commandments" (1923) and followed by "The Sign of the… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: United Artists, 1926. Vintage program for the 1926 silent film. Included with the program is a seven-page booklet credited to story writer "Elton Thomas" (the nom de plume of actor Douglas Fairbanks), summarizing the plot of the film. After the death of his father at the hands of a bloody pirate gang, a nobleman infiltrates the… Read more

New York: Western Electric Sound System, 1928. Vintage small two-color bi-fold housing an early sample of sound film, promoting Western Electric's Portable Sound System, circa 1928. Likely unique, as we have been unable to locate another example. The front features "A Sample of Sound Film" in bold red font, with illustration of a projector and a screen atop support on… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1929. Collection of seven vintage reference photographs from the 1929 comedy short film. Stan and Ollie mistakenly think a reward for a stolen painting is for a horse with the same name, leading to a series of slapstick misadventures when they return the horse instead of the painting. Shot as a silent, but issued… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1927. Collection of nine vintage reference photographs from the 1927 silent comedy short film. Stan and Ollie help a wealthy oil tycoon escape a trio of blackmailers after his money. One the last films released prior to the duo becoming officially billed as Laurel and Hardy. 8 x 10 inches. One photograph with a… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1925. Vintage reference photograph from the 1925 film, showing actors George K. Arthur, Bruce Guerin, Otto Matiesen, and Georgia Hale. From the archive of film historian and author Joel Finler. An impoverished group of dockside dwellers decide to move to the city to make their fortunes. Josef von Sternberg's directorial debut. 10 x 8 inches. Very Good plus,… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1925. First Draft script for the 1925 film. A roguish Eastern European woman is hired to help con a young heiress out of her wealth by holding fake seances with the heiress' long-dead father. Director Tod Browning was best known for his controversial masterpiece "Freaks" (1932), a quintessential film from both the perspective of… Read more

Los Angeles: The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1929. Final Continuity script for the 1929 film. Copy belonging to assistant director H. Bruce Humberstone, with his holograph pencil annotations to the front wrapper and several pages, mostly regarding sequencing for scenes. The film was released in silent and sound versions, and included with the script are ten sets of dialogue intended… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1928. Vintage photograph of Philip Sassoon and Charlie Chaplin at United Artists studios in 1928. The acetate negative of the photograph is in the holdings of the Charlie Chaplin Archive at Cineteca Bologna. Chaplin and Sassoon were born within three months of each other, with childhood homes less than three miles apart, Sassoon into one of the wealthiest… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1929. Dialogue Draft script for the 1929 film. With holograph pencil annotations to the front wrapper and throughout. Based on H.C. McNeile's 1920 novel "Bulldog Drummond." A former army captain bored with civilian life aids a young woman whose uncle has been wrongly committed to a psychiatric institution. The third Bulldog Drummond film to be released, following the… Read more

N.p.: N.p., 1925. Vintage double weight photograph of New Haven's Olympia Theatre, circa 1925, with the marquee advertising F. Harmon Weight's 1925 film "Drusilla with a Million." The Olympia Theatre, located at 140-144 Temple Street in New Haven, Connecticut, opened on September 13, 1915, seated 2,373, and was equipped with a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. It changed its name… Read more

Culver City, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1925. Draft script for the 1926 film. Based on the 1924 novel "Escape" by Alden Brooks. File copy rubber stamp to the front wrapper. Conrad Nagel and Renée Adoree star in this Silent film, today lost, originally directed by Josef von Sternberg. Midway into shooting Von Sternberg was fired by MGM and replaced by Phil… Read more

Hollywood: Paramount Pictures, 1922. Draft script for the 1922 film. The film is now considered lost. Tess (Wanda Hawley) is a social climber who is neglected by her hardworking husband, David (Edward Hearn). She decides to go on a date with ex-suitor Arthur Sinclair (Casson Ferguson) to a casino, which is robbed while they are there. Her rings are… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1929. Draft script for the 1929 silent film. Holograph pencil annotations throughout by an unknown editor, with an unsigned typescript note of revisions to producer Hunt Stromberg bound in at the front of the script. Lon Chaney's penultimate film appearance, and his last silent film, as he would develop walking pneumonia during the film's… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1926. Draft script for the 1927 Silent film. Based on the 1913 yellow peril play by Henry Maurice Vernon and Harold Owen, and previously adapted for the screen in 1919, directed by Maurice Elvey, and starring Matheson Lang. Lon Chaney, in full yellowface, murders his daughter after discovering she loves the son of a… Read more

Hollywood: Paramount Pictures / Famous Lasky Corporation, 1928. Final Draft script for the 1928 film, here under the working title "Quick Lunch." Included is a separately bound, 8-page sequence synopsis for the film. W.C. Fields' last silent film, but only the beginning of his fame. Wealthy Sam Hunter (Chester Conklin) is approached by scheming Richard Whitehead (Fields) about investing… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1924. Continuity Draft script for the 1925 film. Studio File Copy, rubber-stamped on the front wrapper. Brief notation on one page in holograph pencil. Based on Tod Robbins' 1917 novel, a classic of horror fiction about a trio of circus freaks who escape captivity in the circus, open a curiosity shop, and use it… Read more

Berlin: Film-Kurier, 1929. Original program for the legendary 1929 silent film. Replete with beautiful gravure-printed production photographs, including a stunning deep focus shot on the rear panel from a party scene in the film, with Louise Brooks at the center of attention. Film-Kurier was the first German film journal, published daily beginning in 1919. Film-Kurier's classic era lasted until… Read more

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1927. Shooting script for the 1928 film. Original typescript with descriptive text in black type and intertitles in red type. Holograph ink and pencil annotations on the front wrapper, noting starring performers, draft type, and crediting screenwriter Meehan. With a few annotations in holograph pencil throughout. Based on the 1923 Broadway play by David… Read more