Inside Movies Since 1920

May 26, 2011 12:31 PM

Boxoffice, an industry magazine for the movie theater business, has been posting back issues dating to 1925. Via Trailers From Hell.
posted by brundlefly (11 comments total)

There may be a few bugs in the scanning process.
posted by brundlefly at 12:31 PM on May 26, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this! I'm a big film buff, and I love stuff like this that was very much ephemeral at the time but now is a lovely gateway to the past. And I'm sure they'll iron out those kinks... ;-P.
posted by theartandsound at 12:48 PM on May 26, 2011

This is indescribably awesxome. Thanks.
posted by blucevalo at 12:56 PM on May 26, 2011

(awesome)
posted by blucevalo at 12:57 PM on May 26, 2011

When issues of this magazine first went on line, I randomly found my grandfather's marriage announced in it. No idea he'd been in the industry.
posted by Jahaza at 1:05 PM on May 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

brundlefly: There may be a few bugs in the scanning process.

I find these sort of errors endearing, making what I assumed to be a mechanical process very human.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:07 PM on May 26, 2011

I love this. Thanks.
posted by arse_hat at 2:01 PM on May 26, 2011

Well, there goes untold hours of my life...
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 2:19 PM on May 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

I've always hoped that the internet would result in more archives like this, especially for television. I would pay a large recurring monthly fee for access to a feed of MTV as it was *right now* but in 1983 or 89. I would probably pay a decent amount of money for unlimited archives for early David Letterman.

Unfortunately, it turns out that video tapes take up a ton of space and break down fairly quickly, so most media companies only keep a limited archive of past shows. C'est the vie.
posted by bpm140 at 4:33 PM on May 26, 2011

Wow, to look at Box Office, 1977 was a really sleazy film year, but things seem to have gotten much cleaner during the 80s. Thanks, brundlefly; this is great for the mid-30s covers alone, and the time capsule over the decades is delicious icing. Love the way Warner Bros was selling "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" in 1939: "Ready for every showman who calls himself an American!"
posted by mediareport at 8:15 PM on May 26, 2011

Very cool to have these all in one place. The issues are visually fascinating, quite beyond the behind-the-scenes marketing content.

I just hope they fix the search functionality, which doesn't seem to be querying the old issues at this time. You have to know a picture's release date (IMDB often has this) to find the issue with an ad in it (check the week before the official release).
posted by Scram at 7:43 AM on May 28, 2011