1929 Motion Picture News Blue Book

About this issue

This 1929 motion picture trade publication serves industry professionals including producers, casting directors, and studio executives. The primary content consists of studio catalogs and promotional material. A "Blue Book" lists hundreds of stage and screen performers with their professional and birth names, including Gary Cooper (Frank J. Cooper), Greta Garbo (Greta Gustavson), Carole Lombard (Jane Peters), and Myrna Loy (Myrna Williams). Major studios advertise their 1929-1930 releases. Paramount promotes multiple talking and silent features alongside 52 sound short subjects. Tiffany-Stahl highlights synchronized productions with RCA Photophone recording, including George Jessel's first talking picture "Lucky Boy" and productions featuring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Belle Bennett, and Richard Talmadge. Universal celebrates Carl Laemmle's record of producing super-pictures, promoting "Show Boat" from Edna Ferber's novel. Educational Film Exchanges lists comedy series including Mack Sennett talking comedies, Edward Everett Horton's Coronet comedies, and Lupino Lane two-reel comedies. Rayart's "Box-Office Twenty" for 1928-29 offers fiction by established authors including E. Phillips Oppenheim and Max Brand, organized into De Luxe Specials, Best Sellers, and Imperial Photoplays.