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A COLLECTION OF 20 BROCHURES (INCLUDING 1 DUPLICATE) DEDICATED TO SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS SOVIET AND FOREIGN MOVIE STARS AND DIRECTORS OF THE 1920S. The 1920s was a pivotal point in the history of Soviet film industry: the decision to import foreign movies into the Soviet Union resulted in the Hollywood completely taking over the Soviet market. American films dominate, inundate, glut, overwhelm the Russian motion picture houses today. Clara Kimball Young has a theatre devoted solely to her in Moscow. In the Arbat, centre of the workers' quarters of the Russian capital, a new building celebrates the glory of Douglas Fairbanks in electric letters three feet high. It is a bit depressing, - wrote an American journalist visiting the Soviet Union in the summer of 1925. Obsession with the Hollywood movie industry was bolstered by the Soviet state publishing house, Kinopechat [i.e. Cinema Press], which issued a series of booklets focusing on the popular foreign film idols and, very reluctantly, on the domestic ones. In 1926-1927, the number of the booklets dedicated to European stars reached one and a half million, compared to only 260,000 copies sold of the biographies of Soviet personalities. While American films retained their appeal right through to 1931 when imports ceased, it was not long before the profits made on the distribution of foreign movies were used to recover domestic film production. Enthusiastic work of the new avant-garde Soviet film-makers (Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925), Ten Days That Shook The World (1927); Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929); Vsevolod Pudovkin's Mother (1926), etc.) marked the beginning of the new Soviet cinema. The focus had finally shifted to the Soviet movie industry, and Kinopechat kept abreast of the Soviet audience's new preferences. From 1926, the number of booklets dedicated to the domestic actors gradually began to increase. Prominent art theorists and film directors narrated the stories of extremely popular movie industry stars (Soviet, American, European) in the small brochures distinguished with the constructivist design and photomontages. With the print run of approximately 20,000 copies, Kinopechat's pamphlets became a manifestation of El-Lissitzky's words: The (painted) picture fell apart together with the old world which it had created for itself. The new world will not need little pictures. If it needs a mirror, it has the photograph and the cinema. 1) Tolkachev, Ye. Standartnyy geroy Charl'z Khetchinson [i.e. A Standard Hero - Charles Hutchinson]. Moscow: Tea-Kino-Pechat', 1928. 16 pp.: ill. 17,5x12,9 cm. In original photomontage wrappers. Few damp stains. Otherwise near fine. Second edition. First edition published in 1927. An interesting brochure dedicated to the American film actor, director, and screenwriter Charles Hutchinson (1879-1949). Although Hutch directed numerous independent silent features (Hurricane Hutch in Many Adventures (1924), The Winning Wallop (1926), etc.), he is best remembered as Pathé's leading male serial star from 1918 to 1922. Hutchinson's most famous movies include: The Golden God (1917), Hutch Stirs 'em Up (1923), Hurricane Hutch in Many Adventures (1924). The brochure was written by Evgeniy Tolkachev (1896-1960), a Soviet journalist, publisher, and translator. 2) Oganesov, K., Yutkevich, S. Milton Sils [i.e. Milton Sills]. Moscow: Kinopechat', 1926. 16 pp.: ill. 15x11.5 cm. In original photomontage wrappers. Mild stains on the wrappers, tear of the spine. Otherwise in very good condition. Second edition. First edition published earlier that year. A booklet dedicated to the American leading man of silent pictures Milton Sills (1882-1930). Starting out as a philosophy professor, Sills debuted as an actor in the movie The Pit in 1914. By the early 1920s, Sills had achieved matinee idol status and was working for numerous film studios. His most famous works are: The Making of O'Malley (1925), The Knockout (1925), Puppets (1. Seller Inventory # 989
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