Horror and Mystery Photoplay Editions and Magazine Fictionizations: The Catalog of a Collection [Paperback]

Thomas Mann (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786417226 | ISBN-13: 978-0786417223 | Publication Date: February 27, 2004

Photoplay editions, sometimes called movie editions, were inexpensive hardcover reprints of novels that had just been made into movies and were illustrated with photographs of scenes from the movies. Although in most cases the movies were based on prior novels, occasionally the movies came first and the novels were created from the scripts.

This book is an annotated catalog of a large collection of over 500 horror and mystery photoplay editions and magazine fictionalizations that the author assembled over four decades. Photoplay editions and magazine fictionalizations that are not strictly in the horror or mystery genres are included if they are linked to films made by such stars as Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and other genre performers. Mysteries are included if they feature a detective as the central character rather than simply involving crime as a plot element, and adventure, fantasy and science fiction works are included if they have an outré element. Some film noir books, and some associated with Alfred Hitchcock films, are also included. Most photoplay editions and magazine fictionalizations were published from the 1910s through the 1940s, and even though they are still published today, the cut-off date for inclusion in this book is 1970.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Mann is a reference librarian at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub (February 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786417226
• ISBN-13: 978-0786417223
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,338,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars much more than a catalog, May 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Horror and Mystery Photoplay Editions and Magazine Fictionizations: The Catalog of a Collection (Paperback)

Though the main purpose of the book is to list and describe the author's large collection of photoplay books and magazine fictionalizations from the beginning of the movie industry to 1970, there is also a substantial and entertaining introduction that explains what a photoplay edition is - a novel illustrated with stills from a movie version, either a work the movie was based on or a novelization of a story first on film - as well as reasons to care about them, some of which were a surprise to me. One, they're a useful record of films because in some cases they are the only record of films that are otherwise lost. They become an important record of vanished culture. Two, they're an invaluable primary source for getting a sense of attitudes, anxieties, interests, language, and in general the historical milieu in which they were produced.

Mann offers samples of texts that give the reader (particularly the non-collector) a nice sense of what these publications are like and provides several versions of the opening of different books based on The Mummy to show how differently they sometimes treated the same material. And he even describes and analyzes some of the markings people made in the books - the author's training as a private investigator and document examiner coming into play. As a bonus in an appendix, there's a novelization of a very silly 1927 movie, "The Gorilla" that is now lost except for this textual version and a few stills.

All in all, this book offers a lovely sense of these popular culture artifacts being lovingly preserved by someone who knows how to read them contextually and enjoys the heck out of them. For someone who is a collector, this is a treasure. For someone who never really thought about photoplay editions, this is a real eye-opener.

And how can you resist that cover?

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable contribution to understanding movie tie-in publications, April 15, 2007

By 

Brian Taves (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Horror and Mystery Photoplay Editions and Magazine Fictionizations: The Catalog of a Collection (Paperback)

Books published to tie-in with movie releases are a staple of the most sprawling Borders to the airport bookstall. This is no new phenomenon; similar publications were already flourishing by 1914 at the beginning of feature-length and serial productions. Whether reissues of existing novels brought to the screen, or original stories based on a movie, both publishers and the film industry mutually benefitted from capitalizing on each other's product. The plentiful supply of such books over so many decades attests to their rapport with the audiences of both readers and filmgoers.

Despite their endurance, there is little scholarship on movie tie-in books and magazines. In Horror and Mystery Photoplay Editions and Magazine Fictionizations, Thomas Mann provides a major contribution of lasting significance. His investigative skills illuminate the publication, exploitation, and distribution of these tie-ins, even to how they were purchased, read, and sometimes saved by readers.

Mann examines not only book tie-ins, especially the venerable "photoplay editions" of the late 1910s through the 1930s, but also various short story"fictionizations" of the movies, written in popular film magazines at the time of the films' release. These journals were never indexed in their own time, and almost never saved by institutions, who regarded them as ephemeral by comparison with the industry trade journals. Hence the value in Mann's pioneering effort in exploring this untapped resource.

These story magazines, though more apt today to be privately collected than found in library collections, are deeply reflective of film culture. In examining these published versions, Mann offers a fruitful comparison of the surprising fact that often the same movie, such as THE MUMMY (1932), would be retold in a number of different magazines. Moreover, their staff writers came up with strikingly dissimilar narratives, sometimes diverging far from the original screen source. Mann's choice of numerous illustrations from these magazines and photoplay editions help the modern reader to better understand these publishing phenomenon, and how they could lure audiences to the movie theater. Included as an appendix is a reprint of a complete magazine fictionization of the lost 1927 film THE GORILLA.

Not only in his examination of different types of publications has Mann provided a unique contribution, but his focus on specific related genres, mystery and horror, enriches the grounding and insight. The benefits are clear when comparing this volume with other checklists that have appeared, all now outdated save for Arnie Davis's encyclopedic and highly recommended Photoplay Editions and Other Movie Tie-in Books. However, Mann's genre emphasis and his inclusion of magazine stories as well as book tie-ins makes his volume an essential companion piece to Davis's book, for both the collector and bibliographer. Further, Mann's volume is also an essential standalone for the scholar investigating aspects of media reception. For libraries, both public and academic, boasting any significant collection of books on film, Mann's book is indispensable.

Following the 67 page introduction, the catalog of the author's collection spans 100 pages, with over 500 annotated bibliographical listings of photoplay books and magazine fictionizations from the 1910s through 1970. Whatever one's interest within the horror and mystery genres, whether Sherlock Holmes tales, H.G. Wells adaptations, or Lon Chaney films, entries can all be readily located through the comprehensive index.

Thomas Mann (PhD, Loyola University of Chicago) is author of such other publications as The Oxford Guide to Library Research, now in its 3rd edition.