A Pictorial History of the Talkies by Daniel Blum

A Pictorial History of the Talkies (Revised Edition, Second Impression in Dust Jacket)

A Year-by-Year Pictorial Survey of Sound Cinema, Revised and Brought Up to Date by John Kobal

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: A Pictorial History of the Talkies
• Author: Daniel Blum
• Editor: John Kobal
• Publisher: Spring Books, London
• Publication Date: 1968
• Edition Details: Revised Edition, Second Impression (1969). Revised and edited by John Kobal.
• Binding: Publisher's cream cloth boards with a printed pictorial dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Large, heavy quarto-size illustrated hardcover, heavily illustrated throughout with black-and-white film stills and portraits.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: Plain cream cloth boards, clean and square, with no marks visible on the boards. The spine is tidy and the corners are sharp. The fore-edge is yellowed, with some toning or spotting.
• Interior: The text pages are clean and bright, with no foxing, marks or writing. The binding is tight. No inscriptions or bookplates. The fore-edge shows some toning or spotting.
• Provenance: Green Books Galore second-hand price sticker (dated 10 04 99, R120.00) on the back of the dust jacket. No inscriptions or bookplates.
• The Dust Jacket: Present and protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover. The jacket is worn: the front panel has surface peeling and loss of the printed surface across the title area and lower photograph, leaving white patches. There is creasing and chipping at the spine ends and corners, toning along the spine edges, and mild toning at the top of the back panel. A Books Galore price sticker is on the back panel.

Synopsis & Historical Value

A Pictorial History of the Talkies is a picture-led account of the sound era in cinema, told year by year through film stills, star portraits and cast lists. This Spring Books edition of 1968 was revised and brought up to date by John Kobal.

The book opens with the move from silent film to sound, then surveys each year in turn, noting award winners, box-office hits, newcomers and notable deaths. It is as much a browsing volume as a reference, and its heavy illustration gives a vivid sense of how Hollywood and its stars presented themselves.

For collectors of film history and vintage cinema books, it remains a well-regarded reference work from the mid-century tradition of illustrated screen histories. This copy is the revised edition in its second impression of 1969, and still retains its pictorial dust jacket.

Author Profile: Daniel Blum

Daniel C. Blum (1899-1965) was an American film historian and archivist, best known as the founder and editor of the Theatre World and Screen World annuals, which documented each season of stage and screen.

His other illustrated histories include A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen (1953) and A New Pictorial History of the Talkies (1962).

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