Photoplay Magazine

Articles from Photoplay Magazine

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS (Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

The attached article is essentially a behind the scenes look at the making of Walt Disney’s 1938 triumph Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:


• He employed 569 people who worked all day and frequently all night to finish it.


•The film took three and half years to make and cost $1,500,000.00.


•He concocted 1500 different paints to give it unmatched color.


•He spent $70,000.00 developing a brand new camera to give it depth.


•He threw away four times the drawings he made and the film he shot.


•He made over 2,000,000 separate drawings…


Although Disney’s wife, Lilian, was said to have remarked, No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture, the movie generated more box office receipts than any other film in 1938.

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS (Photoplay Magazine, 1938) Read More »

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS (Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

The attached article is essentially a behind the scenes look at the making of Walt Disney’s 1938 triumph Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:


• He employed 569 people who worked all day and frequently all night to finish it.


•The film took three and half years to make and cost $1,500,000.00.


•He concocted 1500 different paints to give it unmatched color.


•He spent $70,000.00 developing a brand new camera to give it depth.


•He threw away four times the drawings he made and the film he shot.


•He made over 2,000,000 separate drawings…


Although Disney’s wife, Lilian, was said to have remarked, No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture, the movie generated more box office receipts than any other film in 1938.

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS (Photoplay Magazine, 1938) Read More »

Gloria Swanson: Hollywood Diva (Photoplay Magazine, 1930)

A segment from a slightly longer 1930 profile covering the high-life and Hollywood career of La Belle Swanson. Written by actor and theater producer Harry Lang (1894 – 1953), the article concentrates on her triumphs during her lean years, her assorted marriages and her healthy fashion obsessions.


Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York nightclubs of 1937.

Gloria Swanson: Hollywood Diva (Photoplay Magazine, 1930) Read More »

Realistic Training for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Photoplay Magazine, 1931)

Prior to reading this PHOTOPLAY article we were convinced that Oliver Stone’s Vietnam war film, PLATOON (1986) was the first production of it’s kind to actually take the effort to school all cast and extras as to the horrors of war; however it seems that this unique distinction goes to All Quiet on the Western Front.


In this interview the seven leading cast members discuss how the making of that movie disturbed each of them in profound ways:

We went into that picture a group of average wise-cracking fellows. We didn’t come out that way…


A small notice has been added that announced that the movie had been banned in Austria.

A 1929 review of the book can be read here

Realistic Training for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Photoplay Magazine, 1931) Read More »

Realistic Training for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Photoplay Magazine, 1931)

Prior to reading this PHOTOPLAY article we were convinced that Oliver Stone’s Vietnam war film, PLATOON (1986) was the first production of it’s kind to actually take the effort to school all cast and extras as to the horrors of war; however it seems that this unique distinction goes to All Quiet on the Western Front.


In this interview the seven leading cast members discuss how the making of that movie disturbed each of them in profound ways:

We went into that picture a group of average wise-cracking fellows. We didn’t come out that way…


A small notice has been added that announced that the movie had been banned in Austria.

A 1929 review of the book can be read here

Realistic Training for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Photoplay Magazine, 1931) Read More »

Edith Head on Paris Frocks (Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

A telegraph from Hollywood costume designer Edith Head (1897 – 1981) to the editorial offices of PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE listing various highlights of the 1938 Paris fashion scene. Not surprisingly, it reads like a telegram:

Paris says:


• Long waistlines, short flared skirts, fitted bodices, tweeds combines with velvet, warm colors…

• Hair up in pompadours piles of curls and fringe bangs.

• Braid and embroidery galore lace and ribbon trimmings loads of jewelry mostly massive.

• Skirts here short and not too many pleats more slim skirts with slight flare.

The great Hollywood modiste wrote in this odd, Tarzan-english for half a page, but by the end one is able to envision the feminine Paris of the late Thirties.

Recommended Reading: Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood’s Greatest Costume Designerstyle=border:none.

Click here to read about physical perfection during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Edith Head on Paris Frocks (Photoplay Magazine, 1938) Read More »

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942) Read More »

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942) Read More »