Picture Show

Picture Show was published by The Amalgamated Press beginning in 1919. This page includes a listing of the contents within several of these earlier issues from late 1923 into early 1924. I compile these lists when offering issues for sale and feel that they give a good idea of both how a particular magazine was put together during a specific period and which topics were most important during that same period.

While this page is sticking to the earlier issues of Picture Show, a great source exists for later issues as well. Besides the comprehensive library of images over at Picture Show Online, I learned that Picture Show was issued by Odham's Press from the early 1930's through 1960, merging with Film Pictorial in 1939.

Picture Show was 24 pages, printed on newsprint, and actually registered as a newspaper. Bare bones, one-color, these early issues of Picture Show did offer one special frill in each issue with its Art Supplement. The Art Supplement was printed on a slightly higher quality paper -- almost slick in appearance compared to the rest of the flat issue. The Art Supplements were in the middle of the issue, easily removed, and usually featured one or two portraits along with several smaller scene photos from a recent release.

Though British in origin, Picture Show actually spent a good deal of its space covering American films and stars. Oh, there was a lot more coverage of British stars than any American publication would give, but besides a regular column titled "Gossip About British Players" and the occasional feature defending British pictures or trying to explain why American film was so much more successful, the listings below show that probably the majority of each issue of Picture Show talked about American film and stars.

Picture Show also published fictionalized accounts of films in each issue just as Motion Picture Story Magazine was doing in America. Each of these issues carried one short story along with an entry from a longer serialized piece. Each fictionalized piece contains a couple of film scenes illustrating it, sometimes with the players identified, other times they are not.

Following is a summary of 17 different issues of Picture Show ranging in date from November 1923 through March 1924. A couple of images are included, but several others including each cover can be seen on the movie section of this site. Enjoy!

November 10, 1923:
On the Cover: Fay Compton - Charlie Chaplin - Douglas Fairbanks - Rudolph Valentino - Elinor Glyn
Inside this issue:

November 17, 1923:
On the Cover: The Prince of Wales
Inside this issue:

November 24, 1923:
On the Cover: Erich Von Stroheim - Rudolph Valentino - Madge Kennedy - Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks
Inside this issue:

December 8, 1923:
Inside this issue:

December 15, 1923:
On the Cover: Ronald Colman and Lillian Gish - George K. Arthur - Flora Le Breton - Joan Morgan
Inside this issue:

December 22, 1923:
On the Cover: Erich Von Stroheim - Mary Philbin - Zasu Pitts
Inside this issue:

January 5, 1924:
On the Cover: May McAvoy
Inside this issue:

January 12, 1924:
On the Cover: Alice Joyce - Lillian Gish - Muarice Costello & Norma Talmadge - Julia Swayne Gordon - Mary Pickford
Inside this issue:

January 19, 1924:
On the Cover: Mae Murray - Pola Negri - Lillian Gish - William S. Hart
Inside this issue:

January 26, 1924:
On the Cover: Miriam Battista - Jackie Coogan in "Circus Days" - Our Gang
Inside this issue:

February 2, 1924:
On the Cover: Wanda Hawley - Earle Williams - Alice Calhoun
Inside this issue:

February 16, 1924:
On the Cover: Marie Doro and Henry Ainley in "Sally Bishop", Madge Stewart in "Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills", Alma Taylor in "Comin' Thro' the Rye
Inside this issue:

February 23, 1924:
On the Cover: Betty Compson and Clive Brook in "The Royal Oak" - Owen Nares and Gladys Jennings in "The Young Lochinvar" - Gladys Cooper and Ivor Novello in "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
Inside this issue:

March 1, 1924:
On the Cover: Douglas Fairbanks in "Robin Hood" - Matheson Lang as "Dick Turpin" - Nigel Barrie as "Claude Duval"
Inside this issue:

March 15, 1924:
On the Cover: Filming the Depths of the Ocean
Inside this issue:

March 22, 1924
On the Cover: Pola Negri and Conrad Nagel - Rudolph Valentino with Alice Terry in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalpyse" - Ramon Novarro and Alice Terry in "Where the Pavement Ends"
Inside this issue:

March 29, 1924
On the Cover: Where Men Are Veiled
Inside this issue:

Movie Magazines -- The First Movie Magazines Debut: Motion Picture Story and Photoplay.
Photoplay Magazine Checklist -- Arranged by date from the beginning through the end of 1959.