The New Movie Magazine

May, 1932. The nation was still in the grip of the Great Depression, and repeal of Prohibition was nearly a year away. So what was the housewife to do? Spend her fifteen cents on escapist movie magazines, of course!

The New Movie Magazine features Billie Dove on the cover. According to her IMDB bio, she lost enthusiasm for the business after Blonde of the Follies was released this year. Apparently William Randolph Hearst had her part cut down because she was better than Marion Davies. This was Dove's last year in film, save a brief, uncreditied appearance in Diamond Head in 1963. Her other film of 1932 was the unfortunately named Cock of the Air. Eleanora Holiday was so enamored of the actress that she took the name Billie when she embarked on her singing career.

As for the other stories on the cover, the Princess Alexandra Kropotkin was descended from Russian royalty and was also a noted linguist, having translated several Russian works into English. Her article goes to show that Hollywood has been shocking us with ill-mannered stars for years. Elsie Janis was a silent film actress who also had quite a career on the stage. She's also known as a composer.

 

The interior features lots of fluffy celeb stories guaranteed to give the drab housewife a small respite from her workaday life. I plan to post more from the book later on. The interior bits don't need nearly as much work as the cover did. That was in really bad shape.