Online Access to the Histories of Cinema, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound

Fan magazines gave audiences a way to experience the magic of the movies beyond the theatre. The magazines also gave producers a way to promote their stars and coming films. You can observe a shifting in emphasis across the historical span of this collection. Whereas the volumes of Motion Picture Story Magazine (1913-1914) and the British Picture Stories Magazine (1913-1914) reproduced the stories of films, the fan magazines of the late-teens and beyond focused on the most important audience draw — the stars. Our own greatest draw in this collection is our extensive run of Photoplay, which showcases the influential magazine during its height in the 1920s and 1930s.

February 2012 Update: We are pleased to add one hundred magazine issues digitized by Bruce Long to our Fan Magazine Collection. Bruce Long’s collection includes issues of some of the best known early fan magazines, such as Photoplay, as well as rarer titles that cover theatre and other forms of popular culture in addition to movies. Bruce Long utilized many of these magazines, which include Broadway Brevities, Pantomime, and Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, in the production of his own fanzine, Taylorology.