Phyllis Loves Classic Movies: Movie Magazine Archives

The Internet Archive is a treasure trove of things to be discovered. While writing a blog post I found out that many issues of Vintage Film Magazines, such as Photoplay, Movie Mirror, and Silver Screen, have been scanned and are available on the site.

A brief history of Photoplay and Movie Mirror according to Wikipedia:

"Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded Motion Picture Story, a magazine also directed at fans. For most of its run, Photoplay was published by Macfadden Publications. The magazine was renowned for its artwork portraits of film stars on the cover by such artists as Earl Christy and Charles Sheldon. Macfadden Publications purchased the magazine in 1934. With the advancement of color photography, the magazine began using photographs of the stars instead by 1937. Photoplay published the writings of Hedda Hopper, Walter Winchell, Hazel MacDonald, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Sheilah Graham, Dorothy Kilgallen, Rob Wagner, later editor and publisher of Rob Wagner's Script, and Louella Parsons, among others. Photoplay merged with another fan magazine, Movie Mirror, in 1941; and with TV-Radio Mirror in 1977, when the name became Photoplay and TV Mirror. The magazine ceased publication in 1980 and its staff were moved to Us magazine."

And Silver Screen:

"Silver Screen was an American monthly magazine focusing on the film industry. It had its first publication in November 1930, and continued publication through the 1970s. It positioned itself as a source for behind the scenes stories about the stars of movie industries. The publication contained articles about film personalities, relationships, fashion and the film companies. It also contained reviews of the new releases in the film industry."

I decided to make a page for them here on my blog and arrange the links in chronological order, starting with 1930. You can choose to flip through it, scroll down, zoom in or out, search within each magazine, print and even screenshot articles. You can also create a free account and save items to your profile instead of searching for them again. Let me know what exciting discoveries you make browsing the pages of these wonderful magazines!

PHOTOPLAY