This website seeks to encourage researchers and collectors to discover and study obscure ephemera that document American culture and life.  Worldcat reveals that most of the items that I post cannot be found in more than a few research libraries–often none at all.  Alternately, research libraries do not bother to catalog ephemeral publications like these.  I believe, however, that because these were distributed free, or at nominal cost, to consumers, they were the publications most likely to make their way into homes and be read by large numbers of Americans.

I acquire pre-1960 examples of the kinds of publications that prove so useful when scholars study 19th-Century America.  The limited competition that I encounter for them suggests that libraries, which could easily outbid me, have little interest in post-Civil War and 20th-century ephemeral publications in general.

I try to anticipate what materials future historians will find useful.  Being an historian first and a collector second, I organized this website to encourage others to do this too—even if this means new competition for me. I am aware that I could be wrong in prizing particular ephemera or even whole classes of ephemera.  I may even be wrong to encourage scholars to study obscure ephemeral publications; these may be obscure for good reason.

Ephemerastudies.org will permit me to share with others the information and imagery that I am acquiring, and to benefit from the knowledge, intelligence and experience of other scholars and collectors.  Please contact me with your impressions of the site.

~ Saul Zalesch

Title

Paramount Signs Director Ernst Lubitsch 1927

Category
Advertisement, Uncategorized
Why It's Interesting

This ad from an unlabeled trade journal shows that Paramount was extremely proud of signing up famed German director Ernst Lubitsch.  The ad must date from 1927 because the back of this page advertises “road show hits of 1927-8,” including Wings and Stroheim’s Wedding March.  Lubitsch remains immortal for directing some of the most sophisticated comedies in film history, including Love Parade (1929), The Merry Widow (1934), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), and To Be or Not to Be (1942).  In 1935 Lubitsch became, briefly, Paramount’s Production Manager but lost that job because [per Wikipedia] he could not delegate responsibility.

 
Paramount Signs Director Ernst Lubitsch 1927 Paramount Signs Director Ernst Lubitsch 1927