An original 8x10" vintage photo (NOT a modern reprint) from a large collection of hundreds of original pre code Hollywood movie photos acquired from a collector\'s estate.
Photo Overview
This is an original 1933 Fox Film publicity still from the pre-code carnival drama Hoopla, showing Preston Foster and Minna Gombell in a warm, affectionate embrace. Foster, playing the carnival barker Nifty Miller, wears a woven straw hat, a glen plaid double-breasted suit, a striped shirt and a patterned tie, and smiles broadly toward the camera. Gombell, as the carnival performer Carrie, rests her head against his chest with her platinum finger-waved hair and bright smile, a classic early 1930s Hollywood glamour look.
The bottom margin carries the printed studio credit \'FOX FILM Presents HOOPLA with PRESTON FOSTER and MINNA GOMBELL\', and a negative or production number appears along the right edge. Hoopla, directed by Frank Lloyd and adapted from Kenyon Nicholson\'s stage play The Barker, is best remembered today as the final film of silent and early talkie superstar Clara Bow. This still comes from a large estate collection of pre-code Hollywood movie photos and is a strong piece for collectors of 1930s cinema, Fox studio material, and carnival or circus themed films.
Historical Notes
Hoopla was released in late 1933, only months before strict enforcement of the Production Code began in mid-1934, and its racy carnival storyline places it squarely in the pre-code era. In the film, Gombell\'s jealous Carrie pays Clara Bow\'s character Lou to seduce Nifty\'s son Chris, played by Richard Cromwell, setting off the drama. The picture proved to be Clara Bow\'s last screen appearance; she retired to her Nevada ranch with husband Rex Bell and never made another movie. The Fox Film Corporation itself merged with Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935, making \'Fox Film Presents\' credits like this one a marker of a short-lived chapter in studio history. Preston Foster went on to notable roles in The Informer (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) and Annie Oakley (1935), and later found television success in the 1950s series Waterfront. Minna Gombell followed Hoopla with her best-known role as the scheming Mimi Wynant in The Thin Man (1934), and appeared in The Merry Widow (1934) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) before retiring from the screen in the early 1950s.
Text Present
Front, bottom margin (printed): FOX FILM Presents HOOPLA with PRESTON FOSTER and MINNA GOMBELL
Front, bottom right margin (printed): Made in U.S.A.
Front, right edge (negative number written vertically): 122 / 12
Front, right margin: faint pencil marks
Back: small white paper label with a handwritten number in red marker
Print analysis
This appears to be a Type 1 original vintage gelatin silver studio print made at the time of the film\'s 1933 release. The printed \'FOX FILM Presents\' credit line and \'Made in U.S.A.\' notation are consistent with Fox publicity stills issued before the 1935 merger that created Twentieth Century-Fox, which dates the print to within the original release window. The tonal quality, sharp detail in the fabric and hair, the scratched-in negative number, and the aged fiber paper with period toning on the reverse all support an original studio issue rather than a later reproduction.
Condition
In fair to good vintage condition. Some of the photos in this collection have hole punches, creases, or tears from age.
Please see scans of the image we have provided for the most accurate and complete state of the photo.
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