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 studio portrait of actor Preston Foster, issued to promote the pre-code carnival drama Hoopla. Foster is shown in a warm, head-and-shoulders close-up, breaking into a broad grin and glancing off to the side. He wears a bold glen plaid suit, striped shirt and patterned tie, lit in the polished glamour style of early 1930s Hollywood studio photography.
The printed caption along the bottom margin reads \'Fox Film Presents Hoopla with Preston Foster.\' In Hoopla, Foster played Nifty Miller, the hard-bitten carnival barker whose son falls for the show\'s hula dancer, played by Clara Bow. The film was Bow\'s final screen appearance. Portraits like this were made by the studio to publicize both the film and its rising leading man, and it would suit collectors of pre-code cinema, Fox Film history, Clara Bow memorabilia, or classic Hollywood portraiture.
Historical Notes
Hoopla was directed by Frank Lloyd and released by Fox Film in late 1933. It was adapted from Kenyon Nicholson\'s stage play The Barker, which had been filmed once before in 1928. It arrived just months before strict enforcement of the Production Code began in mid-1934, and its racy carnival setting and Clara Bow\'s revealing costumes made it one of the last true pre-code releases. Bow retired from the screen after Hoopla, ending the career of the original \'It Girl.\' Preston Foster had broken through a year earlier in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). After Hoopla his career kept rising, with The Informer (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), Annie Oakley (1935), Guadalcanal Diary (1943) and My Friend Flicka (1943). He later moved into television, starring in the series Waterfront from 1954 to 1956. Foster died in 1970, leaving more than one hundred film credits behind him.
Text Present
Front, printed caption along bottom margin: FOX FILM Presents HOOPLA with PRESTON FOSTER - Made in U.S.A.
Front, upper right edge, vertical negative/still number: 122 - 138
Front, lower right margin: faint handwritten pencil notation
Back, affixed white label with printed green gecko image and handwritten inventory number: 393
Print analysis
This is a vintage gelatin silver studio print on single-weight glossy paper, made by Fox Film for publicity at the time of the film\'s 1933 release. The printed \'Fox Film Presents\' caption dates it to before the 1935 merger that created 20th Century-Fox, which firmly places the print in the original release period. The scratched-in negative number, the caption style and the tonality are all consistent with an original period studio still. This is a Type 1 original photograph.
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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