Thought I'd share this Chan collectible for sale on Conway's Treasures. I've never seen one of these before (a theater pressbook) so thought I'd share. I contacted the seller and he added the inside pages to his site. Pretty cool though a bit expensive. (NOTE there's a "make and offer" button!) Here is the link and below that the site description:

https://www.cvtreasures.com/leading-men-charlie-chan-sherlock-holmes-c-66_79_160/-p-4661

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Very scarce Original Vintage 1934 Pressbook for this lost Chan film

Vintage Chan paper remains very popular among collectors and Chan buffs. However, early paper like this from the early 30s with Warner Oland is Extremely scarce and RARELY ever appears on the market. Posters with the Warner Oland (original and first Charlie Chan) are highly sought after.

Note: Pressbooks are particularly rare in the movie memorabilia hobby as they were only made available to movie theater owners to select which movie posters and lobby cards they wanted to purchase to display and advertise in their theater lobbies.

NOTE: The prices of the posters in 1934? A One sheet was 15 cents! The only original vintage one sheet I could find that ever sold was in 2021 for for $5500.

* See enlargeable images above and below

Charlie Chan's Courage (Fox, 1934). Folded, Very Fine-. Pressbook (12 Pages, 12" X 18.5")

Dear Lou,

Thank you for sharing this! I believe it is the only pressbook I have ever seen for "Charlie Chan's Courage." Fox, and later, Monogram issued pressbooks for these films. You can see how ads of different types, including short interest articles with a blank left for the local theater information. Theaters could then send these off to the local newspaper(s) for publication to announce and publicize the upcoming movie.

Actually, the asking price is not bad for such a rare item! I wish I could splurge on this, but, sadly, to do so would keep me up at night!

Thank you, again, Lou!

Sincerely,
Rush

The price is outrageous. There are several of these exact press books that have come up for auction in the past several years. Most recently, this pressbook, a herald for Charlie Chan Carries On and a French pressbook for Charlie Chan at the Circus were auctioned at Hertiage last September. The hammer price for the lot was $134.

No, this press book and others from the Chan’s are not common but they are nowhere as scarce as the seller makes them out to be.

Henry

Henry (No.1 Son), "Thank you so much" for that information. After I read your post I typed in the following on eBay..."Press Kit Charlie Chan." There are 8 of them for sale as low as $88 and up to $225.

And the same guy is also selling that press kit "Charlie Chan's Courage" on ebay! Says the starting bid is $159, then underneath that "Price $314.50." I've never bid on eBay, so I'm not sure what that second price listing means (I guess you can buy it without bidding perhaps?) Still, the site I mentioned above lists it for $350.

Again, Thanks for that valuable info on these costs. You Number One! Lou

Lou,

My pleasure. Sorry if my original reply was negative in tone. I’ve been a Chan Fan and collector/watcher of Chan collectibles for many years. Press books are indeed very cool and yes, some of them are quite scarce or even never been found as of yet. Same with much of the Chan print material. However, some of it is more common than sellers would have us believe. It’s just that unless the owners are pressed to sell they have no interest in listing what they have and thus letting people know how common some of the stuff is, otherwise it will lower the potential price (excess supply relative to demand).

It is this way with many collectibles, even the stuff that wasn’t designed to be collectible. Such is the blessing and curse of eBay. Broad access to many collectibles which also shows how many of an item are available.

As for the eBay listing. Yes, $159 is the opening bid and of course someone could win it at that price or be out bid with the potential for bidding to exceed the “buy it now” price of $314.50, which as you surmised, is the “I don’t want to bid, I just want to buy it” price.

Anyway, always happy to shed light on anything Chan related that I can.

Henry

Henry, thanks for setting the record straight and sharing your knowledge on collecting.

Lou
"The speech of some is like wind in empty space, but blind man could see your word is good."
(Charlie Chan, The Black Camel, Chapter 14)