Nearly 3,000 issues of the Hollywood trade magazine BoxOffice have been posted online for free. BoxOffice has been publishing movie news since its beginning in 1920 and continues today. The years 1920-1924, 1927 and 1933-1934 are still being digitized, while the rest are already available, according to the magazine, in a section of the site called The Vault.
“Each week we post five issues from our vast archive which covers everyone from John Barrymore to Drew Barrymore. (Before 1933, Boxoffice was published under different names in various parts of the U.S.).”
The issues are offered as PDFs, except for the latest issues, which are page-by-page images of the print magazine.
Unfortunately, this means the vast collection of issues lack metadata and are unsearchable. Still, it should, even with that limitation, provide a valuable resource to movie historians and journalists, film-makers, business people and plain old movie fans.
The earliest issue online, that of January 3, 1925, is a partial of the magazine when it was titled “The Reel Journal.” (“The Film Trade Paper of the Southwest.”) One of the pages from that partially-available issue, under the heading of “News Nuggets,” says:
“Richard Bartholemess has completed for First National distribution his new Inspiration production, ‘New Toys,’ from the stage play by Oscar Hammerstein II and from Milton Herbert Gropper.”
The issue of The Reel Journal from October 3 of that year, one of the few with an illustration on the cover, featured Charlie Chaplin, “Now a Pathe Comedian.”
The February 13 issue of BoxOffice featured “The Misfits,” the film written by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston. It started Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift and, in her final role, Marilyn Monroe.
The latest issue features the headline, “Larry the Cable Guy voices Mater in Cars 2.”
