Original United Artists Style B One Sheet Poster (27×41) for the Stanley Kramer cult comedy classic, IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (1963) starring Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Side Caesar, and Buddy Hackett. With a $7 million budget, this movie wanted to be the biggest, most lavish comedy ever made with a seeming cast of “thousands” of some of the funniest comedians of the time. The movie-wags pronounced Stanley Kramer MAD when he departed from his usual brand – the socially conscious, progressive, liberal film that had marked his career throughout the 1950s — films like THE DEFIANT ONES, ON THE BEACH and INHERIT THE WIND, and filmed this comic epic for the new single-lens CINERAMA circuit. But in a way, Kramer was merely continuing his war against greed, but this time in a comic vein, using the best comedians of the era to show what happens when avarice takes over the lives of a group of people out to find a pile of buried cash. Two wonderful posters were created for the film, one by Mad magazine artist Jack Davis and this one by the modernist illustrator and designer Saul Bass. This style B one sheet is for the 35mm release of the movie. The poster has some fold separation in the top vertical fold and minor pinholes and rumples. This original one sheet poster is folded and in fine plus condition.

Original Sheet Music (9×12) for the song “Would You” sung in the W. S. Van Dyke romantic musical, SAN FRANCISCO (1936) starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, and Jack Holt. With music by Nacio Herb Brown, lyrics by Arthur Freed, and sung by Jeanette MacDonald—the song was played as dance music as well as part of the score. Although the photo shows the image slightly eclipsed, the real sheet music has not been trimmed in any way and is in very fine condition.

Original Columbia Pictures Pressbook (11×17) for the Stanley Kramer interracial romance, GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (1967)—starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Houghton. Tracy and Hepburn play a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiance who is black. Racial prejudice was common in 1967; indeed, the first interracial kiss on American TV did not occur until 1969 on Star Trek. People needed to hear the message that color and race should not prevent two people who love each other from getting married. The film received 10 Oscar nominations—including Best Actor (Tracy for his last film role), Best Director, and Best Picture. The film received the Oscar for Best Screenplay and Best Actress for the second time to Katharine Hepburn. People wanting to read more about this film should pick up a copy of Mark Harris’ book PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION (Penguin Press, 2008). This original pressbook has no excisions and is in very fine condition. 14 pages of great material. If this is a film you love, you will like the pressbook — an interesting look into how Columbia marketed this movie.

Original MGM Six Sheet Poster (81×81) for the Fritz Lang film-noir, FURY (1936)– starring Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, Walter Abel, and Bruce Cabot. After Joe Wilson (Tracy) is arrested on sparse evidence for a heinous crime, a vengeful crowd burns down the courthouse where the suspect is being held. A trial ensues in which the DA (Abel) prosecutes the violent mob, leading to one central mystery: what happened to Wilson’s body? Lang’s first American film was distinctly topical and controversial for MGM studios, which at the time mainly produced big-budget musicals and star-studded melodramas. Here is a large poster that beautifully distills the best of MGM posters. MGM, usually content to use white as a background color, created posters that would heavily brand the studio by “look” of the posters. Here is the exception that proves the rule. Beautiful stone lithography, lots of drama, as befits a Fritz Lang film. This original six sheet poster is linen-backed and in very fine plus condition.

Original MGM Midget Window Card (8×11) for the Jack Conway romantic comedy, LIBELED LADY (1936) starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy. Tracy plays a newspaper editor whose own wedding plans have to be interrupted when his newspaper runs a libelous story about the daughter of one of his competitors. The daughter (Loy) slaps a $5 million lawsuit against Tracy’s newspaper. Tracey tries to get Powell to charm Loy into an “indelicate situation.” Powell and Loy get tons of sparkling dialogue and witty repartee, and their on-screen chemistry is legendary (they made 14 films together). The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. This original midget window card is in very fine condition, with only one half-inch chip missing in the lower right hand corner.

Original MGM Scene Lobby Card (11×14) for the J. Walter Ruben crime drama, RIFFRAFF (1936) starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. Harlow plays a tuna-cannery worker who falls in love with Tracy, a loudmouthed, conceited fisherman. After they marry, they spend a large amount of time yelling insults as each other. After Tracy is kicked out of his union and fired from his job, he leaves Harlow. She steals money for him and eventually goes to jail. After he gets a new job, he foils a plot to dynamite the boat and vows to wait for Harlow. This original lobby card is in very fine condition with only minor surface and edge wear mostly in the borders.

Original MGM Scene Lobby Card (11×14) for the J. Walter Ruben crime drama, RIFFRAFF (1936) starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. Harlow plays a tuna-cannery worker who falls in love with Tracy, a loudmouthed, conceited fisherman. After they marry, they spend a large amount of time yelling insults as each other. After Tracy is kicked out of his union and fired from his job, he leaves Harlow. She steals money for him and eventually goes to jail. After he gets a new job, he foils a plot to dynamite the boat and vows to wait for Harlow. This original lobby card is in very fine condition with only minor surface wear mostly in the borders.

Original MGM Scene Lobby Card (11×14) for the J. Walter Ruben crime drama, RIFFRAFF (1936) starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. Harlow plays a tuna-cannery worker who falls in love with Tracy, a loudmouthed, conceited fisherman. After they marry, they spend a large amount of time yelling insults as each other. After Tracy is kicked out of his union and fired from his job, he leaves Harlow. She steals money for him and eventually goes to jail. After he gets a new job, he foils a plot to dynamite the boat and vows to wait for Harlow. This original lobby card is in fine condition with only minor pinholes, creases, and surface wear mostly in the borders.