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[‘OUR HOSPITALITY’ IN THE USSR] Nashe gostepriimstvo [i.e. Our Hospitality]

Moscow; Leningrad: Kinopechat’, 1926. Item #1997

8 pp. In original photomontage wrappers. Restored, rubbed, some soiling, otherwise very good.

Scarce. First edition. Wrapper design and illustrations throughout (including photomontages) by the Soviet artist Naum Sokolik (1897-1944). A member of the Society of Moscow Artists and the Society of Independent Artists, Sokolik was the author of numerous agitational and advertising posters. He also participated in the Traveling Exhibition of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in 1931.
A brochure dedicated to one of the most favourite American movies in the USSR. The 1920s was a pivotal point in the history of the Soviet film industry: the decision to import foreign movies (as a part of the NEP policy) into the Soviet Union resulted in Hollywood completely taking over the Soviet market. Obsession with the Hollywood movie industry was bolstered by the Soviet state publishing house, Kinopechat [i.e. Cinema Press], which issued numerous booklets focusing on the popular foreign films and movie idols. Distinguished with the masterful use of photomontages and constructivist design, Kinopechat’s pamphlets were issued with the print-run of approximately 20,000 copies and became one of the most favourite ‘treats’ of the Soviet audience.

This brochure is dedicated to the famous American silent comedy film Our Hospitality, which was released in 1923 and first shown in the Soviet Union three years later. The comedy-drama was inspired by the Hatfield-McCoy feud and told the story of Willie McKay (Buster Keaton, who was also the director of the movie), who journeyed by train from New York City to Kentucky to claim his fortune amid a decades-old feud with the Canfield family. The movie featured three generations of the Keaton family, Keaton himself, his father Joe (as the Locomotive Engineer) and his infant son, alongside Buster’s wife Natalie Talmadge (as Virginia Canfield). Gaining a huge success in the USSR, the movie was assessed as one of the best American motion pictures by the Soviet audience. Buster Keaton’s performance amazed millions, including the noted Russian theatre director Vsevolod Meyerkhold: ‘In terms of the subtlety of performance, the sharpness of the stage design, the tactfulness of characterization and the stylistic consistency of the gesture, Buster Keaton is an absolutely exceptional phenomenon’. The popularity of the American actor lasted until the abandonment of the Nep policy in 1928, when the foreign movies gradually gave way to the Soviet motion pictures.
The brochure includes a brief description of the movie plot, Buster Keaton’s article about his acting skills, and Nikolai Aseev’s (Russian futurist poet and writer) analysis of the movie and Keaton’s success, which the author links to the actor’s image of ‘Loser-optimist’. The edition features numerous illustrations, including photomontages and photo cartoons by Naum Sokolik. The brochure comprises ads for the upcoming movie Mabul directed by Evgeniy Barkov in 1927, Bor’ba gigantov [i.e. Struggle of the Giants] directed by Viktor Turin in 1926, Chyortovo koleso [i.e. The Devil’s Wheel] directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg in 1926, and Abrek Zaur directed by Boris Mikhin
in 1926.
Overall, an interesting evidence of the 1920s Soviet fascination with the foreign movie industry.

No copies found in
Worldcat.

Price: $600.00