us-005578-irn614181-irn693063
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Lobby card with a large, multi-colored photographic image of a scene still printed on rectangular off-white paper, from the film “Hitler, Beast of Berlin.” The image depicts two men in a confrontation, with a German military officer grabbing the front of a prisoner’s brown shirt. The movie title is in the lower right corner, printed in large, yellow, green, and white block text with a red square. The paper has a half-inch margin and is yellowed. There are several tears along the left edge, and a large tear along the right, which has been repaired with tape on the back. The back of the card is discolored and stained, and there two sets of pencil inscriptions, an ink stamp and a piece of white tape on the left, and a strip of brown tape along the top and bottom edges. Left to right: Roland Drew as Hans Memling, Hans Schumm as Schaefer back, top center, handwritten, pencil : 1939 Producers / Roland Drew / Hans Joby [sic] back, left edge, stamped vertically, black ink : [Indep]endent Poster Exch. / [1323 ]Vine St. – Phila., Pa. back, right edge, handwritten, pencil : Colonial / W. PHILA
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
date: 1939 October 29
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 4
has or had identifier: 2
has or had identifier: 3
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has record set type: Item
history: The lobby card was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
history: The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
identifier: irn693063
is or was included in: us-005578-irn614181
record resource extent: Overall: Height: 11.000 inches (27.94 cm) | Width: 14.000 inches (35.56 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Lobby card for the American feature film “Hitler, Beast of Berlin” released by Producers Pictures Corporation in October 1939, and re-released in 1942. Lobby cards are promotional materials placed in theater lobby windows to highlight specific movie scenes, rather than the broader themes often depicted on posters. After encountering opposition from censorship boards, the film was alternatively called “Goose Step,” the title of the adapted novel, and eventually released as “Beasts of Berlin.” In the film, Hans Memling, his wife, and his brother-in-law are members of an underground Nazi-resistance movement. He is arrested and ends up in a camp as a political prisoner. Hans and the other prisoners are interrogated, beaten, and forced into slave labor at the hands of Nazi guards. This was the first American film to depict a simulated concentration camp in Germany. The film also includes newsreel footage of military marches and of Adolf Hitler himself. While it acknowledged a pervasive isolationist mentality, “Beasts” also appealed to the American values of democracy and freedom. Press materials encouraged a sensationalist marketing strategy while official statements claimed that the film was not propaganda. Prior to its release, “Beasts of Berlin” received numerous sanctions from the censors at the Production Code Administration (PCA). This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
title: Lobby card for the film “Hitler, Beast of Berli" (1939)