Pressbook cover printed in black ink on rectangular, off-white paper. Across the top of the page is the booklet title in a script font. In the center of the page is a large rectangle with an image on the left half, and an inset rectangle with the film title and credits on the right half. The background of the image has several flying and falling warplanes. In the bottom left, a man and woman in military uniform are depicted from the shoulders up, smiling at each other. In the bottom left corner of this image is a small, canted square containing advertising copy. Below the image, on the left, is a small, circular logo. Spanning the bottom of the page is a thin, black bar. Below is the production logo, copyright information, and advertising copy. On the reverse, the top half of the page is filled with an advertisement for the film. It features an image of the two principal characters, against a background of various warplanes and partially overlaid by the image of a pilot running in a flight suit. The images are overlaid with text featuring the actor’s names, the film title, and credits. Below the advertisement is a narrow, horizontal black bar. The bottom half of the page contains three columns of text with production information, including the synopsis, staff, and cast. The left edge of the page is rough and uneven, where it was torn from the booklet. There is orange staining along the edges, especially on the left. A visible horizontal fold line bisects the center of the page, and the cover is partially torn along the left end of this fold. Depicted: Tyrone Power as Tim Baker, Betty Grable as Carol Brown
No restrictions on access
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
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.
The pressbook cover was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Overall: Height: 17.000 inches (43.18 cm) | Width: 11.125 inches (28.258 cm)
Cover to a pressbook for the American film, “A Yank in the R.A.F,” released in September 1941 by 20th Century-Fox. The film tells the story of a young American pilot who, after ferrying a warplane to Great Britain, runs into his ex-girlfriend, who has joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. To remain close to her, the pilot volunteers for the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.), and is assigned to the squadron of a competing suitor. He is eventually shot down during the Battle of Dunkirk, but manages to survive and return to his love. Not only did the R.A.F. provide the studio with stock footage, but they also helped film the aerial battle scenes. They mounted automatic cameras to gun carriages on some of their planes, enabling them to shoot footage of actual skirmishes. During one of these dogfights, two studio cameramen were killed when their plane was shot down. The film was released prior to the United States entering World War II, and promoted Americans who were already at war. At the beginning of September 1941, prior to the film’s release, producer Darryl F. Zanuck testified before a Senate subcommittee investigating Hollywood’s alleged violations of the Neutrality Act. 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.
Pressbook cover for the film “A Yank in the R.A.F.” (1941)