Most Popular Movie Stars in 1935 According to a Mid-Western Theatre Operator
This actually began as a feature in an issue of my other newsletter, affiliated with my magazine collecting site. The January 1936 issue of The American Magazine included an article by A.H. Blank responding to a then recent article from a popular Movie Magazine which published a top ten list of the most popular movie stars at the time. That poll claimed to have been compiled from a survey of 352 movie critics from all over the United States, but Blank, as the president of two motion picture theater corporations in Des Moines, as well as being in charge of the operation of 75 motion picture theaters in 35 cities and towns in Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois, felt that the published list may have focused too much upon the opinions from the coasts.
Here is the top ten which Blank took exception too:
1. Charles Laughton
2. Claudette Colbert
3. George Arliss
4. Clark Gable
5. Leslie Howard
6. Norma Shearer
7. Greta Garbo
8. Will Rogers
9. Shirley Temple
10. Helen Hayes
(Note: Any items linked in blue text will take you to a Profile of that star
written especially for this site)
Blank then went on to include his own top ten, which by the time of writing would omit the recently deceased Will Rogers. I included that top ten on the magazine site, but with the promise that I would include Blank's entire list over here where it seemed to be more relevant. The American notes that this list was compiled from Blank's records of theater attendance in 75 motion picture houses of the Middle West over the past year. I can only imagine that this is a Top 53 list (rather than 50) because the originally published page allowed for three extra lines of text (though counting teams and pairs there are 59 total names), but that's what it was and so here it is, A.H. Blank's top 53 Movie Stars from back in 1936:
|
1. Shirley Temple |
19. Charles Laughton |
37. Ronald Colman |
There's an earlier, but similar, feature elsewhere on the site which counts down the 102 Most Popular Film Stars as reported in the February 1917 issue of Motion Picture Magazine.
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