“Movienews, ‘Chicago’s Reel Newspaper,’ 1933–1937”

ABSTRACT: Movienews was a weekly tabloid of 16-20 pages published in Chicago for five years in the mid-1930s. Heavily sponsored by ads, it promoted local retail businesses seeking to attract middle class women by offering information and gossip about movie stars. Most of the columns were syndicated, but for six months in 1935-1936 others were written by a well-known Chicago film critic, Genevieve Harris, who conducted tours of the Hollywood studios. Especially interesting was her interview with Dorothy Arzner, now an associate producer at Columbia after a decade as an important director. If Movienews was not unique, what other similar tabloids circulated in cities across the country in the 1930s?