FAME IS THE SPUR

Original British 14 1/2 inch x 9 1/2 inch 16 page illustrated Pressbook for the 1947 Roy Boulting Drama FAME IS THE SPUR, based on the novel by Howard Spring, with a screenplay by Nigel Balchin and starring Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, Bernard Miles, Carla Lehmann, Hugh Burden, Marjorie Fielding, Seymour Hicks, Tony Wager, David Tomlinson, Milton Rosmer, Wylie Watson, Ronald Adam, Honor Blackman, Campbell Cotts, Maurice Denham and Kenneth Griffith.

When a young man from a North country mill town (Michael Redgrave) commits to help the poverty stricken workers in his area, he takes as his Excalibur a sword passed down to him by his grandfather from the Battle of Peterloo, where it had been used against workers. As an idealistic champion of the oppressed, he rises to power as a Labour M.P., but is seduced by the trappings of power, and finds himself the type of politician he originally despised.

Cover art by Roger Hall. Roger Hall was born in London 1914. At the age of 15 he began work as a junior for London Art Service and after 3 years experience he then joined Art Display Services until his call-up in 1941. In 1946 he joined Pulford Publicity churning out 2-3 posters a week producing around 300 posters before he resigned in 1953 to take up bookjacket illustration.

Cover design by Eric Pulford (1915 – 2005). Having taken life classes at Leeds College of Art for 5 years Pulford was apprenticed as a commercial artist in 1931 to Gilchrist Bros a process house of 24 staff. Leslie Whitchurch, a partner in a Leicester based agency and also a part-time publicity manager for Rank, became aware of Pulford’s work and asked him to do some freelance work for him. Then in 1943 Rank invited Pulford to start a publicity department for them in London resulting in posters for “Henry V”, “Odd Man Out” and “Oliver Twist”. When the head of Downtons advertising agency, Charles Collins, died, Pulford was asked to take over. He became chairman and managing director but still spent most of his time designing posters. He retired in 1986. Pulford is responsible, either through his own artwork or design, for several hundred posters, some for classic films such as the ones already mentioned plus “Edge of the World”, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, “Genevieve”, “Reach for the Sky” and “A Night to Remember”. He is, without doubt, the most important force in British film poster design from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s.

The pressbook is in very good condition with a tiny nick in the cover.