We figured we would document how we put our pages together.
Step 1. We went to our Request Hotline page and saw that we had a few people had requested Alan Ladd.
Step 2. We pulled out our Rating The Movie Stars book and identified how many movies we needed to research.
Step 3: We went to our UMR database to find out how many Alan Ladd movies we already had researched.
Step 4: We pulled out all of our Variety Year End Magazines and looked for Alan Ladd’s Top Grossers.
Step 5: We went looking through our MGM, Warner Brothers, RKO and 20th Century Ledgers looking for Alan Ladd movies.
Step 6: We then start going through the many movie books we have at the house.
Step 7: Identified the 10 missing movies left to research and starting checking out Wikipedia, IMDb.com, and “book” searches on google. This is like looking through a haystick for a needle…but we did find some treasure nuggets out there like….Paratroopers/The Red Beret earned $8 million in worldwide box office.
Step 8: At this point we had 47 movies researched….and 6 missing movies. Of the 47 “found” movies….one was Citizen Kane. We decided to not include the movie…because (a) he is uncredited and (b) his part had nothing to do with the success of that movie…it is just cool trivia. We also decided his part in Duffy’s Tavern was a cameo and his part in The Black Cat (1931 version not the classic 1934 version) was too small to be counted. That left our new totals…of 46 movies researched and 4 missing movies.
Step 9: Using reverse engineering we tried to figure out the best possible educated guesses on the box office grosses for the 4 missing movies. Some of the main factors we knew for sure, included, none of these movies reached $1.0 million in box office rentals and all were considered box office disappointments. So knowing the box office ceiling…we were able to come up with a range that these movies fell into. It is very possible that these 4 movies actually did worse than our estimates…..but they did not do better.
Step 10: Once all of the box office information was put into the table, we researched critic and audience reviews, checked for movie award recognition and listed the his co-stars….and we were ready to publish.
So that is how we put these pages together. We will keep looking for the 4 missing movies……but for the time being…we feel very good about our box office numbers that are listed in this page.
Cool information!!! Looking at those books, I feel like home- but maybe the most important book you’ve got I am missing in my library, the one on the biggest box office hits. You are right about the book on Paramount, to me it is the weakest in the series. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to have a look into “The Process”!
Hey Lupino…I had forgotten about this page…but it really is a good look at The Process….all of these years of doing these pages…I am pretty quick to know where to look. Since then…I have been using the Harrison Reports from 1935 to 1950 as another source……but the Process is still the same.
As for Paramount….not sure why I even bother to look…..but every once in a while it will confirm that a movie did really really badly…but it never offers up any numbers at all. The Big Box Office book…shows the Top 5 movies of the year from 1939 to the mid 1980s….you can find similar stats on this link…http://filmindex.0catch.com/boxoffice.htm
Thanks for checking out his lost page.
Hello Bruce,
thanks so much for the link!
Hey Lupino….here to help…:) Glad you like that link….I go there often when researching these classic pages.
Hey Bruce. I was looking at some stuff on the internet I stumbled across this page. Not sure how I got there but I thought it was interesting when I realized it was your page and that I actually know you. Just thought you would like to know. Hope all is going well in your neck of the woods. Miss working with you and getting my daily movie fix.
Hey Kelly….nice find….I had forgotten I had this page out there…I should put it in the index. Glad you found it and remembered who it was by. I miss working with you as well…..but I certainly do not miss H.T. at all….especially with the news that somebody I did not get along with moving up to the #2 man in the company….I am so much better off…where I am. Thanks again for the surprise visit.
I have 5 of the books you have pictured. Do you know on Wikipedia if you look up the annual top 10 box office stars they actually have for some years for Quigley #’s 11 to 25. They used to show at least in the 70’s editions of the annual Screen World’s those numbers also. This info probably fits your top stars list better.
Hey Dan…..some of the studio books are helpful in my searches….especially the RKO (not shown in picture) book. The Paramount is probably the least helpful……when I am doing this pages…I cringe when I see the movie was from Paramount…as I know finding box office information for non-smash hits is going to be very very difficult.
I have seen some of those Wiki Quigley numbers…..the College of William and Mary has every single Screen World ever published….I love those books…even if they offer up no box office information. Thanks for the information and visit.
Thanks for the large type.
You are welcome Flora…sorry if some of the photos did not come out too clear.
Sounds like a lot of work.
Hey Helakoski….sometimes it is a lot of work…in this case it was not too bad. Thanks for checking out the page.