Publicity photographs for the movie “Pastor Hall” (1940)
Extent and Medium
.1: Height: 6.000 inches (15.24 cm) | Width: 7.750 inches (19.685 cm)
.2: Height: 7.000 inches (17.78 cm) | Width: 9.000 inches (22.86 cm)
Creator(s)
- Charter Film Productions (Production Company)
- United Artists Corporation (Distributor)
- Grand National Pictures (Distributor)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
Biographical History
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.
Archival History
The photographs were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
Scope and Content
Set of two publicity photographs for the British feature film “Pastor Hall,” released in the United States on September 13, 1940. The photographs feature the sons of First Lady Eleanor and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Elliott, Franklin, Jr., and James Roosevelt at the Philadelphia and New York premieres of the film. “Pastor Hall” was an adaptation of the 1938 play written by Ernst Toller, a Prussian Jewish veteran of World War I. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Toller was declared an enemy of the state and immigrated to England, and moved again to the United States in 1936. In the film, a Lutheran minister resists the Nazification of German Protestant churches, and is imprisoned in a concentration camp as a result. He manages to escape, but is eventually killed. It equates Hitler with the Antichrist, bent on destroying not only the Jewish people, but Christianity as well. The protagonist is based on Rev. Martin Niemöller, who was arrested in 1936 and sent to Dachau concentration camp. ”Pastor Hall” was brought to the United States by James Roosevelt, son of First Lady Eleanor and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The producers had to cut 5 minutes of the most brutal scenes before it was given approval by the American censors. The First Lady recorded a prologue to the film, informing the American viewers that it was representative of actual events. 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.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
.1: Black-and-white photograph with a narrow white margin on all four sides. It depicts two young men in suits and ties, shot from the shoulders up at a low angle. They are looking at a strip of film, which the man on the right is holding up. On the back, a piece of brown paper with typewritten text is taped to the top. In the center is a large, tilted block of stamped text in black ink. Overlaying it is a faint purple stamp at a near-vertical angle. The left edge is irregular, as though messily trimmed. Left to right: Elliott Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. .2: Black-and-white photograph with a narrow white margin on all sides. On the right are a man in a black suit and a woman wearing a short, white cape over a light-colored dress with beaded details, standing in front of a movie poster. The poster shows a Nazi officer from the shoulders down, in left profile, holding a pistol. The couple are looking up at the pistol on the poster, which appears as if it is pointing at a tall man in a black suit on the left. He is facing the couple on the right and smiling. The back of the photograph has a piece of brown paper with typewritten text adhered to the center, directly below a date stamped in red. The paper is overlaid on a tilted block of text, stamped in purple ink. In the bottom right corner is a small piece of white paper with a barcode and text printed inversely in black ink. The paper is slightly warped and has discolored areas throughout the back. Left to right: James Roosevelt, Jean Robinson, Edward G. Robinson
.1 back, brown paper, typed, black ink : P 570694 / ROOSEVELTS AT PREMIERE OF BORTHER’S [sic] MOVIE / PHILADELPHIA – ELLIOTT ROOSEVELT, AND HIS BROTHER, / FRANKLIN D., JR., (RIGHT) LOOKING OVER RUSHES OF / PASTOR HALL, AS THEY ATTENDED THE PREMIERE OF THE / MOVIE IN PHILADELPHIA ON AUG. 23RD. THE FILM / WAS PRODUCED BY THEIR BROTHER, JAMES, WHO / WAS UNABLE TO ATTEND THE OPENING ON ACCOUNT OF / ILLNESS. / CREDIT LINE (ACME) 8-23-40 (BUS BUF DC) (JO) .1 back, center, stamped, black ink : PHOTO BY / ACME NEWSPICTURES, Inc. / CHICAGO BUREAU / TRIBUNE TOWER, CHICAGO, ILL. / PLEASE CREDIT “ACME” / THIS PICTURE IS SOLD TO YOU FOR YOUR PUBLICATION / ONLY AND MUST NOT BE LOANED, SYNDICATED OR / USED FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSES WITHOUT WRITTEN / PERMISSION FROM US. .1 back, center, stamped, purple ink : [PHOTO BY / ACME NEW/SPICTURES INC / [220 E. 42nd STREET,] NEW YORK CITY / [Please Credit “]Acme Photo / [THIS PICTURE IS SOLD] TO YOU FOR YOUR / [PUBLICATION ONLY AND] MUST NOT BE LOANED / [SYNDICATED OR USED FOR] ADVERTISING PURPOSES / [WITHOUT WRITTEN PERM]ISSION FROM US .2 back, brown paper, typed, black ink : 574553 / ROOSEVELT FILM OPENS IN NEW YORK / NEW YORK CITY – ACTOR EDWARD G. ROBINSON AND / HIS DAUGHTER, JEAN, LOOKING AT ONE OF THE / POSTERS IN THE LOBBY OF THE GLOBE THEATER AS / THEY ARRIVED FOR THE PREMIERE OF THE FILM / “PASTOR HALL”, PRODUCED BY JAMES ROOSEVELT, / LOOKING ON AT LEFT, HERE TONIGHT. / CREDIT LINE (ACME) 9-20-40 (NY CHI LA NWK WN) (JO) .2 back, center, stamped, red ink : SEP 23 1940 .2 back, center, stamped, purple ink : [PHO]TO BY / [A]CME NEWSPIC[TURES INC / 220 E.] 42nd STREET, [NEW YORK CITY / Please] Credit [“Acme Photo / THIS PICTURE IS SOLD] TO YOU FOR YOUR / PUBLICATION ONLY AND MUST NOT BE LOANED / SYNDICATED OR USED FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSES / [WITHOUT WRITTEN PERM]ISSION FROM US] .2 back, lower right corner, printed on sticker, black ink : [barcode] / ATJ-126-CT
People
- Hicks, Seymour, 1871-1949.
- Goring, Marius, 1912-1998.
- Roosevelt, Franklin D., Jr. (Franklin Delano), 1914-1988.
- Roosevelt, James, 1907-1991.
- Lawson, Wilfrid, 1900-1966.
- Roosevelt, Elliott, 1910-1990.
- Robinson, Edward G., 1893-1973.
- Niemöller, Martin, 1892-1984.
- Toller, Ernst, 1893-1939.
- Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962.
- Pilbeam, Nova, 1919-2015.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Political violence in motion pictures.
- Clergy--Crimes against.
- Film adaptations.
- United States.
- Nazis in motion pictures.
- Great Britain.
- Anti-Nazi movement in motion pictures.
- Foreign films.
- Imprisonment in motion pictures.
Genre
- Object
- Publicity photographs.
- Photographs