LGBTQ+ Film History Publicity Materials for Myra Breckinridge and Trans Representation in Hollywood, 1970

Gore Vidal Transgender film

Archive

Twentieth Century Fox’s Myra Breckinridge publicity archive, 1970, documents the visual promotion of a major-studio film centered on a transgender woman, gender nonconformity, and attacks on Hollywood masculinity. Adapted from Gore Vidal’s 1968 novel, the film starred Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge, with John Huston, Mae West, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Roger Herren in supporting roles; AFI identifies the film’s subjects as including bisexuality, homosexuality, lesbianism, “sex change,” Hollywood, actors, students, seduction, and gendered social conflict. The material belongs to LGBTQ+ film and New Hollywood publicity culture, illustrating how a controversial commercial studio release used star image, costume, and provocative gender performance to market a film built around trans identity and the disruption of conventional sexual roles.
The archive consists of four 1970 promotional items for Myra Breckinridge: three color lobby card photographs and one vintage glossy black-and-white silver gelatin publicity photograph. The large lobby card measures 11 x 14 inches; the two smaller lobby cards measure 8 x 10 inches; the silver gelatin photograph measures 8 x 10 inches. The lobby cards show scenes from the film featuring Welch and Huston, including images of Welch in the white costumes closely associated with the character’s stylized screen persona; all three lobby cards carry the film title, the 20th Century Fox logo, and a 1970 copyright statement in the lower white margin. The images foreground costume, celebrity, and theatrical confrontation rather than narrative continuity, making the group especially useful for studying the marketing of gender transgression through Hollywood glamour, camp visual codes, and star publicity.
[1] Twentieth Century Fox. Myra Breckinridge large lobby card. Los Angeles: Twentieth Century Fox, 1970. Color promotional card, 11 x 14 inches, showing Raquel Welch in a scene from the film and retaining the printed studio and copyright information in the lower margin. [2] Twentieth Century Fox. Myra Breckinridge lobby card. Los Angeles: Twentieth Century Fox, 1970. Color promotional card, 8 x 10 inches, featuring Welch and emphasizing the film’s use of costume and pose in constructing Myra’s public image. [3] Twentieth Century Fox. Myra Breckinridge lobby card. Los Angeles: Twentieth Century Fox, 1970. Color promotional card, 8 x 10 inches, showing another publicity still from the film, with printed title and studio branding. [4] Twentieth Century Fox. Myra Breckinridge silver gelatin publicity photograph. Los Angeles: Twentieth Century Fox, 1970. Glossy black-and-white 8 x 10 inch still connected to the film’s original publicity campaign. Minor edge wear and light handling to the lobby cards and photograph; images remain clean and legible; overall very good. Focused group of original publicity materials for a controversial LGBTQ+ film text whose mainstream studio circulation, trans subject matter, and highly stylized presentation of gender make it a significant artifact of 1970s queer film reception and visual culture.

Item #19874

Price: $480.00