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The 17th book published by Bantam Publications is Private Lives of Movie Stars by Eleanor Packer. This is a paperback original.
In common with all but one of LA Bantam's books Private Lives of Movie Stars is 100 pages long and is 110 mm (4 5/16") wide by 152 mm (6") tall. Cover and pages are made from high acid pulp paper. The page collation is:
[1] title page,
2-100 Private Lives of Movie Stars.
The copyright date of 1940 is on the title page. The back cover is an ad for Bantam books.
In common with most LA Bantams there are likely variant covers but the strong yellowish green/light orange yellow one below is the only one of which I'm aware. This copy has a red "10c" sticker at the top right corner. I know of four other LA Bantam copies with an identical "10c". It clearly was added by the publisher to some of their books.
One of the intriguing aspects to Bantam Publications is the illustrated covers seen on books 21 to 28 plus A1. Books 21 to 28 also had text only covers. Why illustrated? Were they published after the text versions, before or at the same time? Why only these nine books out of the total of 29 that Bantam published? Who were the artists?
The reason is likely an effort to boost sales. Pocket Books was producing colourful covers and the bland text only Bantams would look uninviting next to them in the bookstores or on the news stands.
There is evidence that books 21 to 28 were published separately from books 1 to 20. Books 1 to 20 have an ad on the back cover not seen on books 21 to 28. There are a couple of different ads on books 21 to 28 listing either 11 or 12 books. Some of books 1 to 20 have these ads as well and are likely later printings. Books 1 to 20 were in two April 1941 Publisher's Weekly lists of books published. See this post for the details. Finally, for those books in the Library of Congress's Catalogue of Copyright Entries, the ones from books 1 to 20 group are dated July through September 1940. The ones from the second group are dated April 1941.
So it appears that only the later batch of books were given illustrated covers, perhaps at the same time as the text only variants were published. The last book, Red Threads (A1), was published with only an illustrated cover.
The art is unsigned.
LA Bantam 24
LA Bantan 28
LA Bantam A1
I was fortunate recently to buy one of the nine books with a very uncommon illustrated cover published by Bantam Publications of Los Angeles. Their 28th book is Mignon G. Eberhart's Strangers In Flight.
In common with all but one of LA Bantam's books Strangers In Flight is 100 pages long and is 110 mm (4 5/16") wide by 152 mm (6") tall. Cover and pages are made from high acid pulp paper. The page collation is:
[1] title page,
[2] copyright page,
3-100 Strangers In Flight.
The book has a 1940 copyright date and states that the story was published in the November, 1940 McCall's Magazine. The back cover lists books 21 through 27.
In common with most LA Bantams there are variant covers. In addition to the illustrated version shown below there are strong yellowish green/light blue and strong yellowish green/light orange yellow text only versions.
LA Bantam 28
LA Bantam 28 back
