Get your discount copies of "Green Light," while stock lasts

It's been a long time since there was a Tucked Away Inside post on Papergreat.¹ And it's been a really long time since there was a good Tucked Away Inside post on Papergreat.²

So here's a new one.

I'll let you judge whether it's "meh" or "good."

Upon opening a copy of the 1922 staplebound one-act play Sauce for the Goslings, by Elgine Warren³, I discovered a green leaflet advertising Green Light, by Lloyd C. Douglas.⁴

Now, here's the interesting part. The play was published in 1922, but Green Light, to the best of my research, wasn't published until 1934 or 1935. So this leaflet didn't find its way inside Sauce for the Goslings until more than a decade later. That's interesting, right?? (OK, maybe it's neither interesting nor unusual. In fact, I take a kind of perverse pleasure in creating Tucked Away Inside non sequiturs — putting new items inside old books and old items inside new books and then completely forgetting about them and leaving them as head-scratchers for some future ephemeraologist.)

The leaflet teases the "Sensational Offer" for Green Light. The book was available for $1.39 instead of the regular price of $2.50.

"GREEN LIGHT WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THIS RECORD-BREAKING LOW PRICE ONLY WHILE THE STOCK LASTS. GET YOUR COPY OF THIS BOOK NOW! DON'T MISS SEEING THE GREAT PHOTOPLAY SOON TO BE RELEASED!"

"Photoplay," in this instance, is a synonym for "motion picture." Indeed, Green Light was made into a 1937 film of the same name starring Errol Flynn.

A price of $1.39 in 1935 was the equivalent of about $24 today, so it was still a somewhat pricey novel, even with the "Sensational Offer."⁵

The reverse side of the leaflet indicates that the offer was being made by John W. Graham & Co. of Spokane, Washington. You can find some neat historical ephemera from that business at the Vintage Spokane blog. Here's my favorite:

That's it, unless you're truly interested in Sauce for the Goslings, in which case, if you ask nicely, I might read it and provide a review.

Footnotes
1. It's been 107 days since "Mrs. H.M. Stauffer's visiting card tucked inside an old book."
2. It's been (gasp) 434 days since "Some cool stuff inside 1878's "Young Folks' History of Germany" also known as the Mysterious White Powder Post.
3. It doesn't look like Elgine Warren published much beyond Sauce for the Goslings. His wife, however, earned some minor fame as a director. Here's an excerpt from Talahi, the 1922 yearbook for North Central High School in the Spokane, Washington, area:

"The Fortune Hunter" by Winchell Smith, which was presented May 10, 1922, in the North Central auditorium by the Masque Dramatic society, was considered a success. Miss Elgine Warren coached the production. The play was a clever comedy in four acts. It centered around Nathaniel Duncan, who had been petted all his life and supplied with too much money."

4. Here are Lloyd C. Douglas' previous appearances on Papergreat:

• Poignant birthday gift from the Class of 1943-44
• Maps, maps and more maps

5. These days, you can get used copies of Green Light for $3 or less online.