PLAISIRS DE CANNES - PLEASURES OF CANNES 1939 PRE-WAR ISSUE - RARE For Sale

We are offering the RARE 1939 edition of "Plaisirs de Cannes" [Pleasures of Cannes] that was published during 1938, the summer preceding World War II. This copy of the "Season of the Cote d'Azur [French Riviera] and the Alps" was reserved for the important visitors who were expected to attend the first Cannes Film Festival that was to begin in September of 1939. (10 1/2 x 14 1/4) This issue was intended to be distributed a few days before the opening of the festival. That 1939 festival was cancelled due to the beginning of World War II in Europe. "The outbreak of that terrible war prevented the festival from taking place until seven years later in 1946" - at which time this original 1939 magazine was released on the occasion of the 1946 Film Festival. A strip that they had affixed at the bottom of this 1939 magazine says, "Edition 1939 Diffusee a l'occasion du Festival du Film 1946".
The magazine is in French, but a supplemental Introduction to the magazine is in both French and English. It says, "After six years of terror and indescribable suffering, Cannes courageously is rapidly recovering her former atmosphere of gaiety. This publication, kept in reserve for seven years, will be associated with a past that those who remembered Cannes with never forget. Here, then, the homage to the hosts that the 1946 Film Festival is bringing back to us, is the retrospective view of the brilliant climate and scenery promised to the visitors in 1939...,,." It states that the magazine gives the faithful record of the last days of the "douceur de vivre" [the sweetness of life] in Cannes.
The magazine has pictures of the June 1938 ball at the governor's house in Cannes with a picture of Marlene Dietrich and others seated at a table, Maurice Chevalier with others, the King and Queen of Denmark, Duke and Dutchess of Windsor, Joseph Kennedy, Sr. in a bathing suit on the coast, and others. Also, pictures of the activities offered at Cannes: sailboat regatta, polo, skiing, etc.The magazine has many ads for luxury hotels, night clubs, casinos, and one for Air France propeller plane flights. The last page, in French and English, tells of apartments and houses for rent in Cannes for visitors, and states that high class day schools, boarding schools and colleges were available for the education of children of all ages of visiting families that were there for extended stays. **AN INTERESTING NOTE** - in August of 1939 an ocean liner, chartered by MGM studios, carried movie stars to France for the festival, including Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, Gary Cooper, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mae West, Norma Shearer, Paul Muni, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy and George Raft. On August 31, the opening night gala took place with the private screening of The Hunchback of Notre Dame starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara. The next day on September 1, German troops invaded Poland, and on September 3 France and the United Kingdom declared war against Germany, sparking the Second World War.
**CONDITION** - Pages are Excellent. Covers show some light soiling and a few edge-chips that have been repaired with acid-free archival mending tape. Also, the spine has been reinforced with the same mending tape; and the back cover has a 1 1/4" piece that somehow had gotten torn away on the right side of the illustration of the theatre. (see images)

---