We are offering a Souvenir Magazine for the 1926 movie Ben-Hur produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring Ramon Novarro as Ben-Hur, Francis X. Bushman as Messala and May McAvoy as Esther. Shown here are many pictures from scenes of the movie with descriptive captions and actual dialogue spoken by Judah Ben-Hur.
The magazine also gives a full-page synopsis of the movie's story.
There are many details of the filming techniques that were used nearly 100 years ago - it was amazing what they were able to accomplish to create these epic action-packed historical scenes with such realism.
The movie was filmed in both California and in Italy for some scenes. For example, the scenes with the Roman fleet and the pirate galleys of Golthar were filmed at the port of Livorno (Leghorn), Italy where, in the shipyard, ships were fitted with sails and triple banks of oars to appear as triremes (ancient vessels that were used on the Mediterranean Sea) a process that took a year and a half to complete. On a huge floating platform, director Fred Niblo filmed these scenes with cameras high on scaffolding 40 feet above the sea's turbulent surface. A full page describes the Chariot Race scene, with Niblo working from his 100-foot tower, supervising 42 cameras that shot 53,000 feet of negative during the day. The magazine also gives a full-page synopsis of the movie's story.