# The 1963 Fox Cleopatra becomes a Hollywood publicity instrument, not a primary source

Date: 1963

## The fact

On 12 June 1963 (U.S. opening cluster) Fox’s [Cleopatra](/people/cleopatra), as LoC publicity stills document, fixed a studio Egypt for a mass public. It is reception, not a coin, and not Plutarch. Polarising glamour-versus-history is a modest path.

## Context

Folger Shakespeare pages show the earlier vernacular play as another reception, not a 30 BCE file.

Cleopatra is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official museum, UNESCO, or edition pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Library of Congress — Cleopatra (1963) film stills / publicity record (https://www.loc.gov/item/2011685082/; Library of Congress).

## Significance

A 1963 studio still is not a British Museum coin.

A 1963 studio still is not a British Museum coin.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Cleopatra: https://factrail.ai/people/cleopatra

## Drivers

- Political Polarization: https://factrail.ai/drivers/political-polarization

## Sources

- https://www.bfi.org.uk/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/2011685082/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cl-1963-film-reception