Movie Posters

[MK]

I have many movie posters in my office. I didn't set out to have a collection. I just realized one day that I had one.

Although most of them are films from the last 30 years, some of the posters are from the golden era. I have China, Casablanca and Secret of Incas. I have been thinking of adding a couple more.

Some great movies have lousy posters. The Maltese Falcon is a perfect example of an excelent film but a bogus poster.

I would like a few nice posters for my office. Here are a couple I am considering:

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Does anyone else collect posters?

 

[PrettyBigGuy]

It looks like you have a some good ones picked out there MK. There are so many cool posters from that era it'ss hard to know where to begin!
I don' t collect vintage posters, but I did just spend the last 3 years working for the company that printed ALL of Warner Bros. one-sheets (posters). I've got @ least one copy of every one-sheet for every movie they put out recently. It was pretty cool to just walk out into the pressroom and grab a few double sided posters of of a pallet before they shipped to the theatres!

 

[MK]

Perks are nice.

 

[ITG]

I love displaying doublesided posters backwards. When people come over they usually do a double take. It's quite amusing. I have several double sided posters from around 1992-1994 when I worked in a theater and some more recent ones I got off eBay. (Catch Me If You Can, Return of the Jedi Special Ed., SW-Episode 2 AOTC, Regarding Henry, and some other titles.)

 

[Renderking Fisk]

I love all of them... the remind me (and guests) that Jones wasn't the only one to wear a fedora.

 

[Bogie1943]

I am a big lover of movies posters, especially ones from the golden era as you all know. Being a big Bogie fan I am always on the look out of any posters from his films. The style in which they were done is just incredible and really reflects the times. I still love current posters of todays films, well the ones I really enjoy that is. I wish sometimes the poster industry would go back to that old style.:cool2:

 

[Miss Brill]

This is the only one I have--and someone cut it down to use as the back to a lithograph. :eusa_doh: It is all original & is from 1952--the colors are still vibrant because it has been hidden from light. (It is too big to fit in my scanner.)
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Somewhat full-sized

 

[Miss Brill]

Smaller:

 

[ScionPI2005]

I really need to see that movie...

 

[Midnight Palace]

I always thought the "Manhandled" poster was great

 

[imoldfashioned]

I have a few original movie posters too.

1926 Colleen Moore film Ella Cinders. This was an Australian's insulation until I bought it on ebay (very cheap, I might add! One of my best deals).

A jumbo lobby card from Frank Capra's Broadway Bill--the lovely Miss Myrna Loy. I was picking out a mat for this and the framer said "you know, it doesn't really matter which mat you pick because nobody's going to be able to tear themselves away from her eyes"!

My pride and joy, a 1936 French poster of Myrna Loy by one of my favorite poster artists, Roger Soubie. This photo is bleached, the actual colors are much nicer. It is huge (47"x63") but I love it and I'm decorating my bedroom around it. When it's finished (if it's ever finished!) I'll post pictures.

My holy grails? Paper from After the Thin Man, the Soubie poster for Camille and an insert for Laura.

 

[John in Covina]

Some of my movie posters have been water damaged and puppy damaged.

 

[MisterCairo]

Bumping an old thread rather than starting anew.

A tied record price for a vintage movie poster, Italian version of Casablanca, released there after the war of course:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/italian-casablanca-poster-auction-1.4228391

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ interesting. I wonder if the American one would go for less because, presumably, there are more of them still in existence. I think these posters are really neat, but now that they are big-time collectable, there's something about that, that has turned me off to them.

Maybe I'm just old enough to remember when movie posters were not a big collectable, but more of a true fan-driven experience. It seems the inevitable arc, but eventually, all these fun niche items get sucked into the great vortex of the "collectable" world and they become less appealing (not simply because I, then, can't afford them, but also, in some not-clear-in-my-own-mind way, less enjoyable / less fun).

 

[MisterCairo]

⇧ interesting. I wonder if the American one would go for less because, presumably, there are more of them still in existence. I think these posters are really neat, but now that they are big-time collectable, there's something about that, that has turned me off to them.

Maybe I'm just old enough to remember when movie posters were not a big collectable, but more of a true fan-driven experience. It seems the inevitable arc, but eventually, all these fun niche items get sucked into the great vortex of the "collectable" world and they become less appealing (not simply because I, then, can't afford them, but also, in some not-clear-in-my-own-mind way, less enjoyable / less fun).

I understand that this one is believed to be the last Italian original release version known. It is also large, 1.4 by 2 metres, so this was not your standard lobby-sized poster.

Must be nice to have the money to drop on something like this for your hallway or home theatre!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Movie posters in general used to be much, much harder to come by than they are now -- in the Era they were leased to theatres, but ownership was retained by National Screen Service, the agency that serviced Hollywood's publicty material needs. Theatres were required to either return the posters to NSS after use, or to the film exchange to be passed along to the next theatre along the circuit. The ones that survive today from the Era were, shall we say, obtained illicitly, and to have such a poster you had to have a direct connection in the distribution or exhibition business.

Now, posters are treated as disposable and while theatres still aren't supposed to sell them, they're allowed to give them away or throw them away or do whatever else they feel like doing with them. Any civilian can get a poster, whether by asking at the theatre or just fishing it out of the dumpster after the run, or they can go on eBay and buy one from an authorized seller or a random collector. Not much cachet in doing that.

 

[Fading Fast]

The first time I remember seeing movie posters as something to buy was in an old book store / old stuff store in the '80s and they were not inexpensive, meaning, (long-ago memory, so take it for what it's worth) a few hundred dollars for the ones I thought were neat (which were from big-name movies from the '30s-'50s). But they weren't crazy stupid prices like today. I had no money at all then, so I just looked, but they didn't seem, as they do now, out of the scope of reasonable if you had some money and loved the film.

The guy in the store said people were just starting to collect them, but they were all just laying in bins in the back of the store - no fancy display, no "big deal" feel. He said the generation that grew up with those movies and "young kids into film" were his customers. As noted in my above post, it felt niche and fan-driven - i.e., the people buying them were diehard fans not "collectors" or fancy people looking to "decorate" their homes.

So, I guess, those posters back then were the early "finds" that had, as Lizzie told us, "found" their way into private hands. Had I been able to afford them at the time, I would have bought a few that I liked, not because I was smart about where the market was going, but simply because I liked them. Oh well.

 

[green papaya]

They make nice reproductions / reprints of many of those classic movie posters, I would be satisfied with a repro

 

[Benzadmiral]

⇧ interesting. I wonder if the American one would go for less because, presumably, there are more of them still in existence. I think these posters are really neat, but now that they are big-time collectable, there's something about that, that has turned me off to them.

Maybe I'm just old enough to remember when movie posters were not a big collectable, but more of a true fan-driven experience. It seems the inevitable arc, but eventually, all these fun niche items get sucked into the great vortex of the "collectable" world and they become less appealing (not simply because I, then, can't afford them, but also, in some not-clear-in-my-own-mind way, less enjoyable / less fun).

The only poster or "one-sheet" I ever wanted to have, and did manage to get, was the one from 1979's Watership Down:



I always thought it managed to encapsulate the spirit of the story while intriguing a potential viewer and yet not giving anything away, all in one item. Quite a trick.

 

[Fading Fast]

The only poster or "one-sheet" I ever wanted to have, and did manage to get, was the one from 1979's Watership Down:

View attachment 80884

I always thought it managed to encapsulate the spirit of the story while intriguing a potential viewer and yet not giving anything away, all in one item. Quite a trick.

That is outstanding. If I did ever look for one, it would be for one from a not-famous movie that meant something to me (and that was - as yours is - interesting in and of itself).

While I love looking at them, I personally have no desire to have a "Casablanca" or "Wizard of Oz" poster in my house, but if I could find a good one from "Separate Tables," "I Know Where I'm Going," or "Brief Encounter," I'd be tempted.