I think I've seen the Smithsonian article. It was about that time people began discovering Madalena. A Hollywood documentarian was in Rochester, NY on business and happened to see an exhibition of Madalena's work at a local bank. He eventually bought much of the collection.
Your Strong reference is intriguing. Apparently a lot of people who were involved in the nuts-and-bolts side of moviemaking and exhibition were also fascinated with other aspects of the business. There is an amazing and huge page at:
http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/
It has tons of articles, most from the latter days of the silent era, on film production and exhibition. I was particularly caught by the articles at the bottom (long scroll down, or use the index at the left) under the heading "An Atypical 1920s Theatre." In papers presented to conventions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, the director of the Eastman Theatre where Madalena worked gives some astonishing insight into the business of exhibition, including some of the rationale behind using resident artists' posters instead of studio issues. He also talks about how a bill was constructed and even, presciently, anticipates the rise of the art house for films of limited interest. There are also papers on projection and scoring of silent films at the Eastman.
The rest of the page has dozens and dozens of articles by filmmakers famous and obscure, as well as journalists and business people of the era. I can spend hours there. This may have been covered before I arrived on the MoPo scene, but for those who haven't seen it, the page is well worth the trip. It's buried in the cinemaweb.com site, most of which doesn't appear very active, so check it out in case it disappears one of these days.
Thanks...
Chris
At 01:16 AM 4/18/2005, you wrote:
hi Chris - thats great that your wifes doing That book! I had a article that was done on
Batistie by I think smithsonian magazine in the 80s..
also the earlie advertisements are of great interest. A local busineesman that was Founder of Stron electric that makes lamphouses for 35mm Movie projectors, had a great interest in the history.
Strong was founded in the 20s.. Harry Strong published a series Of Books and one is called " Ballyhoo" and traces the early forms Of advertising of Motion pictures,, I was shocked that the early Nickelodeons used signs that were hand made by the exhitbitors since no poster were availible.. they also used Flyers I have one for "10 nights in a barroom" and others,
I think the book will be welcomed and i sure would like to see one.
also I have Dave Bowers Book Nickelodeon theatre andthier Music... Its one of my faves as it shows theatre facades and gear and history.
best to you and keep e posted.
I have extensive archives of theatre history from 1895 - 2000 I will be sellin soon with catalogs of gear..opening day ceramonial Movie theatre history , books, trade magazines, and more.and much more.
best, Tom
Chris Berthelsen wrote:
Hello...
This is my first post to the group. I discovered MoPo while posting a message to the movie memorabilia group at eBay. That posting was prompted by an auction I noticed Friday. I don't know how much interest there is in original regional posters from the silent era (I searched the MoPo archive and didn't come up with much) but I'll throw this out for those who are interested. My post went like this:
**********
- Hi, my name is Chris Berthelsen. I'll post a more complete intro in the introduction thread, but I wanted to alert anyone who loves movie posters about an auction I just saw online. It's item #7508217210 and it's a collection in book form of prints from posters by Batiste Madalena, who painted original posters for the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York from 1924-28. I have an interest in this because my wife is co-authoring a book for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on original artist posters in the early years of movies - a lost niche of movie marketing just being rediscovered. It's coming out next year and a huge portion of it is devoted to Batiste Madalena, arguably the most prolific and talented of these artists. We had a copy of the book that is up for auction and we disassembled it to frame prints which are now hanging in our home. The paper stock and printing is THAT good! If you're collecting for profit, the book may increase in value when my wife's book comes out, since it will raise general awareness of the art form. The original Madalena posters (which he rescued from a trash heap when the theater changed ownership - that's a great story!) have increased hugely in value, bringing over $10,000 each now. There are over a hundred in the Academy library and I believe several in MOMA.
- Money aside, these are beautiful posters. We have several full-sized lithographs hanging on our walls. The prints from the book are about 10x16 and just as beautiful. The book is out of print, so if you are looking for something outside the usual run of mass-produced studio posters, check this out.
- I'll keep the group posted on progress on my wife's book, if anyone's interested. It's a large format coffee-table book with hundreds of prints, a massive history of marketing in the silent era and comments from a lot of Hollywood makers and shakers. She's not likely to make much money on this sort of book, but I'd like to get the word out to anyone who loves this kind of memorabilia. And the more people that know about original work from that era, the more that is discovered, The story of how she and her co-author uncovered all this is fascinating.
- If anyone here gets that item, please let us know what you think about the art.
If I had known about MoPo earlier, I might not have made the above post, since this seems to be THE place for avid collectors. The person placing the book up for bid (the auction ends in 2 days) probably doesn't know much about it. He lists the prints as being on heavy cardboard. It's actually on quite good archival stock (we still have a complete copy.) It has a bunch of B&W reference prints in the back, but the color prints include titles like:
The Covered Wagon
Quo Vadis
Captain Blood
The Thundering Herd
Sally of the Sawdust
The Way of All Flesh
The Lost World
Many of Madalena's posters (there are several hundred still surviving), as well as those by other regional artists, are for movies that no longer exist, so there is considerable historical value to them. These are so distinctive from the mass-produced studio posters, since the artists weren't restricted by required credit information or studio politics. George Eastman (the Kodak guy, who owned the Eastman Theatre) gave Madalena only one commandment: the posters had to be seen from passing trollies. As a result, the images are singular, bold, striking - almost surrealistic at times.
I am a movie lover, but I never had much of a passion for posters. But this newly-revealed body of work hooked me. And all the research my wife's done got me caught up in the story behind these paintings (I'm a writer by trade, and a sucker for a good story.)
Like I said above, I don't know how much interest there is here for these works or for the history my wife's working on, but if anyone wants to know more, I'd be happy to pass on what I can.
Thanks for the time and attention...
Chris Berthelsen
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