Folks-After this latest-dealer-restorer-consignor fiasco with the "Dracula"
one-sheet, I felt compelled to make this post. To me it seems the movie poster
biz has gone the way of New York City. In the seventies & eighties, Both New
York & the hobby were a little dirty, but still relatively cheap and fun, and
both were enjoyed by people who really appeciated them. You could make poster
finds relatively cheap, and you pals would hold whatever posters you wanted to
purchase from them until you had the dough to pay. I remember old time dealers
like Steve Sally, Eric Caidin, Bob Coleman, Dino Sisto, and many others would
say-"pay me when you have the $$$". Friends would actually meet and discuss
films and posters. Many folks (myself included) collected 16 & 35mm film, the
purest form of cinema collectable. New York was the same. There were plenty of
cheap places to eat, shop & visit. Realtors would work to get you deals on
apartments. People were street smart & tough and didn't n!
eed 5'2" cops from East Cupcake to protect them. Only folks who really loved
the city were here. Then, during the late Eighties, something happened. Certain
individuals (in the case of movie posters, they were ex-comic geeks & Wall
streeters) felt they could exploit both the poster biz and New York real estate
market. The poster hobby was "cleaned up". New York was "cleaned up". "Pretty
people" starting moving into "the hobby" and into New York. Prices rose slowly
through the roof. From the outside, everything looked rosy. But was it? Not
really! Poster dealers used corrupt auction houses to sell stuff. Realtors
developed every piece of land using crooked contractors and shoddy
construction. Cheap ethnic eateries, small businesses, and rent-controlled
lessees were forced out. Reasonable and free parking became non-existant. Old
time poster collectors were harrassed night & day via phone by high pressure
dealers demanding they sell there stuff. The fun was gone. Rarely did a!
high priced poster change hands between two collector friends. Auctio
n house fees went through the roof. Lots of "salt-of-the-earth" folks abandoned
the city. The degradation of both hobby & city mirrored each other.Do you want
to have an $8- glass of beer with a white-bread yuppie? Do you want to discuss
posters with some geek who has never seen the movies? Does anybody want to be
here anymore?
The first sign that the poster hobby was going down the tubes occured to me in
the early 90's at a major auction house. A "relative" of a man running an
auction had a slip-up while shilling one of the major items. I knew we were in
trouble after that. The vortex swirled down into the cesspool gradually after.
As far as the current poster problems, I don't know what to do. We seem to have
all these restoration "experts", but does anybody know what is really going on?
About a year ago I purchased a "Werewolf of London" half-sheet from this fellow
Thomas Rega, who is alleged to have consigned this fake "Dracula" one-sheet to
Joe Maddalena. It was rolled, looked nice, but had a little staining. I sent it
off to Ted Eiseman Of Funny Face to be cleaned. He promptly told me that the
stains were printed into the poster, that the item was fake, and that he
doesn't do any work on fakes/reproductions (quite admirable in these days &
times!). I contacted Mr. Rega and he proceeded to "beat around the bush". I
filed a Paypal claim, left him bad feedback, and said I would drive to his
home. He refunded my money. I called Ebay and told them about this
perpetration. They said they wanted nothing to do with it as long as Mr. Rega
refunded my money. Nobody cares. I, personally would never patronize!
a restorer who worked on fakes or made a mistake evaluating a $250,000-
poster. Whoever did the Haggard jobs should be blackballed by all. I had an
e-mail exchange with Haggard years ago and he quoted "my reputation means
nothing to me". Obviously! Any major auction house who doesn't step it up to
restore integrity (what little there is left!?!)should be boycotted. Maybe one
of these auction houses should hold a "sale"-where fees are lowered for a time
to foster good will (doubtful). Collectors should be wary of buying from
anybody who uses shills (including "friends" who say "bid this up for me").
People should also not buy from anybody on Ebay who "sells" something, and then
the same item, same condition appears again (often more than once!). Know who
your real friends are. In years gone by, folks cared about there family,
friends, pride and reputation. Nowadays, people care about Andrew Jacksons,
Ulysses S. Grants amd Benjamin Franklins. How sad.
On a good note, October will be a banner month for DVD releases. the '52-'54
Shemp Stooges, the RKO Lugosi-Karloff box, The Columbia noirs, and that much
awaited box set Of "B" Universal Horror Movies will be released, but maybe I'm
one of the few who cares-have fun!
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