I love all the stories of collectors. I have a customer whose Father was best friends with a guy that ran one of the poster exchanges in the midwest. When he was a kid he use to go on Saturdays with his Dad to visit the friend at work. The friend would give him some kind of poster. My customer began to develope his interest in certain movie and when he would go to visit on Saturdays would ask for a certain title. Not to seem greedy, he would only ask for one or two. The friend told him about the way the posters were distributed to theaters in that the theaters would pay a nominal fee to "rent" the poster and it would be returned, theoretically, after the exhibition of the movie. So, this customer of mine got a bit older and got a paper route and would head down to see his Dad's friend on Saturday with money to buy posters. So, I have been framing those posters for years and what he did was collect the one sheet, insert, half sheet, lobby card set, 30x40 and 40x60 on every one of his favorite films which included Hitchcock and Elizabeth Taylor. He told me the posters were about a dollar and the lobby card sets were about a dollar and a half. He has kept them in pristine shape all these years and, obviously, since he can't frame everything, keeps them carefully stored. Many of you know Jim Dietz, a longtime collector and dealer in our hobby who also wrote the first movie poster price guide back in the 80's. Back in the 60's he use to drive from New York to Tiajuana, Mexico to buy Mexican frames for his then frame shop in New York city. He would take routes that were off the beaten track and look up old, often closed, movie theaters and buy any paper he could find. Often they just gave it to him. He was in a small town one day and passed a pet store where he saw the backside of what appeared to be a window card in the window of the pet store with some advertisement written on it. He peered around the front window and saw it was indeed a window card the guy was using the backside of. He asked the pet store owner if he had any more and the guy showed him a huge stack of window cards that he had been using mostly to line birdcages with. They were in chronological order and everything up to the early 40's had been used, unfortunately, but Jim got the rest for something like $50. I always loved that story as he got some incredible titles. I love hearing collectors stories of their "early" days or some great find they have had. There are many right here on our group that have great stories, some of which they might share. Sue www.hollywoodposterframes.com
From: mro...@earthlink.net To: filmfantast...@msn.com; MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: [MOPO] An auction house to avoid Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:02:12 -0700 Sue, I started getting posters around the age of 10 at the beginning of the 1960's...almost all of it from Poster Exchanges that I had discovered. I would order classic horror stuff from the Exchanges and didn't get that much, though in retrospect it all looks pretty rare now. While I knew of all the great horror films, I didn't know about much else. Our local theatre had a "Clffhangers Club" on Saturdays. It was all kids in the audience with the occasional adult chaperone.The "Cliffhangers Club" had a drawing for prizes and showed a serial chapter and two movies. Usually it was something somewhat contemporary like Jason and the Argonauts and a more modern western, like a Roy Rogers Tru-Color or Son of Paleface as opposed to an older Black and White like Arizona Kid or Shine on Harvest Moon (which would have had superior posters, in my opinion). I was unaware of the beautiful posters for the various Buck Jones films until a got a little older. So, I mostly ordered posters from the Services where a had some sort of reference as a 10-15 year old audience member. Besides the fact that some of these Poster Services must have had copies of Wizard of Oz, Gilda, Gone with the Wind of which I wasn't cognoscente, they also had lots of material which was available and quite rare. Some of the Poster Services with which I dealt would cut or fold Window Cards in half to function as cardboard protection for your order. So I have various Clara Bow, W.C. Fields, and Buster Keaton silent Window Cards, which I received neatly cut in half or folded to protect my Apache Rose or Monster and the Ape one sheet order. I would have never ordered them at the time or even been aware of their titles. It makes me wonder what kind of stock they most have had and how they were already throwing away "useless" silent posters and who knows what else. ----- Original Message ----- From: Susan Heim To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 12:43 PM Subject: Re: [MOPO] An auction house to avoid I think Kirby has a very valid point. I have collected for over 38 years and I met collectors back in the day that started collecting in the late 50's and early 60's and their main focus was early Horror material or Westerns. Many of the collectors that started looking for "finds" in the later part of the 60's that I know shifted to the classic titles. Perhaps it was that more and more people were getting into the hobby at that point and trying to find items they thought would be more scarce first off. I began collecting in 1973 and I collected posters from my favorite movies, which happened to be Hitchcock and MGM Musicals. Of course, I now wish my favorites had been early Universal Horror!! Even the realart rereleases were dirt cheap then.... Sue www.hollywoodposterframes.com > Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:59:44 -0500 > From: ki...@movieart.net > Subject: Re: [MOPO] An auction house to avoid > To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU > > Grey et al, > > What I was intending to communicate is that I think with HORROR posters, > there was an early-on cult of collectors for this stuff in a way > that there wasn't for standard Hollywood fare, even A-picture Hollywood Fare > like comedies, drama, biopics etc. Westerns have some of this > same genre-based history, I think, too. So people from a much earlier period > had an interest in aggregating posters. > > > > K. > > On Apr 13, 2012, at 12:46 PM, Smith, Grey - 1367 wrote: > > > I disagree. > > The only reason we are aware, more or less, of exact counts on the horror > > posters for these classics is that they are so actively desired and > > collected and that counts have been made of what exists. They are very > > collectible. > > If a group of collectors is buying Bankhead I can almost assure you that > > they know how many known copies of Devil and the Deep and Faithless are out > > there. They are keeping track of it and there are no doubt as many copies > > of some of those titles as the horror classics. > > Just as those in the collecting circles for Bogart know how many for > > Petrified Forest are known or for Cagney, Footlight Parade or Hard to Hold. > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: MoPo List [mailto:mopo-l@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU] On Behalf Of Kirby > > McDaniel > > Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 12:34 PM > > To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU > > Subject: Re: [MOPO] An auction house to avoid > > > > Bruce is correct here. If as many folks had been as enamored of Tallulah > > Bankhead as were of Bela Lugosi, you might be able to find the occasional > > one sheet of THE CHEAT. > > > > K. > > > > On Apr 13, 2012, at 12:21 PM, Bruce Hershenson wrote: > > > >> Good poit Jay. I contend that the Universal horror titles of the 1930s > >> are often among the most COMMON posters for those years! Can you find > >> many 1931 titles where there are more one-sheets known than > >> Frankenstein? Or 1933 titles where there are more one-sheets known > >> than King Kong? > >> > >> Bruce > >> > >> On 4/13/12, Jay Nemeth-Johannes <jay.johan...@smartsensorsystems.com> > >> wrote: > >>> Well, I have items that I believe are one of a kind. For example a 1 > >>> sheet for a Richard Dix silent "The Glorious Fool", but I have no way > >>> to prove it is unique. I expect that much of the paper for early > >>> silents is rare to nonexistant, especially for lost films. > >>> > >>> It is easier when the film is iconic and everyone is trying to find > >>> an example. Any Dracula find is going to get widespread press. > >>> > >>> My guess on why some stuff is more available is pure chance that it > >>> was initially printed in too large a quantity and somebody warehoused > >>> it for decades. Laziness rules where a more efficient person throws > >>> away the "useless" trash. > >>> > >>> Jay > >>> > >>> > >>> On 04/13/12 11:16 AM, Phillip W. Ayling wrote: > >>>> It would be great if these same all-knowing censustakers could also > >>>> tell us "three known fakes currently being offered". While it makes > >>>> big news whenever a Dracula one-sheet or a Chaplain 6sheet is found > >>>> in a barn, I wouldn't be surprised if amongst MoPo members there are > >>>> some items that are extremely rare or have never been inventoried by > >>>> an auction house, so "they don't exist". > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> Thanks for any insight anyone might have. > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >>> Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > >>> ___________________________________________________________________ > >>> How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > >>> > >>> Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu > >>> In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > >>> > >>> The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > >>> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Bruce Hershenson and the other 24 members of the eMoviePoster.com team > >> P.O. Box 874 West Plains, MO 65775 > >> Phone: 417-256-9616 (hours: Mon-Fri 9 to 5 except from 12 to 1 when we > >> take > >> lunch) > >> our site <http://www.emovieposter.com/> our auctions > >> <http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/all.html> > >> <http://www.emovieposter.com/unused/signature/20111028Frankensteinempl > >> oyeegroupphotosignature.jpg> > >> > >> Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > >> ___________________________________________________________________ > >> How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > >> > >> Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu > >> In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > >> > >> The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > > > Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu > > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > > > Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu > > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
