hello MOPO
and Scott Burns et al
I have been considering the state of the movie industry movie
memorabilia in pop culture and what is transpired in my years in the
business since May 24, 1977
It is been a major roller coaster ride yes we had no education other
than experience before they even have a name of calling it pop culture
memorabilia considering in the early days you were considered a freak if
you save comic books or baseball cards and memorabilia my first
experience was 1966 with the bubblegum cards of the Beatles the monster
movies and the monkees Adam west as batman cards and books as well as a
variety of toys at the time the Kenner toys like Play-Doh and G.I. Joe,
aurora monster models and all the various WAMO toys like super balls
and Frisbees
Color television was just becoming popular but most of the movies that
we watch we're old black-and-white we run films and Bill Kennedy will
Rita bell from Detroit along with soupy sales in johnny Ginger also from
Detroit and Mark Sweden who played the Goul on channel 50 and Cleveland
channel20
When I first started dabbling in memorabilia it was out of my booking
agency office in 1976 and by 1977 the Hollywood dream factory was born
after watching a film documentary about you action of MGM studios in
1970 that dick Cavett hosting well did the near ration I would later
meet some of my heroes in the business because of being around the
business as a promoter like when I struck up a friendship with Adam West
and sold his book back to the Batcave and booked him for a couple of
personal appearances one being in Toledo
Can October 16 1981 I went from being mail order only and across the
world to merging a retail store along with my mail order business those
were the days I could find warehouses full of old stock and I ran across
so many things like vintage toys still in the box like for instance
Gumby dolls and costumes from 1965 James Brown figures from the Gilbert
company from 1965 major Matt mason dolls and toys and WAMO super stuff
that was used in night of the living dead as the prop guts from 1967
still sealed in the package
I would trade my warehouse fines with other dealers across the world
mostly in California New York and England and some business in Germany
which would offer to extend my inventory and sometimes that would trade
for import reproduction movie posters that I could then wholesale too
small memorabilia shops or trade with other poster dealers to extend my
inventory
Then in the 90s I decided to manufacture memorabilia because I could not
find many dealers that were making anything I started making movie reel
clocks, movie pl clapboards and Director megaphones old school style and
various modifications to turn the clapboards into Clocks major chain
stores like Suncoast pictures which was owned by Musicland lost my
products and featured them in over 600 stores I started to get calls
from major museums like the Georgie Eastman house in Rochester New York
the Museum of the moving image in Astoria New York the American film
Institute Walt Disney Company Universal Warner Brothers Paramount MGM
old Tucson major video companies major ad agencys
Was it interesting time as video distribution companies were also
abundant supply in Hollywood video and Blockbuster video and I just
happen to have a main distribution hub of VPD in Toledo that I used to
buy their over stock of video posters from in addition to the various
collections that were offered to me from private collectors of books
movie magazines press books and about anything related to Hollywood I
also started buying vintage motion picture equipment like actual 35 mm
movie cameras 16 mm super eight and how I met Todd Fisher Debbie
Reynolds son was there was a guy in North Carolina who had bought all
the old MGM lights and equipment so I travel down to North Carolina and
bought vintage 1930s mole Richardson 2000 fresnels
I was asked by Paramount who owns theme parks in the Carowinds and in
Ohio to sell them a re-creation of an old movie set so I did two or
three dollars for the use as props on the theme parks it's amazing how
people refer you to other industry people and I got many jobs from box
office magazine the trade magazine for the movie industry as well as
also American cinematographer and the motion picture camera stores that
supplied professionals like cine 60 in New York City Victor Duncan, alan
Gordon, panavision lots of great companies lights camera exchange in
Hollywood was one of my oldest customers they film part of the movie
bowfinger that was directed by Frank OZ and starred Eddie Murphy and
Steve Martin
When you talk to the old timers business for years you hear a lot of the
same things how greedy and bad deals have caused much damage to the
industry just like all the format changes on the media like one minute
it was film to video VHS from VHS to laser disk and then just like
records it's coming full circle for some people find that they prefer
analog projection compared to digital the poster industry went from
painted artwork to Photoshop and that's why I already started to back
off purchasing new titles in the 90s I preferred illustrators and
hand-painted artwork to the photo shop images
No the prices we have is that most of the people that bought the stuff
from me are now in their 70s and 80s in the younger generation doesn't
even know who the older people were
Sure there is still some new people coming into the Hobby however choose
between with the truly passionate collectors with low income could not
afford the Hobby
A guy just called me today and asked for a original Farrah Fawcett
poster I remember when they came out I believe it was about 1976 and I
actually met the guy that originally published who is called pro arts
studio out of Medina Ohio the guys name was ted back then we called them
commercial posters and they would sell for about three dollars apiece or
$1.50 cost but then I can buy one sheets for 3 to 6 dollars apiece and
finally they went up to 10 and I thought it was expensive I had blade
runner in my shop for $9.50 and my customer even asked me are you sure
you want to sell it to me for $9.50 I said yes
The funny thing is I still have poster stock left from when I started
sup now the titles are not is great is Star Wars in polite
However even the reproductions I have are not made any longer and we're
made in the 80s
So the summary of my recollection is that I probably no less now than I
did back in 1977 :-)
And lately I've seen many of my friends I started in the business with
have retired or passed away and there is not a bunch of new people to
take over because young people have got very selective on what day even
want but it's kind of fun to still see people happy when they get
something that makes them happy that was always the best part of the
business for me I'm not sure what's next but it's still kind of fun to
make people happy and spread some positivity in the world
I'm not sure what I'm doing or where I'm going but it doesn't seem like
much of anybody knows them self we're all just guessing the best we can
When I offered to stop selling Adam Westbrook because I thought I wasn't
doing a good job he said to me Tom what you have to know is we're all
just kind of guessing any encouraged me to keep trying in the other day
I saw in my folder he sent me a personal note and said good job Tom what
we find in life is that there are many good people out there that will
give you breaks and help you if you just treat others honest and fair as
we don't really deserve it it's just a beauty of kindness and love and
friendship and I realize that I owe anything I ever did from others
extending kindness to me so thank you all and if I can help anybody in
any manner let me know I'll be 67 next month and I am starting to feel
rather old but very thankful that I got to do anything
God bless everyoneand Peaceand love to all
Tom
Hollywood dream factory®
since 1077
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