For me, actually watching a movie is only half the enjoyment. The other half is made up of thinking about it, writing about it and recollecting its pleasures by reading other reviews and also gazing at photos and posters. Here are posters, some originals, some reprints, some worth a lot of money, some priced at close to zero. I like all of them. I like the memories they bring back. I like the pictorial attractiveness, the artistry of the posters themselves.
In some ways, it’s a shame that classic movie posters have now become collector’s items. I gave away thousands of posters in my time and it’s hard to reconcile this free-spending with the hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars people are at present paying for a single item.
Recently, I attended an auction of film material. Among the items offered was a torn, disheveled "Dracula". Not the original 1930 poster. Not a re-issue poster either. In fact it was not an original theatrical poster at all, but one of those reprints issued by a commercial poster company in the mid-1980s.
Would you believe that this dirty old reprint, worth a dollar at the most, was bid up by no less than four frantic buyers to no less than $4,285.00?
Still, I’ve always maintained the value of anything is not how much money it’s worth, but how much pleasure and enjoyment we extract from it.
I hope you’ll agree with me. And if you have any photos of posters in your own collection that you’d like to share, maybe we can assemble enough for yet another book. (67 pages). (68 photos). (2,110 words).
In some ways, it’s a shame that classic movie posters have now become collector’s items. I gave away thousands of posters in my time and it’s hard to reconcile this free-spending with the hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars people are at present paying for a single item.
Recently, I attended an auction of film material. Among the items offered was a torn, disheveled "Dracula". Not the original 1930 poster. Not a re-issue poster either. In fact it was not an original theatrical poster at all, but one of those reprints issued by a commercial poster company in the mid-1980s.
Would you believe that this dirty old reprint, worth a dollar at the most, was bid up by no less than four frantic buyers to no less than $4,285.00?
Still, I’ve always maintained the value of anything is not how much money it’s worth, but how much pleasure and enjoyment we extract from it.
I hope you’ll agree with me. And if you have any photos of posters in your own collection that you’d like to share, maybe we can assemble enough for yet another book. (67 pages). (68 photos). (2,110 words).
