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Craig,
I wonder, how long have you been collecting? It is well known,
and well-documented, going back forever, that the folding of inserts and
half-sheets by the National Screen Service (NSS) for distribution to the
theaters was, indeed, standard procedure until the mid-1970's -- just
as it was for one sheets. The reason most of the inserts and half-sheets
were folded when the larger 30x40s were not is *because* they were smaller --
they could be folded and placed in the same size envelopes they used to sent the
folded one-sheets to the theaters. Often they were included in the same envelope
with the folded one-sheets. The reason the 30x40's and larger were not usually
folded is that they could not be practically folded small enough to fit in the
envelopes without being ruined and so they were usually shipped in a
mailing tube. Most of the heavy-paper 30x40s and 40x60s were intended for
Drive-In theaters, which often had exposed, outside display areas -- and
that is why they were on heavier paper... because they were going to be
exposed more to the weather than regular thin-paper posters.
I've been collecting posters for over 40 years, and inserts
and half-sheets were almost always found folded, except for the few that
didn't get sent out by the NSS and ended up getting in collectors and dealers
hands directly from the warehouses. Also, a few theaters paid extra to have
their posters sent unfolded -- including the one sheets -- so you could
sometimes come across an unfolded insert or half-sheet that way. But not
usually.
Now, once you got into the late 70's and early 80's it became
much more common for posters to be shipped rolled in tubes, including the
one-sheets, inserts and half-sheets (which were fading away by that time
anyway).
Many consider the "factory folds" to be small defects, even if
it was standard procedure. Obviously, a genuine vintage poster which was
never folded is more desirable than one which was. But since most were folded,
many collectors do not consider normal factory folds to be a defect. I
certainly don't.
But to suggest that most vintage inserts and half-sheets were
not normally folded as standard practice when they were originally issued by the
NSS through the 1960's is just absurd. They most definitely were. The
NSS printing plants had mechanical folding machines to do the job --
which is why you will find that the fold lines are almost always exactly in the
same place on an insert or half sheet, even if you compare posters that were
produced many years or even decades apart.
Now, sometimes you will find a poster (of any size) that has
an extra fold or two. This usually happened when a poster was quickly and
carelessly re-folded by someone down the line... perhaps the guy at the theater
when he took it down to send it back to NSS or put it on a shelf... perhaps by
a careless collector (unlikely that a professional dealer would ever
have introduced an extra fold).
But rest assured that the normal factory folds found on
vintage inserts and half-sheets were put there by the NSS as part of their
standard procedure when the posters were originally printed and
distributed.
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
From: Craig Goebel
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 3:38
Subject: Re: [MOPO] the extra folds TWO THINGS ABOUT WHICH I'M NOT ENTIRELY
COMFORTABLE ARE DEALERS' STATEMENTS TO THE EFFECT THAT FOLDING INSERTS AND
1/2 SHEETS WAS "STANDARD" AND THE READY ACCEPTANCE BY BUYERS OF THAT
ALLEGATION AS PROOF OF THE TRUTH OF THE FACT ALLEGED WITHOUT SUBSTANTIATION.
IT SEEMS TO ME THE HEAVY GAUGE PAPER MILITATES
AGAINST THE FACT THAT THEY WERE FOLDED AT THE PRINTERS. SO DOES THE FACT THAT SO
FEW OF THE SAME GAUGE 30X40 AND 40X60 POSTERS ARE FOLDED. (I HAVE AROUND 20 OF
THE 30X40 AND 40X60 POSTERS AND NONE ARE FOLDED.) HOW DID THEY GET SENT AROUND
THEATRES UNFOLDED AND SMALLER POSTERS DID NOT, WHEN THE LATTER COULD HAVE
FIT ROLLED IN THE SAME CONTAINERS AS THE BIG ONES?
BUT THEY MUST HAVE BEEN FOLDED BY SOMEONE, SO MANY ARE IN THAT
CONDITION. I WONDER WHETHER MOST INSERTS AND HSs HAVE NOT
JUST BEEN FOLDED BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD THEM STORED WITH LESS CARE FOR THE
RESULTS OF DOING SO OR BY COLLECTORS LOOKING TO SAVE STORAGE
SPACE.
CERTAINLY THESE FOLDS ARE DEFECTS - "STANDARD" OR
NOT.
CRAIG, VANCOUVER
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- Re: [MOPO] the extra folds JR
- Re: [MOPO] the extra folds Craig Goebel
- Re: [MOPO] the extra folds Phil Edwards Cinema Arts
- Re: [MOPO] the extra folds Kirby McDaniel
- Re: [MOPO] the extra folds Ron Moore
