Book sounds GREAT !!! Anthony Slide is fantastic.. I can add
alittle trivia perhaps... I was told by a old theatre man that in the
teens and pre teens the silents had little advertising and in a Book by
self published Harry Strong inventor of Strong projection lamphouses,
he sights that in early Ballyhoo( promotion) the theatr exhibitors used
handbill flyers and painted thier own showcards and banners and
sandwichboard posters..
I actually was lucky to have known two old showcard painters...! Abe
Stramm was one.. he used showcard signboard and painted the letters by
hand.. it was very cool to watch,, they used rusian squirrel hair
brushes.. and one-shot -sign paint.. the style mixed media like glitter
and all kinds of treament... ABE did signs in 30s and 40s for the
Esquire Burlesk theatre... where i was able to see Blaze Starr in like 73?
He painted many comeing attraction, and they would also dress up the
lobby cards, and also create Large displays for the theatre Lobby and
such. I loved to watch Abe in action create signs.. his hand was fluid
and accurate .. the lettering was awesome/
Also I knew a guy named "Jack Baker"- AKA Dr. Silkini that did Spook
shows in the 40s and toured all over the world.. . They used alot of
homemade Propos and signage from old school.methods
Jack was a great promoter and was known to use all the methods to get
huge attendence to his shows..
see the book - Ghostmasters that explains the spook show kings......
Funny thing is last weekend I helped my friend promote a " Beatles
tribute" concert useing " window cards 14 x 22 from tribune showprint
from Indiana that still uses old school printing methods..
we did old school promo and stapled onto telephone poles..at key
locations... guess what ?? it still works and gets the word out,,
the 1st wild posters as its called were in Italy and promted circuses
town to town... gluing posters with
wahat is essentially wallpaper paste,,, it coast the poster and makes it
stick to anything....
also water seals it..
I refused to use glue as when the police bust you.. you need to take it
down.. hahahha
Posters. what a Gig............. early signpainters ROCK ! Bravo on
this BOOK!!!
best, Tom
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-ca-cinefile8jul08,1,6625288.story?coll=la-headlines-business-enter&ctrack=1&cset=true
<http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-ca-cinefile8jul08,1,6625288.story?coll=la-headlines-business-enter&ctrack=1&cset=true>
Lost art of movie-house posters
The vintage lobby illustrations had to be done on the quick, but a new
coffee-table book and exhibit preserves their timeless allure.
Susan King
July 8, 2007
FOR decades, it was assumed that studio-produced lithograph posters
were used by theaters around the U.S. to promote the latest movies.
But that wasn't the case.
"Hundreds and hundreds of theaters throughout the United States and
all the various theater chains had their own in-house poster artists
who created posters designed to interest a local audience," says film
historian Anthony Slide, whose latest book, "Now Playing: Hand Painted
Poster Art From the 1910s Through the 1950s" (Academy Imprints),
shines the spotlight on this long-lost chapter in Hollywood
entertainment history.
The vibrant, colorful posters are on display in the lobby of the
Linwood Dunn Theater at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study
and are available for viewing whenever there is a program at the Dunn.
They were culled from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Science's collection at the Margaret Herrick Library. Out of the
thousands that were created over the decades, only about 100 survive
in the collection.
Among the films featured are "Son of the Sheik," "King Kong" and "The
Black Pirate." The posters were to advertise a film for one week and
then they were discarded, says Slide, who co-wrote the coffee table
book with Jane Burman Powell and Lori Goldman Berthelsen. "It wasn't a
matter of throwing them out but painting over and putting a new poster
on top of the old one."
The majority of the posters in the exhibit and book were done by
Batiste Madalena. It was sheer serendipity that the posters were
found. Madalena worked at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., says
Slide. In 1928, George Eastman gave up running the theater and handed
it over to Paramount to run, and the posters were thrown out,
according to Slide.
By happenstance, Madalena was bicycling by the theater one day and saw
the discarded posters in the rubbish.
"He made many journeys to and from home and the theater [on his bike]
and saved them all," says Slide.
Slide says it's still something of a mystery why theaters hired their
own artists instead of using the far less expensive posters supplied
by the studios. "Obviously, the local management thought these posters
were better than what the studios were sending out."
Because they worked in advance, the artists never saw a movie before
designing a poster. All they got were production stills from the
studios and the exhibitors' campaign books, says Slide. "Usually they
were sort of spot-on [about the movie's theme]…."
Remarkably, Slide says, these artists would have to paint a poster in
an hour or less. "And they were not creating one poster for the
lobby," he says. "Most lobbies had six or eight [posters], and they
were all of different designs."
Because so little is known about the artists, including Madalena, O.M.
(Otto) Wise and Edwin Isaac (Ike) Checketts, Slide is hopeful that the
book and exhibit will bring forth relatives with information about them.
— Susan King
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