Hey, Mopoers:
Check this out, from The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson's
memoir of growing up in Des Moines in the 50s and 60s, which I just finished
reading:
*************************************************************
One Saturday after going to the movies we were walking home when we passed a
small brick office building with a plaque that said MID-AMERICA FILM
DISTRIBUTION or something like that and Jed suggested we go in.
Inside, a small, elderly man in a lively suit was sitting at a desk doing
nothing.
"Hello," said Jed, "I hope I'm not intruding, but do you have any old film
posters you don't require any longer?"
"You like movies?" said the man.
"Like them? Sir, no, I LOVE them."
"No kidding," said the man, pleased as anything. "That's great, that's great.
Tell me, son, what's your favorite movie?"
"I think that would have to be All About Eve.'
"You like that?" siad the man. "I've got that here somewhere. Hold on." He took
us into a storeroom that was packed from floor to ceiling with rolled posters
and began searching through them. "It's here somewhere. What else do you like?"
"Oh gosh," said Jed, "Sunset Boulevard, Rebecca, An Affair to Remember, Lost
Horizon, Blithe Spirit, Adam's Rib, Mrs. Miniver, Mildred Pierce, The
Philadelphia Story, The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Storm
Warning, The Pajama Game, This Property is Condemned, The Asphalt Jungle, The
Seven Year Itch, From This Day Forward, How Green Was My Valley and Now,
Voyager, but not necessarily in that order."
"I got those!" said the man excitedly. "I got all those." He started passing
posters to Jed in a manic fashion. He turned to me. "What about you?"
"The Brain That Wouldn't Die," I said hopefully.
He grimaced and shook his head. "I don't handle B stuff," he said.
"Zombies on Broadway?"
He shook his head.
"Island of the Undead?"
He gave up on me and turned back to Jed. "You like Lana Turner movies?"
"Of course. Who doesn't?"
"I've got 'em all - every one since The Dancing Co-ed. Here, I want you to have
them." And he began piling them onto Jed's arms.
In the end, he gave us more or less everything he had - posters dating back to
the late 1930s, all in mint condition. Goodness knows what they would be worth
now. We took them in a cab back to Jed's house and divided them up on his
bedroom floor. Jed took all the ones for movies starring Doris Day and Debbie
Reynolds. I got the ones with men running along in a crouch with guns blazing.
We were both extremely happy.
Some years later, I went away to Europe for a summer and ended up staying two
years. While I was away my parents cleaned out my bedroom. The posters went on
a bonfire.
*****************************************************************
OK, I (like everybody else), had a similar experience with comic books and
trading cards getting tossed in the trash by an over-zealous mom, but never
movie posters (cuz I didn't have any at the time).
But a bonfire!
Dave
Posteropolis Vintage Posters
www.posteropolis.com
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
