I thought this email was a great one!! I can only say, "thank goodness I'm a framer". As a movie poster collector, and someone that loves oversize pieces, I wouldn't be able to afford all the framing I have in my house. I remember when the fires of San Diego had Dave evacuating his home and his worries over his "journals" in the house, and of course all the "good stuff".
About 10 years ago, I was awakened in the middle of the night by my neighbor yelling to get out of the house. At the time my oldest daughter was about 12 and my youngest about 2. I jumped out of bed, ran out to my living room, which has French doors all along the outer wall, to turn off the house alarm. The whole room, which has an 18' vaulted ceiling and double high walls (perfect for 3 sheets), was aglow in orange. The neighbor's two story house, just behind me, was totally engulfed in flames. We opened the front door, gave the two girls to my neighbor,who was banging on the bedroom window,to get them to safety and the first thing we did was grab the framed three sheets off the wall. We were running out the front door with about 35 framed movie posters and assorted paintings. We were so sore the next day, but when the adrenaline hit us it felt like I was running out the door with a Q-tip. I had all the framed movie posters leaning against my truck as the fireman roared down our street to get to the neighbor behind me. Thank goodness from the back of my house to the end of my back wall is a good 100 feet. In that 100' is the pool and the Cypress trees that surround the pool. As I was flying out of my house, I could see the backs of the Cypress trees aglow with flames. The fire got no further than my trees but it made us rethink the next evacuation situation. We have had a couple of situations since with those pesky California fires that come down to the edge of your neighborhood. I have cabinets now on wheels with the folded posters in it. I have U-Haul place close to my house that I do framing business with, so, in an ideal world, I would grab a truck and wheel my cabinets away as the rest of the family grabs photos, framed stuff and our documents now safe in a file cabinet. I try not to think of it too often as it will drive you crazy, but I do go through those periods now and again where I just want to sell it all. At least if the bank burns down I'm covered. Also, Matt mentioned the idea of wrapping a 3 or 6 sheet like a canvas. Rich is correct. The problem is, the fact that it is so large, gravity will make the poster sag over time. It is just too heavy to stay tight on that stretcher bar and then the poster can actually warp and have to be re-inenbacked. One of the suggestions I always give to customers is to have the linenbacker leave some excess linen and then go to a dry cleaner or someone like that and have some grommets put in the corners and, for a six sheet, a couple in the middle. Then get some decorative chain and hang it like a tapestry. Take a wooden dowel and put it behind the bottom of the poster, using a washer and screw to go through the front of the grommets on the bottom of the poster into the wooden dowel. That acts as a weight to stop the linenbacked poster from rolling up on you. Of course, you wouldn't want to do this with a really valuable poster as you are leaving it exposed with no covering. When you have the big guns in 3 Sheets and 6 Sheets and more, you have to spend the big money to frame them properly. Take care all.......... Sue www.hollywoodposterframes.com<http://www.hollywoodposterframes.com/> ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Rosen<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 5:57 AM Subject: Re: [MOPO] 3-sheets & what would you would save if you had just 10 minutes Since I don't have any super-rare items in my poster collection and it's all insured anyway, if I had 10 minutes to evacuate I'd probably: a) Make sure everyone in the house got out safely (obviously). b) Grab the family photo albums. c) Take one or two portfoolios with some of my original artwork in them. d) Grab two or three books from my bookshelf that ARE in fact rare and irreplaceable. Don't have any pets, so no bird cages to carry. Dave www.posteropolis.com<http://www.posteropolis.com/> ----- Original Message ----- From: David Kusumoto<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 4:00 AM Subject: [MOPO] 3-sheets & what would you would save if you had just 10 minutes ** At one time, we had nearly 200 framed items on display, some art, but most of it movie paper. Our home is modest but was built in the 80s when "vaulted ceilings" were in every home being sold in California. As a collector (vs. a seller) -- I've always had the "always display, never put away" attitude about posters. But things got out of hand. Every space was filled. TOO MUCH "visual noise." ** The turning point was our first-ever evacuation during the fires of October 2003 (and again in October 2007). Both times we took our pet cockatiel, a binder of photographs, five one-sheets and two window cards -- leaving everything else -- including my entire lobby card collection -- behind. ** We said f*** it, this is ridiculous. Since 2003, about 100 posters have come down and were traded or sold or given away. And it still doesn't look like we've made a "dent." We've only owned THREE posters bigger than a one-sheet -- 2 Beatle Quads and a three-sheet to "The Quiet Man" framed by Sue Heim. That 3-sheet is nearly seven feet tall and its top edge is 21 feet above the floor. It still looks magnificent. I would've put up three more, but our house was already looking less decorative, an assault to the eyes. Our home developed an eccentric reputation with visitors because they couldn't focus ANYWHERE. S***, even a museum leaves a little space between its showpieces. I'm talking wall-to-wall garish, like at a restaurant with so many frames that patrons stop caring about what's in them. ** Which leads me to a question that I think I covered before but bears repeating. If you had just 10 minutes to get out of your house -- what would you take with you? I'm not asking you to "out" your collection, but to do an inventory in your head. I've gone through this drill twice in real life and have since "ranked" our STUFF and our posters, 1 through 10 and NO MORE. When you have only 10 minutes, you'd be surprised how satisfied you might be with the finality of your choices. People have said (jokingly) -- that if I had left the bird cage behind both times, I could saved more one sheets. But I was OK with our choices except one. In 2003, I left my journals behind, everything recorded every day in my life since I was 12. I just FORGOT. In 2007, they were the FIRST thing I took, since stored on a small flash drive. Amazing. ** Finally, I leave you with this. Last October, Larry Himmel, a veteran TV journalist (and humorist) here in San Diego, stood helplessly in front of his burning home, AND BROADCASTED IT LIVE AS HE AND VIEWERS WATCHED IT BURN TO THE GROUND. The heat was so intense and firefighters were putting out other blazes. But he kept reporting, describing everything inside that being lost. The next day -- he was asked if he had any thoughts about losing 40 years worth of memories on live TV. He said (paraphrasing), "well you know, when everyone gets out safe and all you have left is what's in your head -- you've no choice but to be thankful. For us, it means life will go on, but with a lot less clutter." By inference, this was a bad thing, but not entirely since he had no control preventing a fire that few thought would enter the city limits. I'd like to think I'd feel the same way if I lost so much "stuff," but my heart feels this consolation would be short-lived, despite knowing we can't take any of this s*** with us when we die. It just gets passed down or sold off by next of kin whose ideas of nostalgia are theirs, not yours. -kuz. > Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 17:36:27 -0700 > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: displaying three sheets > To: [email protected] > > I have a number of six sheets framed and up on the walls, some are even 45 feet in the air in a center atrium. There really is nothing like a 6-sheet on display - makes you feel like you can walk right into it. I have up: Double Indemnity, Hollywood, Angels With Dirty Faces, Movie Crazy, and Lives of A Bengal Lancer. The only downside to a 6-sheet is the $2500 framing cost per poster. Then, I also have displayed 6 three sheets, 20 1-sheets, 5 inserts, 1 Italian 4 foglio, 1 Italian duo, 2 small French posters, and easily 100 window cards. I still have a fair amount of room left...and I am following my plan of displaying everything in my collection - nothing is in storage. 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. 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. 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.
