*Jose was very passionate and knowledgeable about posters. Truly a
pioneer and a visionary. He knew in the early 80's what could bring the
hobby forward. With his catalouges and his store, he did just that.
Very sad news.
May Jose rest well in poster heaven.
Sincerely,
dario.
*
Bruce Hershenson wrote:
I received the news from Kirby McDaniel a few hours ago that Jose
Carpio has passed away. Some of you may not know him, but he used to
be *THE* number one person in this hobby. Here's how I described him
in my e-mail club earlier today:
"I have very sad news to report: Those of you who have not been in the
hobby for all that long may not recognize the name, but anyone who was
an active movie poster collector (or dealer) in the 1980s or 1990s was
*VERY* well aware of the name of the number one dealer in the hobby,
Jose Carpio, and I am very sad to report that he has just passed away.
Sometime in the early 1980s (I don't know exactly when), Jose
opened the very first "gallery" of movie posters, called "*Cinemonde*"
(after the French magazine) in San Francisco, California. Prior to
that time, movie poster shops were a lot like comic book shops, with
huge stacks of movie posters in boxes, with a small number propped up
against walls in bags on boards.
Jose envisioned a true gallery with a limited number of fine
linenbacked movie posters displayed on the walls, in a classy setting,
and that is what Cinemonde was. He also issued full-color catalogs a
couple of times a year, and he took out ads in mass market upscale
magazines (and these too were firsts in the hobby), and he quickly
developed a clientele of wealthy collectors (many celebrities) who did
not have the time to seek out posters they wanted, and who used Jose
to find them for them.
In the late 1980s, Jose was *THE* man to see if you were buying
or selling high quality movie posters, and there were few high priced
transactions he wasn't involved in, assisting either the buyer or
seller or both! In 1990, when I came up with the idea of the first
auction of solely movie posters by a major auction house (Christie's),
Jose enthusiastically helped me assemble it, consigning from his own
inventory, and also calling on many top collectors and dealers for me,
asking that they too get behind this and support it, because he was
sure it was "good for the hobby" and would help take it to a new level.
In 1990, I took a trip to London and Paris with Jose, and he
introduced me to some of the top English and French dealers (some of
whom, like Tony Nourmand and Stanislas Choko are still among the very
top dealers!). But the trip wasn't all posters. I took a trip to the
famed Saville Row with Jose (where he bought custom suits!) and I got
a Humphrey Bogart-like fedora I still have, and we went out to dinner
with Stan Choko at an excellent French restaurant (we wanted to go to
a four star restaurant, but Stan told us that would be a year wait,
and so we ended up at a better "no star" restaurant, and it was still
one of the best meals I ever had!).
After I had successes with my first three Christie's auctions,
Jose approached Sotheby's and did the same with them, and had a long
series of very successful auctions with them (equaling the ones I
did), thus capping an extremely successful career in the hobby with
even more success in yet another area.
At some point in the late 1990s Jose semi-retired, partnering in
a second Cinemonde in Nashville, and I heard later he had retired to
Maine, and I lost touch with him. I just received the news that he
passed away (apparently from natural causes, but I have no further
information). I know that for years he had wanted to do a full-color
coffee table book about the very finest movie posters and add to it
stories taken from his long career, but I guess that will not happen
now, but that is about the only thing Jose *DIDN'T* manage to do in
this hobby over the years, and we who are in the hobby are the losers
for it, for it would have been a sensational book!
Jose was a true innovator and trailblazer, and a huge number of
the foremost dealers in this hobby were proteges of his in one way or
another, and he helped them just as kindly and as unselfishly as he
helped me way back when. If there is ever a movie poster "Hall of
Fame", surely Jose will be one of the first two people initiated (the
only person I feel is "in his class" is Richard Allen, author of the
great "Reel Art" and collector of movie posters for well over 50
years, but these are the two "giants" of the hobby, and there is no
close third choice!).
At the end of a person's life one looks back on what one has
accomplished over that time, and how much of a mark one made on this
world. Jose completely created the high end of the movie poster hobby,
and it is directly because of his efforts that there are major movie
poster auctions and fine movie poster galleries. I would say that
virtually every person who sells high end movie posters owes a direct
debt off gratitude to Jose Carpio. He truly was a legend in this
hobby, and one of its "founding fathers", and his legacy will live on
long after his passing."
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