I love these little forays into poster history. Knowing that I'm one of
about a thousand people who actually care and internalize this stuff
makes me even happier. When I bring up movie posters in my social
circle, eyes begin to glaze over and serial yawning begins. Thank God
for my fellow poster geeks on MOPO. I find these tidbits fascinating;
"How does the quad fit into 20th century socioeconomic milieu in pre and
post-war Great Britain?" Now I can answer that question on the test.
Thanks for quad-rupling (sorry) my knowledge on this subject.
Greg Douglass
ed wrote:
Hi Bruce,
Let me offer this as a possible help
The end of the war also brought new government regulations on paper
usage. A maximum poster size was set at 1200 square inches which was
the size of the quad. We have a British pressbook for the 1946 release
of Wizard of Oz. As large as that film was, a choice was given in 2
posters at the maximum size, A 30x40 and a 20x60. Then 2 different
smaller 22x28s and a set of 8 black and white stills and that is ALL
that was issued for this film. And with that came a limitation on how
many of each could be acquired. There are many smaller titles that it
would SEEM that only stills were issued.
I personally believe that it also has to do with them being an island.
While all of Europe was devastated, several countries were known for
their paper production and it was a necessary export item. As paper
production came back online, it was a LOT easier to distribute trees
and paper products by trucking to neighboring countries that were in
need than it was to have to load ships and send them to England and
unload them, so Britain was more on their own for re-establishing
their paper production. And I believe items like toilet paper,
educational and government papers and newspapers took precedent over
the film industry advertising.
But again, that is my own belief.
ed
[email protected]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of
*Bruce Hershenson
*Sent:* Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:44 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* [MOPO] Britsh Quad rarity!
I will be listing a single owner collection of British Quads,
beginning the 28th, and the collection contains a lot of older quads,
and I am struck by the fact that, in all my years in the hobby, I have
seen just a tiny number of quads from before 1960 (and even most
titles from the early 1960s seem to be many times more rare than their
U.S. counterparts).
This collection contains 23 from the 1940s, 228 from the 1950s, 120
from the 1960s, and 116 from the 1970s to present!
I am hoping MoPo members (especially long time collectors/dealers, and
even more so those from the U.K.) can weigh in on the following:
1) Am I correct in thinking that there are virtually no quads from
before 1960 in collectors' hands?
2) In all my years, I have personally only ever seen a handful of
pre-1960 quads before viewing this collection; has anyone here seen
any substantial number of them?
3) If they are as rare as I have stated, WHY is that? I understand
that pre-WWII paper from all European countries is super-scarce, but
in all other European countries you can easily find just about every
post WWII title. Why is the U.K. different from the other countries?
Is it that they had far fewer cinemas?
Any light anyone here can shed on this will be greatly appreciated!
Bruce
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