Since I have more different pressbooks than anyone in the world, I am well suited to answer this.
It all depends what decade of pressbooks you are looking at! If they are 1960s or 1970s (when they quit making them) they are no problem at all. If they are 1940s or 1950s, there will be some flaking and tearing and you need to be super careful when you open them (best technique is to clear a kitchen table and lay them completely flat and turn every page very slowly and carefully. If they are from the 1920s or 1930s (especially if they are on old newspaper like newsprint) then the only thing you can do is keep the vaccuum cleaner handy, because when you are done looking at them, there will be a mess of brown flakes all over the place, no matter how careful you are. Around 15 years ago I bought a collection of around 150 choice pressbooks from the late 1930s that were in Royal Theater type mint condition (obviously they were stored under incredible conditions). But those are the rare exception (although I have seen a few others in similar condition). It is hard enough to find pressbooks that have no cuts. They were intended to be cut up and then thrown away, and most theater owners valued them as much as they did yesterday's newspaper, once the movie left their theater. It is also great to find a pressbook with a "tipped in" sample herald. If I can't find that, I try to get a theater used herald and put it with the pressbook. Someday, long after I am gone, these will be highly valued, but for now they are the Rodney Dangerfield's of movie paper. Bruce On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 4:37 PM, Michael B <[email protected]> wrote: > it was about 3 years ago when i started buying much more posters than i > could display that i started storing them individually in plastic folders > (exact size from bagsunlimited) with foamcore or cardboard. the reason for > this is because everytime i would look through my stuff----especially the > old one sheets, and unfolded them---inevitably caused a small tear, paper > loss etc. > > so, the question becomes: since pressbooks are so interesting (just like > old comic books)---don't you do damage to the brittle pages of these 40/50 > year old items each time you open them? > > > > michael > 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.
