4/15/2010
Dear Mopo Members --
I've had several discussion with people in MOPO about the various
members here. One thing that always comes up is that with some of the
anonymity of a group like this, we don't always find out a lot about
the other members and how they came to the hobby. I thought I'd do a
quick introduction (or reintroduction) here in case some of the MOPO
members don't know anything about me. I would like to hear from
others in the group as well if they are so inclined.
My name is Channing Thomson. I have lived in in San Francisco since
1979 and first got involved with the movie poster scene in 1983. At
that time, there was a cafe on Russian Hill (where I still live)
called Cafe Cinemonde. It was run by a Filipino man named Jose Ma.
Carpio. The theme of the cafe was Hollywood movies and the walls were
decorated with posters and lobby cards. At the time, VCRs weren't
prevalent in people's homes so he had a nightly schedule where you
could eat dinner, have a glass of wine or a beer, and watch a movie on
the cafe's Betamax! Jose also ran a movie poster shop in San
Francisco called Cinemonde Posters. In 1984 I quit my job with Bank
of America and started working with Jose as his store manager. I was
there from 1984 till 1994. It was an exciting time, hiring on a few
employees, having a sort of gallery on Polk Street, converting to a
computer inventory program on Mac (much of this with the tremendous
assistance of Kirby McDaniel of Movie Art/Austin). We also were
heavily involved with several of the first auctions of movie posters
at Camden House in LA, Sotheby's in New York, Odyssey in Southern
California, and Butterfields. Those were heady times as posters for
everything from Frankenstein to Metropolis to The Mummy inevitably
came through the doors. We also created about ten catalogs over the
years, fully illustrated and in color that were collected all over the
world. Some time I'll jot down some of the prices we were asking and
let you all salivate!
As with all great things, it inevitably came to an end. Jose tried to
expand the business with a separate site in Nashville, TN that never
really took off. For personal reasons, he moved to Camden, Maine and
basically dropped out of the business entirely passing away
prematurely last year. I left Cinemonde in 1994 and started my own
business online and have had an EBAY presence since 1997. It's been a
long interesting journey and I'm not quite sure were it will end. . .
Thanks for reading, Channing
P.S. Other people's "stories" & introductions would interest me
immensely.
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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