Hey Channing, That was great. I got to know Jose in the early 80's and bought and traded posters with him for many of my top prizes in my own collection. I have all those original catalogs, as is true to my nature, I keep everything I think of value. I remember you in those early days when I would drive up to see Jose. You were almost as passionate as he was about old posters. Talk about prices, I traded 10 original Star Wars rolled one sheets for my Rebecca one sheet. That was about 1982. I bought my original Rear Window one sheet for $300 in the late 80's or early 90's, one of my last purchases from Jose. He was always such a kind man and very fair. I miss him greatly.
Sue Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:23:43 -0700 From: [email protected] Subject: [MOPO] Introducing Myself to the Group To: [email protected] 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 ___________________________________________________________________ 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.
