One of the finest collections I have ever seen was donated to a "museum"....
and I use the word loosely.
It has never been seen again.
And then there is the story of another "museum" who received so many
donations of film memorabilia from all over Australia following a TV
documentary, they couldn't keep track of it all and firstly got to a stage
where they couldn't keep up with the incoming inventory, then couldn't keep
up with unpacking the parcels, then couldn't keep up with logging who had
sent the items (not everyone puts a return address on a parcel) then decided
they only wanted to keep material related to Australian films, then decided
they need to thin out the space and returned packages to the wrong people (I
know someone who got three crates of stuff that they had no idea whose it
was, all they knew is that it wasn't what they donated) then decided they
wanted to hire someone to sort the stuff out because no one at the "museum"
actually knew how to identify a daybill from an insert or a window card from
a lobby card, or an original from a re-release.
They figured such an "expert" would be able to do these approximately
200,000 items in 24 hours, maybe 48 at a stretch.
When the "expert" explained that physically, timewise that would be pretty
close to impossible and what they needed to do was what many major such
institutions do and actually work at it as a proper project which would
allow them to trade not-related material with other institutions, sell off
excess to acquire more desirable/collection appropriate pieces and
collections (you know, they way real national galleries do) they thought
this was worth talking about and booked the "expert" on the plane the next
day. A 2 hour flight. They even booked the "expert" into a motel for the
night.
Two hours later, they called the "expert" and said they had decided to
re-think the whole thing. Last I heard the same chaos was ongoing. And the
reason to can the trip? Cost... Yep, all $300 (motel included) couldn't be
"justified within the budget".
Museums are great places to go visit on rainy afternoons, and when they are
professionally run museums like the V&A and the Science Museum in London
(who were two of my major clients for some years back then) they can be a
delight to deal with from a professional standpoint, where in those
instances the curators of the relevant departments really knew their stuff
and really loved it.
The Art Gallery of NSW is similarly one of the finest institutions of its
type. A few years ago they had a great exhibition of Lawrence Bassoff's film
noir posters to tie in with his book, CRIME SCENES.
More locally, Newcastle Art Gallery has done some great shows, too. The fact
they beat out both the National Gallery in Canberra and the Art Gallery of
NSW a few years back to the major Annie Lieberwitz exhibition was something
of a coup.
However when the Lieberwitz exhibition went to Perth, there were letters to
the newspapers and editorials that the famous shot of John and Yoko should
be removed, not because of the nudity or it being pornographic, but because
it was offensive because it showed a white man in a submissive pose to an
Asian woman.
Phil E.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Evan Zweifel" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 11:09 AM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] So I was just looking at a ramdom box of pressbooks I
have...
Sure, museum, fine. But before you entomb them, please load digital
versions onto the internet, so we can all enjoy them.
evan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Posteritati" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 6:09:36 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain
Subject: Re: [MOPO] So I was just looking at a ramdom box of pressbooks I
have...
Bruce,
These should be in a museum or institution. The amount of potential
research in them is incredible.
regards,
sam
On May 23, 2010, at 7:50 PM, Phil Edwards wrote:
Wouldn't a series of books, similar to your poster books series, be worth
condsidering?
While pressbooks might not be as "sexy" as posters, many great ones are
marvels of design in themselves.
Alternatively, one terrific book, done like VALLEY OF THE CLIFFHANGERS,
would be a visual feast, a great reference.
Books like THE LOST ART OF HOLLYWOOD (tarde ad art) and THE INVISIBLE ART
(matte paining art) show that there is much more than
posters to the art of film making.
Phil E.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Hershenson
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 3:11 AM
Subject: [MOPO] So I was just looking at a ramdom box of pressbooks I
have...
So I was just looking at a ramdom box of pressbooks I have and I came
across a bunch of old ones I had forgotten about, and in there was The
Lost World and Tarzan the Ape Man.
What wonderful posters both those movies had, and isn't it weird that
there isn't anywhere in the world where you can go (either physically or
digitally) and look through the contents of those pressbooks, and tens of
thousands of others?
Bruce
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