yes Dave, but the number collecting vintage paper
is getting even smaller every day
the population of vintage poster collectors gets
smaller
smaller
smaller
smaller
smaller
and smaller
every day
At 07:31 PM 7/21/2010, Dave Rosen wrote:
Movie poster collectors are a small minority of the population, Rich.
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[email protected]>Richard Halegua Comic Art
To: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:19 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Expanding hobby?
yes Dave, but they are a small minority of the population
that is the problem
At 07:14 PM 7/21/2010, Dave Rosen wrote:
My daughter is 25 years old, works for a
publisher of graphic novels and helps run an
art gallery. We talk about classic films all
the time. The last time we chatted she told me
how much she enjoyed watching Bus Stop. She's
not put off if a movie is 50 years old and/or
shot in black and white. She also enjoys 70s
grindhouse fare as do many of her friends. Just
a couple of weeks ago a small cinema opened in
Montreal specializing in vintage exploitation, grindhouse and arthouse films.
I know she's not your typical 20-something but
the way some of you generalize about her
generation you'd think they were all
know-nothings who are only waiting for the next Iron Man movie to come out.
I have the feeling many of you are unaware that
there is a significant number of young people
who are knowledgeable and, yes, DO care about
the history of popular culture. Modern
information technology has made older films more accessible than ever.
Furthermore, in Montreal we are currently in
the middle of a festival, Fantasia, that
specializes in showing a wide variety of genre
films. The fest, which is internationally
renowned, attracts thousands of people to
soldout shows and grows by leaps and bounds
every year, just honored Ken Russell and will
be ending next week with a showing of the
recently restored version of Metropolis with
music accompaniment by a full symphony orchestra.
Maybe it's because I'm somewhat tied in to the
arts scene in Montreal (which I have to believe
is somewhat similar to arts scenes in other
major North American cities), but I know a LOT
of young people who care about this stuff.
Maybe in mainstream America that's not the case
but on the other hand, mainstream America
thinks Justin Bieber (a Canadian, I'm embarrassed to say) is a great talent.
I think your doom and gloom is misplaced
because most of you, from what I have gleaned,
are not aware of these young people, some of
whom will be the collectors of the future (or
are already, since many of my clients are
starting to skew to this younger demographic).
Sure, some stuff will fall by the wayside
partly due to demographics and changing tastes.
But there are a lot of people who will continue
to discover this wonderful hobby as they come
to realize these gorgeous scraps of paper that
we already love are available to them, too.
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[email protected]>Richard Halegua Comic Art
To: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Expanding hobby?
While Richard is correct that most of us could
not have seen Thief of Bagdad with Fairbanks in
1924, it is also correct that I saw this film
at the tender age of 11 years old on PBS in NYC
as I did silents like Caligari, Metropolis,
Siegfried, Phantom of the Opera and many more.
Unihorror was regularly shown on TV as were
100s or 1000s of classic movies as well. So
while we didn't see these movies in 1931 or
1941, we did in 1961, 71 and beyond. The
difference today is this: young folks (under
35) aren't interested in watching b&w movies,
and movies "without words" as I hear many
young'uns call silents are as far from their
viewing schedule as I am from the Ukraine. As
such, these types of films are not a part of
their public consciousness as they are of ours.
However my good pal Peter is also partially
incorrect in his post. It isn't that the hobby
is imploding entirely - it's that the vintage
part of the hobby is. These younger collectors
who come in to the hobby want Star Wars, or Toy
Story, or Pulp Fiction because they do go to
contemporary films. They just aren't interested
in "classics", and that doesn't just extend to
old b&w movies. Most of them will never watch
Ben Hur, or GWTW, and while they do all watch
vintage cartoons (cartoons have a more timeless
quality) I doubt many of these children
understand they were made in the 30s & 40s.
Unlike our generations, most of them don't know
King Kong was first filmed in 1933, or that the
Psycho that they know is not the Psycho that we know
But it isn't limited to movie posters. Comics
books, baseball cards, post cards and many
other fields are experiencing the same loss of
culture for all of the same reasons above.
Boiled down to it's simplest terms, they aren't
interested in history.. unless it's the history of Yoda or the Twilight Saga
Rich
At 01:34 PM 7/21/2010, Richard Evans wrote:
"If you didn't see the movie when it first
came out, and remember seeing the poster for
it hanging in the theater lobby, then you
might still appreciate the poster, but you
are not going to have that gut-level strong
nostalgic pull to fork over big bucks for it."
I honestly can't think of a single poster I've
bought that I was old enough to see at the
cinema, and mostly I didn't even exist when the film was released.
Isn't that the same for most of us?
People passionately collecting 50's Sci-Fi
aren't in their seventies, Todd and Jim
Gresham aren't in their nineties, or Ken Schacter pushing a century.
I flicked through Hollywood Posters 1 from 1990 the other night.
Huge percentage of 20's and 30's material,
extremely small amount of anything later, and
it only got as recent as a Forbidden Planet 1 sht.
I think it's much the same through to Hollywood Posters 6.
I can imagine the hoots of derision when at
some point not too much later someone had the
crazy idea of suggesting 60s and even 70s posters could be sold at auction.
Looking at those posters from the 20s, they
are beautiful, but look irrelevant.
Everything moves on, and I can't imagine there
being the connection to the film or the style of artwork.
It's the same with antiques/furniture.
Edwardian and Victorian out, continued
popularity of modern design, Mid Century, or earlier or later.
Although what initially hooked me, the
screening of the classics on TV in my youth
isn't there to the same degree to hook young
people, won't people who love film still exist
and seek out and appreciate earlier movies ?
(They may even learn to master subtitles and B&W.)
And, aren't they likely to still find appeal
in the art of whatever genres that will go in and out of fashion.
Though yes, I wouldn't necessarily expect much
from anyone, (in disposable cash or taste) until they reach their thirties.
On 20 Jul 2010, at 21:50, James Richard wrote:
Peter,
I would tend to agree with your feeling that
poster collecting is not expanding, logic
seems to indicate it, but on the other hand
you see some stuff that can't be otherwise
explained. An example would be original
posters for the Harry Potter and Lord of the
Rings films. The prices for those posters,
while not ultra-high, have remained firm,
even though the first of those posters came
out 10 years ago. Surely it is younger people
buying/collecting those and similar items and
keeping the prices up? I think the real
question -- one that cannot yet be answered
-- is how many of those younger buyers will
*remain* movie poster collectors and, perhaps
as they grow older, become interesting some
of the great older posters? After all, great
poster art is great poster art, regardless of when the film came out.
But there is no denying that simple nostalgia
is the *big* driver in all forms of
memorabilia collecting. If you didn't see the
movie when it first came out, and remember
seeing the poster for it hanging in the
theater lobby, then you might still
appreciate the poster, but you are not going
to have that gut-level strong nostalgic pull to fork over big bucks for it.
-- JR
peter contarino wrote:
I think all of Rons questions are excellent
and on point. I also think that the answer
is all the above. The economy is awful,
supply outweighs demand, the high-rollers
have acquired many of their pieces and the
younger generation(s)would rather text and
tweet than watch a film(literally- I was at
a theater recently and the kid a few seats
in front of me texted for the better part of
the film). And after all, like who, you
know, would want to, like, watch a black and white film anyway
and stuff
dude.
I dont know whether the hobby is expanding;
you guys would know more about that. My
sense is that it is not. I cant imagine it
is bringing a lot of younger people in. I
think the target is 35+ years of age. Maybe
older. For example, my wife and I were
spending the weekend with some friends of
ours who just built a getaway home. They
will be retiring in 10 years or so. We got
to talking about the website Ken and I have
and then the questions started coming: What
does the poster to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
look like? Do you have it? And so on. Bottom
line is that they want to do at least one
room and maybe more with vintage paper from
films that they love. These are
professionals with money and grew up on
classic films who never knew that this paper
existed. I have some ideas about how to tap into that demographic.
Regarding the images that Heritage provides,
I have to say that they are spot on. I spoke
with Ken Schacter about this yesterday and
we both feel that the photo/scans are by far
the most accurate and highest quality of any
site, auction or not. The catalogs are
unparalleled and are collectable in themselves. Great reference material.
Its an uncertain market to be sure but as
Bruce and Grey have pointed out it is a great time to buy.
Peter
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at
<http://www.filmfan.com>www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to:
<mailto:[email protected]>[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.
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.
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.
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.
