OK people are asking about talking about movie posters
I had a Kodak moment last night
All these memories flooded my brain CustomersDealer friends
History of movie posters From what I started and the business in 1977
My company Hollywood dream factory®
So I started in an office Downtown Toledo Actually 1976
After I came back from Hollywood Trying to get a record deal
With Shelter records-Didn't sign time Patty and heartbreak
breakers
Why was out there, It was legendary mell Blanc Who invited me to lunch
at the hamburger Hamlet
In Beverly Hills California After I met him in a lecture at the
University of ToledoA week after I play there
I Had a brand-new tobacco fetish limited edition Les Paul Stone
Mel heard my story And seem to understand adversity very well
Indiscreet biography book That's not all folks
He tells the story of how Warner Bros. kept turning him down
Any finally got in windy human resources guy died
Why Mel took interested me Was he was a former big-band Leader in
Portland OregonIn a cartoon animation voicesThe Cartoon animation voices
Is not his first choice
So here we were Eating lunch And he said well top you might not get a
record deal
But you may find another niche, Just hang in there that was nov19,1976 i
was 20
And I will come
Cut to my office I started in 1976 To represent models and talent
voiceovers and variety artist,bands etc.
I decorated my office At 506 Madison Ave., Toledo.ohio In Hollywood
memorabilia decor
In the waiting room I have directors chairs is the waiting chairs
Movie posters on the wall,Actual boom hair light movie light from
Hollywood,Movie reelsClapboards
Movie still,And letters Framed From pretty big names in the modeling
industry
Like Wilhelmina And Eileen Ford The biggest agencies As well as Willard
Alexander Who represented all the big bands,In and my mentor and booking
agency Marv Tabolowsky Who worked at Regency Argus
Represented Bill Cosby, Elton John,Jay Leno,Vicky carr,Gabe Kaplan Among
others
I would do split commissions with other agencies When I could get jobs
So one dayA friend of mine Came in by office Said Martin should be able
to sell the stuff
he was an antique dealer Any give me some 1920s phoyoplay magazines
I was totally blown away awestruck...
Next Film collector buffs Who gave me lobby cards,insert, preebooks,
Stills,window cards, films 1-sheets
Then I started buying out massive quantities Entire library periodical
departments, Film collections of 16mm libraries I found several old
school warehouses Full of vintage toys still on the package What got be
costumes from 1965,,Major Matt Mason A whole warehouse full The owner
thought I lost my mind that I was interested in this stuff This is like
78-79 My ex-wife and I bought a house At 3502 Watson Toledo Ohio
Considered the oldest house in West Toledo It was built in 1825 Google
the address and you'll see it's now a museum
My garage look like an old-school barn I've build huge shelves Started
collecting Showcases
And display stands And building a store within my garage, Bought
projectors old cameras
Pop-culture items Of all kinds I would attend auctions On Camera stores
going out of business And buy upEverything I could.. At the same time I
kept buying posters And more posters,In hardback book collections
When I was in Hollywood Building bookshops Memorabilia shops I saw We're
like libraries,Dimly lit,File cabinets
Smelled musty Like old books
So we didn't mail order out of that house on Watson Of movie sheet
music,Many wonderfulBooks
Anything I could find it was related to Hollywood, Soundtracks
So by 1980 December John Lennon was shot..I gave up music Devastated me
If someone would shoot an artist
Next I spotted a building on Sylvania Avenue With the Art Deco front
That was a house with a storefront on the front I told my ex-wife Wow We
can still do mail order
And also do retail sales locally For Toledo people As I held the garage
sale in my garage And found there were many movie buffs locally
They logged all my stuff I bought About six wing poster racks And moved
my showcases
To that building I purchased In 1981 And on October 16, 1981 We held our
grand opening
I give away a post card showing the frontage of the building That was
than a book called ticket to paradise
That author John Margolis Included And Harold Ramis-egon spengler wrote
the forward The photo is in the Library of Congress The book was onOld
movie theaters That Have been repurposed
Give you an idea on the Hollywood dream factory®..
I had about 4000 or 5000 Bagged on boards,,1sheets,, I had three shades
and six streets hanging on the walls The Commercial posters in the wings
With everything imaginable Of of Posters of stars, And I also hadAll
suction of classic rock ,Beatles Led Zeppelin, All the hairbands
I had many shrink wrap posters The entire portal movie reproduction line
Plus there was a company called Po- flake Art publications Of Germany,I
had Broadway window cards
Old winter land posters Of rock concerts, Various pop art posters
A huge flip rack of movies stills,Sci-fi movie toys Robots, Vintage toys
still sealed,
All kinds of bubblegum cards trading cards,James Bond, Aurora monster
models..themisfits rock band bought monester stuff from me... Monster
magazines,, 6 foot tall door posters whose Call big as life,,
Professional Movie make-up, Comics Even had a vintage spinner rack from
the 60s
Whole magazine bookshelf Of magazines,,The basement level had life mags,
cheesecake,,esquire,,andtons ofperiodicals going back to 1st issues. For
Over 3000 books Hardback in southbound, Japanese import toys Like
tuskada.. and many other,,
had a mini museum in the store Featuring Vintage projection equipment
going back to them1800s
Table once Belonging to Marilyn Monroe Given to her by Arthur Miller
Johnny Carson's Tie, Sign movie scripts Like who shot JR from Dallas
And I had a genuine Oscar® That I sold back to the Academy Round 2000
The archivist collector group Home movie machine society a
worldwideGroup of collectors Came to my shopping interviewed me And in
their magazine Called 16 frames Paul potash The expert I'm cinema
equipment
Set Hollywood dream factory® Was the first shop of its kind in the
entire world..That he'd ever seen
There was no schematic I basically just based it on the old Deco movie
theaters Of the 30s
Found an old Vintage Marquis From the 30s
And would post thank you letters From collectors all over the world
And from organizations That we donated to// One from 1983
It's from a collector who was very happy Name Steven Sansweet Who works
for the Wall Street Journal
One on to write many books On the history of Star Wars And then became
Lucasfilm's head of The fan club
He thanked me for The ET collectibles he bought and Star Wars
We also sold costumes,Medieval sword replicas From Toledo Spain,Ray guns
props
Don post masks..Special effects equipment For movie
makers,T-shirts,Coffee mugs,Signs
Souvenir programs,Banners,We had a life-size millennium falcon from
Toys"R" Us Sold it to Japan
Also had an editing equipment For filmmakers, Movie cameras,Director
megaphones
Then their mid 80s Retail giants started looking at my shop And wanting
to copy it and franchises
I said to my ex,, Well We better start supply them That's when I
started the wholesaling
I bought in such high volumes Is far back As 1979 That I didn't trades
with other dealers who phone warehouse finds themselves What guy would
drive all the way from California And trade me tin toys Like uncle milty
cars Lost in space robots,,I had blade runner diecast cars. Original
Dracula's caskets pendents From warm publications
I brought in Beautiful French posters I got from quebec Canada, I also
bought from Italy
United Kingdom quads,Australia daybills, All kinds of an Italian art
ricordi A few Belgian
From companies Like Scandecor,Celestial arts, Dargis, One-stop posters
of Monterey California,Portal publications Corte Madera California..
Film freaks of in the Netherlands,Scorpio posters, Funky Enterprises
We had about 2000 3000 Celluloid buttons You Rock groups movie stars
Magnets, Postcards, Covering all kinds of topics In motion picture stars
From all eras
Plus we had a full magazine rack of Current magazines Like Premier,cine
effex, American cinematographer,Box office
A multitude of collector papers Covering pop-culture comics in movie
memorabilia
Plus I delt withSome of the best suppliers Of posters, an books And
artifacts
Many of my suppliers worked in the movie industry, Or were Advertising
people, theater owners,,Afters
Museums In other dealers
So that's why I wholesaled Museums,All the movie theme parks Suncoast
pictures, Media playing
On Q In and many bookshops and collectible shops around the US
Japan,Italy.United Kingdom,Germany
Australia France,Sweden, an Canada
Remember selling a lot of camera lenses to CHINa As They love the old
vintage glass
Some of the finest lens made in Germany And England
Is the Black Forest of Germany And some of the best sand aroundMake
glass
He also made some of the finest audio tubes Also,I've also sold
professional recording equipment from old vintage Recording studios I
had to clean out A studio from 1947 With all vintage Two recorders of an
packs
In an actual Record lathe,Vintage speakers and microphones
One year I sold vintage MGM 1930s fresnel lights From MGM To Paramount
pictures
I felt horrible having to change the logo On the lights To paramount
From MGM
You could've been used on gone with the wind We're Wizard of Oz
Both films were made in 1939 I've sold lots of movie history over the
years
Had an original suit of armor from Ben Hur A costume from The TV show V
Much more
autographs,,Scripts, Movie board games,Promotional items
So then the studios started approaching me as in the 80s I had an idea
to make a mini Hollywood drain factory kiosk
So that retail stores We have a one-stop shopping center of all the
memorabilia
I wanted to represent various vendors other products So I did several
tradeshows
One being in New York City At the G Jacob Javits Center The national
stationery shop
Back then ran me about three $4000 plust travel For a 10 x 10 booths
But I got to meet people from all over the world Who have stores in
their country
And I met a lot of busy people in the movie industry Even Harrods of
London stop by my booth
Plus Disney people,Spencer gifts chain, Gift shops from all over the
country
McCormick Place in Chicago- The motivation show
Is the movie studios Buy massive quantities of my products Two years's
promotional items to promote the movie
Plus they would sell my items and their gift shops in their catalogs And
then there theme parks
So I landed Universal Studios,Paramount pictures,Disney,Disney MGM,
MGM,Warner Bros.,Columbia Pictures
20th Century Fox,NBC, And then numerous Companies who wanted to do a
movie theme giveaway
Like Coca-Cola,Delta Airlines,Oracle,The American film Institute,The MTV
movie awards
To name a few Used by a famous movie reel Time clock That was also sold
in Hundreds of small mom-and-pop stores Collectible stores, And used by
film companies And video distribution companies
My first movie Was the Adams family from Paramount pictures They bought
five thousand pox
because we did the order wel on time the Buyer told warner bros,,to use
me..and at Chicago HBO Savoy films Ordered 15,000 of my clocks For the
movie Bronx tale Robert Dinero We also did guilty by suspicion clapboard
clocks Meanwhile We sold The patented movie reel clock To retail stores
And we sold it in our store To Collectors all over the world Film
schools love done they give them as a gift To future filmmakers and
directors..Meanwhile,We sold thousands upon thousands of posters both
original and reproduction Because my philosophy is always been
Serve anyone has an interest in movies As want a young kid would come in
with stars in his eyes Thought we're planting a seed In there creative
future..As I remembered what it was lik
Saving pop bottles Just about comic for a pack of trading cards For the
old monster movies
When I was a kid in the 60s
Being able to imagine And have materials to inspires you
Do not lead anyone out Inclusion and diversity
To share the dream With all ages All income levels
All education levels Has been my mission
Because I know what it's like Struggle,Hopes and dreams
In ones someone would help me Like my friend in 1976
Brought in that initial photoplay Then I discovered the work of George
Terrel
Went Hollywood's best well-known glamour photographers Who I was able to
actually speak with on the phoneBefore he passed
Along with Mr. Linwood Dunn asc.. Who took the time to talk to me about
movies
And we became friends.he did .Special effects on some of my favorite
films.. Including RKO
King Kong,It's wonderful life,It's a mad mad mad world,Bringing up
baby,And also worked on Star Trek The TV show
Invented the acme Dunn optical printer that allowed Kong to be
superimposed on the empire state build..and
I've been very lucky As I've not deserved all these breaks Most rather
accidents
or coincidences And by the kindness of so many people From the
collectors
The artist Fellow dealers Academics,Archivist..And a wealth of other
people
I hope I can help the industry in some small way Debbie Reynolds Was the
first to inspire me By her actions
She was saving Hollywood Prior to 70 When others were putting it in the
trash
And Wanting to forget the history Saying it didn't matter
For me the posters Bring together the entire ambience
Of the films And Give a visual story
Matter fact They can make You feel good
They make you cry But Most of all they can make you remember
How are film affected you When you first experienced it in a theater
Now it in printed your memory Overtime and place an era
The painters In advertising department Came up with clever Catch phrases
Tagline's
Have left The Timeless imprint Of pop culture Spanning generations
enjoy YOR memory's and share your poster and experiences with many
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