Fun post idea! Here's my story. As a high school student, I was in an antique store in downtown Philly, around 1972. The store had two movie posters - a Strawberry Blonde R56 one sheet, and an insert on Bridge on the River Kwai. To quote The Grateful Dead - The bus came by, and I got on! I bought them both for $5 each. Soon after that, I met a guy who knew a guy with a bunch of posters, especially James Cagney. From him I bought numerous Cagney one sheets and lobby card sets, from the thirties to the 60s. All for $8 each, which I thought was highway robbery. Soon I discover Cinaphantique and their massive catalog. I bought a bunch of items from them. Then a friend of mine, Jim Murray, opened The Movie Poster Place. I helped him in the shop from time to time and he always gave me great deals. When he would return from the big Cleveland Con I many times got first crack at the items that I liked. We went to the North Jersey cons a few times a year. I always came back with a large haul. By then I targeted mainly Cagney, Bogart, Hitchcock and Monroe, along with other major classics. Also, in the early 80's I decided to go after autographs. I got a few stills from Jim and sent them to movie stars with a return postage envelope. That was very successful. I got Janet Leigh, Margret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, Rod Taylor, Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall, Kate Hepburn, Vincent Price, Bob Hope, Charlton Heston, James Cagney, James Stewart, and many more. I was a Film/TV major at Penn State and shortly after graduation Star Wars opened. I saw it on opening day at a matinee in a largely empty dollar theater. I went with another film grad, and neither of us knew anything about it. We both thought it was pretty great, and soon it exploded. A few weeks later a record store in State College had a folded one sheet in their shop. I bought it for $7.50. Eventually I was also able to get pretty much all of the one sheets, inserts, half sheets, lobby sets and still sets from the first three films. I still have them all. After graduation I moved to Hollywood and lived in an apartment under that big sign for a while. I then discovered the shops on Hollywood Blvd. Larry Edmonds, etc. Bought more there. Then in the mid-90s the internet helped to connect us all. eBay was the wild west. A group of us banned together, with the help of our fearless leader, Scott Burns, and formed MOPO. I wrote a bunch of the original FAQ info, which I assume is still posted. I continued to amass items for the next 20 years. My video production offices were all decorated with posters, lobby cards, signed stills, etc. Clients loved to come and see them, but not as much as I did. I retired about three years ago and found myself with the usual piles of rolled tubes, folded posters and books of lobby cards, as well as a large stack. I decided to weed out and edit strongly. I auctioned off most of it, keeping only the very favorites, which is still a lot of items. So that is my collecting journey. And, as we are all living in an episode of The Twilight Zone, I want to invite you to be amongst the first to read my new short story! This story takes place in a different part of The Twilight Zone, a place where people can still shop for groceries, shake hands and socialize with others, but still, things are not quite right ...
Perchance to Dream In this short story, Robert Clapper, a salesman, abruptly wakes from a terrifying recurring nightmare and is comforted by his wife Mary. After breakfast, he travels to a business meeting and is surprised to find that he recognizes the people in his meeting from his dream. He tells them that, and they are quite skeptical, until a few of them share their own experiences with ghosts, spirits and visions! You can find all of my stories on these sites: Download a pdf for free at my site - http://michaeldanese.weebly.com/ Read any way you want – including versions for all e-readers - http://www.smashwords.com/ (search Michael Danese) For Kindle version visit www.amazon.com (search Michael Danese) Also available at iTunes and Barnes & Noble Comments welcome – please feel free to share! Stay safe! Michael Danese 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.
