Great stories Greg! Thanks so much for sharing. I loved reading your post. - GT
On Tue, Apr 14, 2020 at 10:52 AM Greg Douglass <[email protected]> wrote: > > Been reading this thread with great interest. I knew a guy named Chuck > Vergara who had been collecting posters for ages. A mutual pal of ours > introduced us and I went to Chuck's coffee shop/restaurant that he owned > and was immediately stunned by the gorgeous posters covering almost every > wall surface. Chuck's addiction was to those beautiful 20th Century Fox > stone lithos. 'They're so damn pretty!" he said over and over again. He was > driving around in San Francisco one day when an old, old theater on Market > Street was dumping hundreds of pounds of posters ranging from the twenties > to the present. He sprinted over to a phone booth and called everyone with > a large vehicle that he knew. > I bought many, many posters from Chuck over the years; sadly, financial > issues forced me to sell much of my collection in the early 1990s. > He used to joke about my love for horror films. "We can still be friends > even though you like that crap", he used to say. > One day, I got a phone call from Chuck. "Hey, Mr. Horror Movie Guy, can > you come over here, like RIGHT now?" He would not say why but I jetted > over. There, laid out on his living room floor, was the six sheet from > "Phantom of the Opera" showing the Phantom at the Masked Ball. It was so > gorgeous I got tears in my eyes. The person who was buying the poster from > Chuck came over and ranted and raved over the ourrageous price: "TWO > THOUSAND DOLLARS!?!?! That's highway robbery, Vergara!" He grumpily paid > the 2 Gs and left. > I believe that same poster sold at one of Bruce's early auctions for a > gazillion dollars. > I loved Chuck like a father. When he developed prostate cancer, he sold me > much of his collection for peanuts. "Come on, Chuck, we both know that > poster is worth a lot more." He insisted. Ebay was just getting going so my > profits on poster sales were pretty strong. > He was the nicest man I ever met and I miss his company terribly. He > wasn't the earliest collector but he'd been doing it for a long, long time. > I've met some great people in this hobby and also some unbelievable dicks. > They broke the mold when they made Chuck. > Great thread. I love these stories. > Greg Douglass > PS-I used to go to National Sreen Service on 5th St in San Francisco when > I was a kid. I'd either hitch a ride with my older brother or take the bus. > I had piles of dead mint early Sixties titles, lots of Corman AIP. The guy > who worked there was the first flamboyantly gay person i ever met. He was > an absolute riot, constantly bitching about how his "addiction" had turned > him into a shipping clerk. "What awful gory things do you want today, young > man?" he'd say when I walked in. One sheets were ...I think...50 cents. I > paid for many of my treasures using quarters and dimes. Warm up my time > machine, please. > > *Sent:* Monday, April 13, 2020 at 5:16 PM > *From:* "Glenn Taranto" <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [MOPO] Has anyone ever wonder this...? > Thanks, Sue. What a lucky kid! Hard to believe any poster being mint > being over 90 years old. > > As we all know many posters were given up for the war effort in the > 1940's. I hope I live long enough for that time machine to be invented! > > Glenn > > On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 5:08 PM Susan Heim <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Great question Glenn.. I know I have customers who started collecting >> the the 1950's. I have one customer who's father was good friends with >> someone who ran a National Screen Service and, on weekends, they would drop >> by to see the friend and the friend would give my customer, who was about >> 10 or 11 in those days movie posters and lobby card sets. So, for any >> given film, and he particularly collected Elizabeth Taylor and Alfred >> Hitchcock, >> he owned the one sheet, 40x60, 30x40 and lobby card set for each of their >> films, all in mint, never used condition. My customer kept up with the >> friend over the years, and developed other film poster interests all the >> way back to the 1920's, and collected hundreds of posters. It's really >> amazing to hold in your hands a mint copy of something that is 60 or 90 >> years old when you go to frame it...... >> >> I know Ron Borst started collecting pretty early.....when I first started >> collecting back in 1973, I knew other collectors that had been collecting >> since the 1940's finding posters in old bookstores in Hollywood. >> >> Sue >> Hollywood Poster Frames >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* MoPo List <[email protected]> on behalf of Glenn >> Taranto <[email protected]> >> *Sent:* Monday, April 13, 2020 11:59 PM >> *To:* [email protected] <[email protected]> >> *Subject:* [MOPO] Has anyone ever wonder this...? >> >> Hello All - >> >> OK, Admittedly too much time on my hands... >> >> Have any of you ever wondered (or know) who is considered the earliest >> know poster collector? Forry Ackerman, perhaps? >> >> I can just imagine some kid standing in front of a Paramount theatre and >> staring at a Metropolis one sheet wishing they could own it. >> >> GT >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: >> https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 >> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flistserv.american.edu%2Fscripts%2Fwa-american.exe%3FSUBED1%3DMoPo-L%26A%3D1&data=02%7C01%7C%7C2fae5ac57a8548c0cf4208d7e006c53e%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637224191982434070&sdata=RMC%2Bf0aBy2NinEL5q3GKgYRW4Jxro%2BHupuo7%2B9H425I%3D&reserved=0> >> > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: > https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 > 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.
