That is a great story, Greg. In fact, like Bruce, you both have great stories and a gift for telling them! When is YOUR book coming out? I know Bruce has one in the works and the stuff you post on FB is equally hair-raising! All of my back stories are mostly bad / grisly and aren't culturally related, dating back to my news days, like the time when a freshly bound corpse was found in a trunk at the San Diego airport and one of the reporters, I kid you not, with a serious face - held a mike in front of the homicide cop's face and asked, "Do you suspect foul play?" Sorry, but that broke everybody up. - d.
________________________________ From: MoPo List <mopo-l@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> on behalf of Alan Heimann <alanheim...@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2023 5:42 PM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> Subject: Re: WB throwing away thousands of movie posters Greg this is a great read and wonderful piece of movie poster history on a personal level. On Sat, Apr 8, 2023 at 5:41 PM Greg Douglass <pickmeis...@mail.com<mailto:pickmeis...@mail.com>> wrote: On the other hand: I had a dear friend named Chuck Vergara who lived in Fairfax, CA. He owned a local restaurant that was decorated with as many movie posters as he could fit, mostly 20s & 30s titles. "They're just so damned pretty!" he would enthuse to me on a regular basis. (My fascination with 50s horror/sci-fi eluded him.) Chuck was driving his station wagon back in the late 70s on Market St. in San Francisco. He saw some sort of activity going on at one of the many triple-feature low-rent theaters there. The theater owner was tossing an immense number of posters dating back to the 1930s. Chuck asked if he could grab a few. A couple of hours later, the suspension system in that station wagon was being sorely tested by the massive weight of as many posters as it would hold. He opened up a small poster store in one of his properties in town. I'd stop by often to talk posters with Chuck (face it, guys; everyone else thinks we're nuts for urinating away thousands of dollars on pieces of paper. Chuck was simpatico.) I'd pick up a few titles; an 8-card set for "Some Like it Hot" for 30 bucks, a "She Creature" half sheet for $15. It was a tiny piece of heaven. Years later, he called me to tell me he was liquidating has collection of paper. He gave me first crack at everything. This was right at the beginning of eBay so the timing was impeccable. He had contacts at Lucasfilm so there was a hefty pile of mint Star Wars stuff. The prices were dictated by him. I picked up a "Jaws" one sheet and asked "How much?" "Gimme a buck", he shrugged. I argued with him; "We both know it's worth more than that!" "Gimme a buck", he repeated Our Toyota was full and my pockets were empty when I left Chuck's home. I sold most of the stuff during what used to be the wild west days of Ebay. I made over $100,000 in a year. I found out later that Chuck knew he had prostate cancer and didn't have long to live. He wanted his posters to go to someone he liked and who appreciated them as an art form. He was tired of dealing with "pinhole counters" (his wonderful expression) through Movie Collector's World. I called to thank him for his incredible generosity but...he was already gone. It broke my heart. Greg Douglass PS: Chuck called me one night. "Get over here NOW!", he yelled. I zipped over and there, laid out on his living room floor, was the six-sheet from the 1925 "Phantom of the Opera" (the masque scene). He had someone coming over to buy it. The buyer bitched like crazy over the "outrageous" selling price of $2,000. It remains one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed. Chuck and his wife Hazel were the greatest. ________________________________ Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2023 at 1:55 PM From: "David Kusumoto" <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com> To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: [MOPO] WB throwing away thousands of movie posters I did the same. I joined Crew Stories like Bruce and did a deep dive and couldn't find the screenshot image I web-hosted so others could see it here. I think it's fake news as far as giving people the impression that this happened last week - but I DO think this could've happened as far back as the 1990s or as recently as two years ago. Warners bought MGM's library in 1996. Two years ago, Warners (as Warner Media) - sold its movie properties to Amazon - but hung onto Turner's original MGM library of pre-1986 titles including pre-1950s Warners titles, pre-1950 RKO titles and a bunch of other studio and TV libraries. Everything post 1986 and ALL of UA's library including the James Bond series dating to 1962 was sold to Amazon two years ago. - d. P.S. - That is Glass Bottom Boat on the floor in that picture. It would not be among the titles Warners would keep after its sale to Amazon. The whole thing is confusing. What matters is the idea of trashing movie paper. It would be hard to fake an image of posters being strewn everywhere in a cavernous hangar-type warehouse. Whether this happened two years ago or 30 years ago, who knows. ________________________________ From: MoPo List <mopo-l@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> on behalf of Bruce Hershenson <brucehershen...@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2023 10:33 AM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> Subject: Re: WB throwing away thousands of movie posters Kirby My first thought on seeing that image was "looks kind of fishy to me"! I joined that FB group and that post is not there. I went to that guy's profile, and it was not there either. And I found the same post in another non-movie poster group. Looks like one more of those "I remember when poster exchanges had Frankenstein and Dracula lobby sets" to me. But what do I know? Bruce ________________________________ On Sat, Apr 8, 2023 at 12:19 PM Kirby McDaniel <ki...@movieart.com> wrote: Could be; I don't remember. K. ________________________________ On Apr 8, 2023, at 10:59 AM, Roland Lataille <roland.latai...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: Didn't Warner acquire many of the MGM films years ago? ________________________________ On Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 11:26:24 AM EDT, Kirby McDaniel <ki...@movieart.com> wrote: uhhhhh.... that is a half-sheet for THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT, which is MGM, so why is that there if this is some kind of Warner's archive? Fake news? Kirby McDaniel movieart.com where ALL the news is REAL ________________________________ On Apr 7, 2023, at 10:59 PM, Alan Adler <m...@charter.net> wrote: This is obscene. Whoever inside the WB organization that decided in was a good idea to trash its own history should be fired on the spot - and all the way up the corporate ladder if need be. When I first heard about this I thought the event took place 50 years ago. This level of stupidity is disgusting. Why not just give it all to the Academy or any film school or sane group of individuals and save the expense of trashing it? It’s akin to book burning. And to then trash it in private when people wanted to save it by hiding their actions is disgusting. This act reeks of high-level corporate idiocy. I’ve seen this close-up, but I’d hoped we’d evolved beyond the days of trashing art and artifacts for the sake of expediency. I guess not. Alan ________________________________ On Apr 7, 2023, at 7:05 PM, David Kusumoto <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com> wrote: Yes, I saw that posted yesterday at the Crew Stories site - but I was unable to confirm the actual date this happened. ________________________________ From: MoPo List <mopo-l@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> on behalf of Roland Lataille <roland.latai...@sbcglobal.net> Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 6:30 PM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> Subject: Re: WB throwing away thousands of movie posters Friends of 70mm | Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/groups/friendsof70mm> [https://s.yimg.com/nq/storm/assets/enhancrV2/23/logos/facebook.png?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1]<https://www.facebook.com/groups/friendsof70mm> Friends of 70mm | Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/groups/friendsof70mm> Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
