Re: [MOPO] The very first "movie posters" appeared at the same time movies were first made!

[Tom Martin]

Garth and Bruce
Good research guys
The earliest magazines I had are from the 1800s for the theater business 
because they were starting a crossover in the motion pictures as many of 
the legitimate theaters showed the movies also like in Celito Burt's 
theater also show me the trade magazines I had later it's called showman 
trade review, wids, Motion picture herald, box office later in motion 
picture news the earliest issues I have are from 1913 and were featured 
in the book by David Bowers Nickelodeon theaters and there music -1986 
vestal press

Tom
Hollywood dream factory®
since 1977



On 2023-07-23 14:27, Garth Grieder wrote:



This is a great topic, Bruce!

I have done some research in this line, since archive.org [2] has
scanned all of the Moving Picture World publications from 1909, there
is tons of info to look through! I am thinking of one day doing a
video on this topic, as it is fun to research.

The earliest 6-color, beautifully rendered Studio one-sheets for
individual releases began being produced in Q3 1909. Essanay and Slig
were two of the first Studios (known then as Film Manufacturers) to
begin producing beautiful 6-color stone litho one sheets to advertise
specific films. This was huge news in the industry at the time. Here
is how it was covered in Moving Picture World:

_“We are in receipt of a handsome litho. Title poster of the Essanay
subject, “Wonders of Nature,” their release of August 18. This is
the second, we are informed, of the series of posters they are
issuing. We find the poster an exceptionally attractive one, made in
six colors, and measuring 28 by 42 inches. Besides a large
illustration, depicting a scene from the film, the design includes the
Indian head, the Essanay Company’s trade-mark and the title of the
film. The poster, we feel, should prove a real adornment to any
theater lobby or billboard.”_

This passage from a Q3 1909 Moving Picture World speaks to how novel
the concept was:

 _“New York Motion Picture Company creates a new style of poster -
synopsis of the story of the film printed in large and clear Gothic
type which can easily be read by the public in the light of the street
lamp. In addition to this they furnish a full sheet colored poster,
lithographed in many colors and bearing close resemblance to the
actors in some important incident of the play.”_

I found it interesting that just 5 months earlier, in Feb 1909, a
trade commentary in the publication 'The Nickelodeon' stated the
following:

_“Posters may be any size from 12x18 inches or even smaller, to the
big three-sheet billboard poster, however, 24x36” is about as large
as the picture theater manager will ever care to use."_

The theatre owners didn't immediately take to displaying posters. The
industry was changing rapidly in 1909, where the small Nickelodeon
theatres (often 200 seats or less) that dominated the industry since
about 1905 started losing favor to bigger theatres (200-1000 seats).
These bigger, more prestigious theatres didn't want to have their
beautiful lobbies plastered with campy bill-posters (up until 1909,
posters were mostly block-letter type or stock posters). Instead, they
favored photo enlargements with a synopsis of the film blown up for
people to read.

By November 1909, it seemed posters started taking the industry by
storm. (it's also interesting to note that the term 'poster' is used
much more frequently in the trade publications of 1909 & 1910 than you
will find in publications from the 1930's. It was big news at the
time!):

“Until recently, nobody seemed to care for [the poster]. Any old
thing in the way of a crude design and crude printing suited your
indifferent movie theater exhibitor – any old thing with some idea
of dramatic situation and plenty of crude color was considered good
enough to put outside the moving picture theater.
 But a little while ago it occurred to some alert minds that better
things than these could be done, and so the manufacturers and others
have been sending out specially made posters illustrating the
particular pictures shown. One or two of the manufacturers have had
pieces of their film subjects suitably enlarged, and these when
surrounded with striking borders make very effective posters. This is
symptomatic of the progressive instinct. The movie picture theater is
progressing all along the line, in the quality of the pictures, the
house, the audience, the music, and so it is only reasonable to expect
progress in the matter of such an important item as the poster.”
 “Is the moving picture theater coming to the same state of things?
Are we near the time when the billboard will contain 24-sheet posters
illustrating some scene in a Pathe or Biograph film? Shall we see fine
specimens of color printing, good designs and all the rest of it,
advertising films all over the country? Are we, in short, to witness
the theatricalization of the moving picture at the poster end of
matters? It certainly looks asi f we were, judging by the trend 

Re: [MOPO] The very first "movie posters" appeared at the same time movies were first made!

[Bruce Hershenson]

Garth

This is great stuff!

Here is what I feel should be the next logical step:
For each of the types of items I list, I want to show an image the earliest
SURVIVING example I know of (and of course it is also fine to list earlier
examples as seen in images or reported in campaign books or exhibitor
magazines). That way, once I have the basic list created, I can publicize
it far and wide, and anyone with an earlier surviving example of any type
can send me an image of it and I can update the list (and of course the
same goes for non-surviving earlier examples, but I think it makes sense to
limit it to ones where an actual image can be located).

And I think Phil's idea about also adding in last know surviving (or
reported) of each type is great too.

So I will get to work on my part, and I hope you Garth and anyone else with
an interest will help to greatly improve it.

And Can you provide me with a direct link to how to get to the part of
archive.org that has scanned all of the Moving Picture World publications
from 1909?

Thanks
Bruce



On Sun, Jul 23, 2023 at 1:27 PM Garth Grieder 
wrote:

> This is a great topic, Bruce!
>
> I have done some research in this line, since archive.org has scanned all
> of the Moving Picture World publications from 1909, there is tons of info
> to look through! I am thinking of one day doing a video on this topic, as
> it is fun to research.
>
> The earliest 6-color, beautifully rendered Studio one-sheets for
> individual releases began being produced in Q3 1909. Essanay and Slig were
> two of the first Studios (known then as Film Manufacturers) to begin
> producing beautiful 6-color stone litho one sheets to advertise specific
> films. This was huge news in the industry at the time. Here is how it was
> covered in Moving Picture World:
>
> *“We are in receipt of a handsome litho. Title poster of the Essanay
> subject, “Wonders of Nature,” their release of August 18. This is the
> second, we are informed, of the series of posters they are issuing. We find
> the poster an exceptionally attractive one, made in six colors, and
> measuring 28 by 42 inches. Besides a large illustration, depicting a scene
> from the film, the design includes the Indian head, the Essanay Company’s
> trade-mark and the title of the film. The poster, we feel, should prove a
> real adornment to any theater lobby or billboard.”*
>
>
> This passage from a Q3 1909 Moving Picture World speaks to how novel the
> concept was:
>
> *“New York Motion Picture Company creates a new style of poster - synopsis
> of the story of the film printed in large and clear Gothic type which can
> easily be read by the public in the light of the street lamp. In addition
> to this they furnish a full sheet colored poster, lithographed in many
> colors and bearing close resemblance to the actors in some important
> incident of the play.”*
>
>
> I found it interesting that just 5 months earlier, in Feb 1909, a trade
> commentary in the publication 'The Nickelodeon' stated the following:
>
> *“Posters may be any size from 12x18 inches or even smaller, to the big
> three-sheet billboard poster, however, 24x36” is about as large as the
> picture theater manager will ever care to use."*
>
>
> The theatre owners didn't immediately take to displaying posters. The
> industry was changing rapidly in 1909, where the small Nickelodeon theatres
> (often 200 seats or less) that dominated the industry since about 1905
> started losing favor to bigger theatres (200-1000 seats). These bigger,
> more prestigious theatres didn't want to have their beautiful lobbies
> plastered with campy bill-posters (up until 1909, posters were mostly
> block-letter type or stock posters). Instead, they favored photo
> enlargements with a synopsis of the film blown up for people to read.
>
>
> By November 1909, it seemed posters started taking the industry by storm.
> (it's also interesting to note that the term 'poster' is used much more
> frequently in the trade publications of 1909 & 1910 than you will find in
> publications from the 1930's. It was big news at the time!):
>
>
>
> *“Until recently, nobody seemed to care for [the poster]. Any old thing in
> the way of a crude design and crude printing suited your indifferent movie
> theater exhibitor – any old thing with some idea of dramatic situation and
> plenty of crude color was considered good enough to put outside the moving
> picture theater. But a little while ago it occurred to some alert minds
> that better things than these could be done, and so the manufacturers and
> others have been sending out specially made posters illustrating the
> particular pictures shown. One or two of the manufacturers have had pieces
> of their film subjects suitably enlarged, and these when surrounded with
> striking borders make very effective posters. This is symptomatic of the
> progressive instinct. The movie picture theater is progressing all along
> the line, in the quality of the pictures, the house, the 

Re: [MOPO] The very first "movie posters" appeared at the same time movies were first made!

[Garth Grieder]

This is a great topic, Bruce!

I have done some research in this line, since archive.org has scanned all
of the Moving Picture World publications from 1909, there is tons of info
to look through! I am thinking of one day doing a video on this topic, as
it is fun to research.

The earliest 6-color, beautifully rendered Studio one-sheets for individual
releases began being produced in Q3 1909. Essanay and Slig were two of the
first Studios (known then as Film Manufacturers) to begin producing
beautiful 6-color stone litho one sheets to advertise specific films. This
was huge news in the industry at the time. Here is how it was covered in
Moving Picture World:

*“We are in receipt of a handsome litho. Title poster of the Essanay
subject, “Wonders of Nature,” their release of August 18. This is the
second, we are informed, of the series of posters they are issuing. We find
the poster an exceptionally attractive one, made in six colors, and
measuring 28 by 42 inches. Besides a large illustration, depicting a scene
from the film, the design includes the Indian head, the Essanay Company’s
trade-mark and the title of the film. The poster, we feel, should prove a
real adornment to any theater lobby or billboard.”*


This passage from a Q3 1909 Moving Picture World speaks to how novel the
concept was:

*“New York Motion Picture Company creates a new style of poster - synopsis
of the story of the film printed in large and clear Gothic type which can
easily be read by the public in the light of the street lamp. In addition
to this they furnish a full sheet colored poster, lithographed in many
colors and bearing close resemblance to the actors in some important
incident of the play.”*


I found it interesting that just 5 months earlier, in Feb 1909, a trade
commentary in the publication 'The Nickelodeon' stated the following:

*“Posters may be any size from 12x18 inches or even smaller, to the big
three-sheet billboard poster, however, 24x36” is about as large as the
picture theater manager will ever care to use."*


The theatre owners didn't immediately take to displaying posters. The
industry was changing rapidly in 1909, where the small Nickelodeon theatres
(often 200 seats or less) that dominated the industry since about 1905
started losing favor to bigger theatres (200-1000 seats). These bigger,
more prestigious theatres didn't want to have their beautiful lobbies
plastered with campy bill-posters (up until 1909, posters were mostly
block-letter type or stock posters). Instead, they favored photo
enlargements with a synopsis of the film blown up for people to read.


By November 1909, it seemed posters started taking the industry by storm.
(it's also interesting to note that the term 'poster' is used much more
frequently in the trade publications of 1909 & 1910 than you will find in
publications from the 1930's. It was big news at the time!):



*“Until recently, nobody seemed to care for [the poster]. Any old thing in
the way of a crude design and crude printing suited your indifferent movie
theater exhibitor – any old thing with some idea of dramatic situation and
plenty of crude color was considered good enough to put outside the moving
picture theater. But a little while ago it occurred to some alert minds
that better things than these could be done, and so the manufacturers and
others have been sending out specially made posters illustrating the
particular pictures shown. One or two of the manufacturers have had pieces
of their film subjects suitably enlarged, and these when surrounded with
striking borders make very effective posters. This is symptomatic of the
progressive instinct. The movie picture theater is progressing all along
the line, in the quality of the pictures, the house, the audience, the
music, and so it is only reasonable to expect progress in the matter of
such an important item as the poster.” “Is the moving picture theater
coming to the same state of things? Are we near the time when the billboard
will contain 24-sheet posters illustrating some scene in a Pathe or
Biograph film? Shall we see fine specimens of color printing, good designs
and all the rest of it, advertising films all over the country? Are we, in
short, to witness the theatricalization of the moving picture at the poster
end of matters? It certainly looks asi f we were, judging by the trend and
tendency of the moving picture at this very moment.”*


I found this following commentary to be hilarious... with posters now in
full effect, we see some early examples of misleading, or 'false'
advertising (possibly worse offenders than the notorious AIP! lol)

This was in a July 1910 article in Moving Picture World.

“A flagrant example recently noticed was a poster showing a man holding a
dagger in a threatening attitude over some men seated at a table. This was
used to advertise Selig’s industrial film, “Opening an Oyster.” On asking
the exhibitor where the poster applied, he said: “The men at the table were
supposed to be eating 

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Once Upon a Time in America by Tom Jung (Warner Bros., 1984). Very Fine-. 
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Tron (Buena Vista, 1982). Rolled, Very Fine. Insert (14" X 36").
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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Paramount, 1971). Fine+ on Linen. Poster 
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The Birds (Universal, 1963). Very Fine-. Lobby Card (11" X 14").
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The Empire Strikes Back (Lucasfilm, 1980). Very Fine on Linen. Coca-Cola 
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Little Miss Grown-Up (General Film, 1918). Fine on Linen. One Sheet (28.25" X 
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Plan 9 from Outer Space (Douglas Films Argentina, 1961). Folded, Fine/Very 
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