PHILADELPHIA — A rowdy band of bloodsuckers, gunslingers, wily wise guys, jaded private eyes, hardboiled reporters and good girls gone bad, stuck in an attic together for 80 years, is going its separate ways.
Nearly three dozen movie theater posters from the Golden Age of Hollywood found in a Pennsylvania attic are expected to fetch $250,000 at auction in Texas this month. They were stuck together with wallpaper glue when they were purchased for around $30,000 at a country auction last fall in Berwick, near Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The buyer, who chose to remain anonymous, consigned them to Heritage Auctions in Dallas, where the stack of 33 Depression-era posters was painstakingly steamed and gingerly separated over the course of several weeks.
"As we started to peel them apart, it was one of the greatest treasure troves from a beautiful period of poster printing," said Grey Smith of Heritage Auctions, where the posters go on the block March 23.
The separated posters underwent minor touch-ups and were backed with linen at a restoration house, he said.
"A number of them were in very, very nice shape. ... The colors had not seen the light of day in 80 years," Smith said. They were glued, one atop the other, apparently as each new release came to town. The find most likely came from one of the three big movie houses in Berwick during that era, Smith said.
From what the auction buyer was able to ascertain, the valuable stack of Hollywood history was inside a home whose contents were being liquidated as part of an estate sale, he said.
The trove includes extraordinarily rare original posters from the 1931 films "The Public Enemy," "Cimarron," "The Front Page" and "Little Caesar." Some are versions never before seen, while others are among only one or two other known copies. All measure roughly 27 by 41 inches, known in movie parlance as a one-sheet.
James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Barbara Stanwyck are among the matinee idols gracing several posters but Bela Lugosi, bug-eyed and menacing in the 1931 ad for horror classic "Dracula," counts as the star of the auction with a starting bid of $200,000.
An identical poster owned by actor Nicholas Cage sold at auction in 2009 for $310,000.
The films in the posters date from 1930 and 1931, a uniquely permissive time for filmmaking that came after the adoption of sound but before the enforcement of stringent moral guidelines popularly known as the Hays Code. Movies from the "pre-Code" era of roughly 1929 to 1934 include sex, violence and social commentary that vanished as the Hays Code censored everything from religious criticism to "suggestive postures."
The Humphrey Bogart-John Huston version of "The Maltese Falcon," for example, was a remake of the 1931 original, which was later deemed lewd under the Hays Code for nudity and sexual references and banned from re-release. A poster for the earlier "Falcon," featuring smooching leads Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez, is also part of the sale and the auctioneers say it's the only one known to exist.
"They were purely a product to be disposed of. ... They're not something anyone would have thought to save," Smith said in explaining the scarcity of movie ephemera of the era. Berwick had three large movie houses in the early 1930s and the posters likely came from one of them, he said.
For collectors, a find like the Berwick posters is "like a dream come true," said Bob King, editor of Classic Images, an Iowa-based periodical devoted to pre-1960s film and television.
"When (a discovery like) this happens, it's a big deal because you never know when or if it'll happen again," he said. "Are they ever going to find another one like this? Maybe not."
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PHILADELPHIA — A rowdy band of bloodsuckers, gunslingers, wily wise guys, jaded private eyes, hardboiled reporters and good girls gone bad, stuck in an attic together for 80 years, is going its ...
PHILADELPHIA — A rowdy band of bloodsuckers, gunslingers, wily wise guys, jaded private eyes, hardboiled reporters and good girls gone bad, stuck in an attic together for 80 years, is going its ...
The posters (at least the ones shown here) aren't particularly beautiful design-wise--the illustrations are not styled very skillfuly and the typography is not exciting--but it's fun to see how excited people get because of what they represent.
analisae: The posters (at least the ones shown here) aren't particularly
His movies of the Thirties and Forties were filled with his irrepressible energy. A few of them are treasures. Like many of his generation, he was anxious to be not just an Irish American, but an assimilated American. I read his autobiography once. More than for his acting he wanted to be remembered for his dancing. Eventually he embraced the conservative politics of his pals like Reagan. I try to forget that whenever I see him, because I still love his energy. Dance on James, dance on.
Hopalongpoppyseed: His movies of the Thirties and Forties were filled with
What a magnificent find....If it were me,I would want to look at them everyday for a while before I sold them in auction. Can you imagine the brightness and colors of them from not seeing daylight for all of those years!
Hollywood053: What a magnificent find....If it were me,I would want to
I think there's an addition mistake. If the one poster starts at $200,000 and one such recently sold for over $300,00, and there are 32 other posters, all rare, why is the sale expected to bring only $250,000?
yannaro: I think there's an addition mistake. If the one poster
beacuse i ahve dealt with HERITAGE myself....they would rather sell it for a minimum reserve to make a commision that hold onto it and sell it for what the SELLER wants...the owner was better off taking the posters to Sotheby's Christies or similiar. Also-t-he memorabilai market in recent years has been a bit "slow".....
huff-puff-bluff: beacuse i ahve dealt with HERITAGE myself....they would rather sell
I think only someone Who owened or worked at a theater would have had access to these posters. They look like the ones You see When you walk in to the movies in a plastic case.Big posters
Barbara0817: I think only someone Who owened or worked at a
I've got a Rolph Armsrtong in water color,found it in the trash of a home I was showing about 10 years ago.Sent it off to a gallery (photo) and they said color at bottom is running.I have researched ,can't find another one like it and the gallery say's color at bottom ir running.Are they crazy? Who cares it's beautiful and original!
Teresa_Hudson_Hassig: I've got a Rolph Armsrtong in water color,found it in
Wow, what a swell find wish I could have been in on this .This was truely the golden age of hollywood I wonder what Bela Lugosi looks like in that poster. I have a cardboard poster of James Arness with Kitty smoking both smoking L M cigarettes .Anything with cigarettes especially James Arness b/c he was Mister Clean in the fifties he never smoked on air ,and recently died Kitty is dead ,The doc is dead ,and maybe Chester Goode is stillaround or Festus .That was their gunsmoke names Milburn Stone -Doc I got an original Jimmy Hendrix poster ,and a Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon poster any serious takers
bjamebon3: Wow, what a swell find wish I could have been
Chester was played by Dennis Weaver who died in 2006. Ken Curtis who played Festus is also gone. He died in 1991. I don't think any of the major cast is still living.
trekkienut: Chester was played by Dennis Weaver who died in 2006.
I saw the skinny picketr..but an old sosa fountain..look inside..and pull out a dead mouse with his BARE (Ungloved) hand and just toss the deasd mouse....like WOAH...if hes handling mice and rodents without gloves...Im not shaking his hand lol
huff-puff-bluff: I saw the skinny picketr..but an old sosa fountain..look inside..and
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JOANN LOVIGLIO 03/12/12 01:07 PM ET Associated Press