Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Question About Old Movie Posters

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-02-2004, 11:29 PM:

While in Reno last weekend I went to a local antique store to browse and happened to find a neat old movie poster for a 1928 Warner Bros film called "The Show Of Shows". IMDB gave me some info about the film which was apaprently the second musical ever made and that it was filmed in vaudville style and entirely in two color Technicolor. Its about a 1/3 size, perhaps 1/2 size poster(sorry, am not familiar with the sizes from back then), its definately original though, and has the "Vitaphone" and "Filmed In The Technicolor Process" labels on it as well as a Warners "Natural Color" label. The poster is somewhat of a hoot and I plan on keeping it but I was curious as to what it may really be worth..... More or less than the 30 bucks I paid for it. Quality wise on a 10 scale I'd give it a 6.5 to 7 as to condition. In fact for 1928 its condition is pretty amazing. IMDB did not have the poster for the film on their site. I'll try to get a digital camera in the next few days and post a photo of it.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 08-03-2004, 08:19 AM:

What is the actual size? Movie posters sizes were the same back then as they were up though the 1980's:

Give or take an inch...

24-sheet.........Big!
6-sheet..........84x84
3-sheet..........41x81
40 by 60.........40x60 Always on cardboard
1-sheet..........27x41
½-sheet..........22x28 Usually on cardboard
Insert...........14x36 Usually on cardboard
Window Card......14x22 Always on cardboard
Lobby Card.......11x14
Still....... ....8x10

In addition, at that time period there were (not sure of the exact size):

Jumbo Window Cards - These were about half the size of a 1-sheet, but on cardboard with a blank area on top for the theatre info. The top was sometimes trimmed, and this may be what you have.

Jumbo Lobby Cards - About twice the size of a normal lobby card.

Mini Window Cards - A little bigger than the size of a post card. Always on light cardboard.

Beware...

In my years of poster collecting, I have come across countless repros in antique shops being pawned off as originals. Some of the repros were 50 to 60 years old, but repros none the less.

For example, most movie posters from that period were printed using the stone lithograph process. If you look at the poster with a magnifying glass, the image will be made up of lots of little color blotches that blend together. If, under a magnifying glass you see lots of evenly spaced color dots, you are looking at modern (1960's or later) photo offset printing. If you see unevenly spaced color dots, you are looking at old photo offset printing (late 1930 to '60s).

Non standard sizes are usually the clue that the poster is not original, although there were always exceptions.

/Mitchell

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-03-2004, 07:02 PM:

Mitchell,
Of course its now down at work on display over the Universal base thats in our lobby. I'd say it is a 14 X 36 so its an insert. Also someone hand painted "Wed-Thur-Fri" at the top. There is a bordered in area at the top that apparently was just for doing this. That makes it all the more interesting to me. Thanks for all the details on the sizes and stuff!! I printed that out to save.

Mark @ CLACO