Film Posters

[David Brent]

Growing up in the Sixties going to the cinema was a special treat.Especially when my local cinema's used to change their film program's each week.On rare occassions if a movie was really popular it would be "Retained For 2nd.Week".
At the end of the street i lived in there was a permanent board attached to a brick wall that had 'The Gaumont'headlined on it and which carried posters promoting that week's double feature.
Every week a guy would come along & paste in the new cinema poster detailing films,times & admission prices.
To my friends & myself these posters used to build up the excitement before actually seeing the films.Especially when the school holidays were on & the latest Walt Disney movie was showing.
I remember the posters for films like Toby Tyler,Hercules Unchained,The Alamo,Ben Hur ect..

I remember trying to unpeal a poster for a Hayley Mills movie without anyone seeing me,but the billposter just used to stick each poster on top of the last one & i found i was pulling away not one but half a dozen old posters with it.
The paste that was used was very good,i was never able to retreive a poster there.

Do they still have these street posters advertising movies at the local cinema in the UK?
Has anyone on the Forum built up their own collection of valuable origional film posters ?
Are there any posters for Brit movies that are highly valued by collectors for their rarity?

Dave.

[DAVID RAYNER]

Well, I haven't seen any street boards with quad posters (30 by 40 inches) around here in Stoke-on-Trent for years. I don't think they use them anywhere in the country these days. I've collected cinema Front-of-House sets and quad posters issued in Great Britain for many years and have quite a collection...one of my latest aquisitions being the original quad poster for Sammy Going South, the 1963 Royal Performance Film starring Edward G Robinson and Fergus McClelland, of which I'm very proud. I also have the original colour Front-of-House set from that film, too, which is one of my personal favourites.

Old British quads can often be found on eBay at reasonable prices. Have a look at seller Moviedrome2. He's always got plenty of them.

[Steve Crook]

I've got some from some Powell & Pressburger films. I don't really collect posters, I don't have the room to display them. But when I see one being offered for sale for a reasonable amount when nobody else looks to be interested in it I'll sometimes buy it rather than risk the seller thinking nobody wants it and destroying it.

They do still display posters outside cinemas round my way. But they are usually in the back-lit display boxes rather than just pasted up.

Steve

[DAVID RAYNER]

Same here...I don't collect quads and FoH sets just for the sake of collecting them. They have to be from films that mean something to me or that are part of the history of my life in some way. I have far more FoH sets than quads, however.

I once had the original British quad for The Battle of the River Plate, which looked marvellous (the poster, that is), but unfortunately, I lost it about thirty years ago when I was moving house.

Yes, around here, the only quad posters to be seen are in the back lit convex curved plastic display cases outside the local Odeon and Warner Village multi-plexes, which have replaced the around 35 proper cinemas we had around here at one time.

[Freddy]

David, Sammy Going South was one of the first films I remember seeing so thanks for bringing back the memory.
Secondly I was talking to a chap about Sylvia Sims and he said he had the front bumper from Rosie, the field ambulance from Ice Cold in Alex, I wonder how things like that can be verified without providence. He mentioned that he bought it on E Bay

regards
Freddy

[DAVID RAYNER]

Freddy, I don't see how you can verify anything like that unless you were intimately aquainted with the ambulance and knew every little scratch and dent on the bumper. Anyone buying such things on eBay should always be aware that there are sharks on there as well as genuine sellers. Always check the seller's feedback before bidding.

Ah, Sammy Going South. A marvellous film. Fergus McClelland looked a lot like me when I was eleven and it's the nearest you'll ever get to seeing my younger self in CinemaScope and Eastman Colour on the screen. I was a bit of a wanderer in my childhood days, too. But I never wandered 5,000 miles from Port Said to Durban.

[ 04. September 2004, 16:03: Message edited by: DAVID RAYNER ]

[Steve Crook]

</div><div class='quotemain'>DAVID RAYNER: Freddy, I don't see how you can verify anything like that unless you were intimately aquainted with the ambulance and knew every little scratch and dent on the bumper. Anyone buying such things on eBay should always be aware that there are sharks on there as well as genuine sellers. Always check the seller's feedback before bidding. [/b]

Unless the number plate was still attached.
But even then, and even after checking the seller's feedback, it's still very much caveat emptor.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good and honest sellers there, but there are also some that aren't.

Steve

[Freddy]

Thanks Steve and David, they were my thoughts but diplomacy meant I kept them to myself.
As for Sammy yes he looked like me as well so you could easily put yourself in his sandels(with socks) and it gave you a great sense of adventure, a wanting to travel and as an oldie now in those days you could get on a bus or bike and just do that even before you were a teenager.
Freddy

[maggie]

Hello Everyone,
I,m a new member and delighted to find so many
others of like mind, I love the old black and white movies British and American and really look foreward to communicating with other members in the future on all aspects of the film world
Maggie.

[Jim]

</div><div class='quotemain'>maggie: Hello Everyone, I,m a new member and delighted to find so many others of like mind, I love the old black and white movies British and American and really look foreward to communicating with other members in the future on all aspects of the film world Maggie. [/b]

Morning Maggie, (surely a Brit movie title?)

Welcome to this wonderful webby thing!

When I discovered this site, quite by accident, I couldn't believe that there were other loonies out there who thought and liked the same old films as me, AND there are some really good lads and lasses too, in London; Bristol; Wolverhampton and Queensland in Oz. thumbs_u

[Freddy]

Dear David Brent,
Your lovely poster girl Hayley Mills is a special guest star in Wednesdays Murder She Wrote.
Notice I haven't mentioned anything about you two timing Martina.
The words cad, bounder, scoundrel do not pass my lips!
you Terry Thomas you

Freddy

[David Brent]

Cheers Freddie thumbs_u

I assume you're talking of UK television schedules.Unfortunately my antenna cannot quite pick up a decent picture from there.It's a pretty old series though so i may have seen it.

Hayley Mills was a childhood favourite,a juvenile crush,a wet dream.

Martina is ALL woman, cannot be surpassed for pure sex appeal & most importantly she is a pure lady in character and nature.

"I but saw her pass by....yet i shall love her till i die."

Dave.

[Gibbie]

Robert Menzies I presume?

[Paul E]

I do collect posters - mostly 30s or WW2 - and very occasionally movie posters. The gems of Brit film posters have to be the UK release Ealing posters - they used several well known British artists (John Piper (Painted Boats), Edward Bawden (Hue & Cry, Titfield Thunderbolt), Edward Ardizzone (Nicholas Nickleby) etc)and in those days they were still using lithography - many stand up as beautiful works of art in their own right.
The main problem with collecting posters is conservation - as well as the price you pay for the poster they very often need linen backing (about £50 for a 30 x 20 poster)and cleaning. Thats before you can get it framed! Linen backing is the only acceptable backing in the eyes of poster collectors, and it does get rid of most fold marks etc. Having a poster dry mounted at your local framers will reduce its value by 90% straightaway!