Press Sheet showing prices of Australian posters

John

I think this press sheet gives an interesting insight into posters that were available for cinemas to purchase. Note that the quantities seemed to be limitless so this may explain why large quantities of daybills for various titles have been found in various cinemas

HONDO

Interesting  information John.

When you mentioned large quantities of daybills for various titles  having been found in various cinemas, what sort of large numbers are we talking about?  

HONDO

HONDO said:

Interesting  information John.

When you mentioned large quantities of daybills for various titles  having been found in various cinemas, what sort of large numbers are we talking about?  

Love to hear your response John.

John

I will just give you one general example and leave it at that. It is fairly well known that a huge number of posters were found at the Orpheum Cinema in North Sydney many years ago. Amongst them were large quantities of specific titles, some of which regularly appear in auctions, etc. There have many large finds from cinemas around Australia over the years and they often have multiples of various titles. 

Bruce

Much more common than huge quantities from theaters are huge quantities from distributors. I can't speak to Australia, but in the U.S. many poster exchanges had dozens or hundreds of examples of a single poster when they were bought out by dealers in the 1960s and 1970s.

HONDO

Just my thoughts to address the Orpheum Cinema situation. The cinema attached a snipe on their posters as seen below. When researching through Bruce's website I didn't locate any large quantities of any particular title that would qualify as having the large numbers that I was searching for. 

HONDO

Bruce said:

Much more common than huge quantities from theaters are huge quantities from distributors. I can't speak to Australia, but in the U.S. many poster exchanges had dozens or hundreds of examples of a single poster when they were bought out by dealers in the 1960s and 1970s.

Agree 100% Bruce that the large finds originated from the film distributors.

This applied here in Australia as well with the very large finds surfacing from the film distributors

John

HONDO said:

Just my thoughts to address the Orpheum Cinema situation. The cinema attached a snipe on their posters as seen below. When researching through Bruce's website I didn't locate any large quantities of any particular title that would qualify as having the large numbers that I was searching for. 

They didn't attach snipes to all the posters 

John

Bruce said:

Much more common than huge quantities from theaters are huge quantities from distributors. I can't speak to Australia, but in the U.S. many poster exchanges had dozens or hundreds of examples of a single poster when they were bought out by dealers in the 1960s and 1970s.

Yes and I have been the recipient of some of these huge collections when distributors or, people who have worked for the distributors, have sold their inventory. This is also true of New Zealand and there are certain people who ran cinemas over there who acquired massive collections because of their relationships with distributors. 

dedeposter

I had two Australian "It Came From Outer Space" 3-sheets. One of which I consigned to Bruce, the other I still have. I picked them up at Space Age books on Swanston Street, Melbourne back in the 80s. That's where a lot of good stuff used to turn up, for ridiculously cheap prices.

John

The price increased a little for daybills for Riding High (1950) 

HONDO

Special one sheets are?

John

HONDO said:

Special one sheets are?

Good question. I can't see anything in the press book that shows what they are.

dedeposter

I wonder if they would have had specific information about the theatre screening it printed on them, like their name or other info?

HONDO

I Jumped in too early so I have deleated my imput. More soon though.

HONDO

dedeposter said:

I wonder if they would have had specific information about the theatre screening it printed on them, like their name or other info?

Good thinking Peter. No Australian one sheet image located but judging by the below American one sheet design of Riding High there wouldn't have been much room to include extra details.

 To add theatre details to include individual cinema requests would have had to have been expensive one would have to think. I have never sighted an example of this happening at all.

HONDO

After doing a little research on this subject and remembering some information from the past it would now seem that the answer has been found,

The advertised Special one sheeter was an alternative one sheet poster that was printed in Australia as an enhanced poster. In the case of the following Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936) poster it was advertised as being printed in gold.  

 ( Wil)

We have now established that this style of one sheet was produced at least between the late 1930's and in the very early 1950s.

My feeling is that these posters were very limited in copies printed and were only produced for certain major releases. I do wonder if apart from Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures, did any of the other Australian major film distributors produce this style of poster as well.

Ir certainly would be interesting to know some more information regarding this subject and its history. 

HONDO

Love to hear any thoughts anyone has on this matter.