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What Happened To The Australian Daybills?

On researching Australia daybills over a very long period of time something that stands out to me is the number of Australian daybills that images have not surfaced for. One can understand daybills  printed up to 1949 being scare allowing for World War 11 paper shortages and other factors. I was once told by a person who had worked for a major film distributor that loads of unused Australian daybills, one sheets and other film paper were taken to the dump and disposed of reguarly.Personally about twenty five years ago I approached a second hand shop and was told by the owner she had only a few months before also dumped a lot of film posters as she thought they were of no commercial value. 

I have been looking into Blake Films 1950 & 1960 releases and Regent Films 1960 releases in particular and am amazed at how small the number of daybill titles printed for them have surfaced to date. Some of the missing titles include Chimes At Midnight, The Umbrellas Of Cherboug, Jack The Ripper, Only The Valiant ( re-release ). I am wondering in being small independent companies their print runs were less than the majors knowing bookings would be a lot less that the major distributors would generally receive. It is often said a lot of posters are hoarded by collectors but in the case of  Blake and Regent there titles are not extremely collectible due to lesser known titles with duotone and  less attractive artwork.


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Comments

  • I don't think you can expect images for everything to appear on the internet. I have hundreds of Australian posters that I have not photographed as yet, many of which might not have been seen before. They are very low on my priority list because they are either in poor condition or have little or no value and I just don't have the time. There are other collectors who have posters that might not have been seen but they have no reason to load images to the internet because they never sell anything.

    Are you referring to the Blake films Jack the Ripper with Klaus Kinski? If so, I have two versions.

  • John said:

    I don't think you can expect images for everything to appear on the internet. I have hundreds of Australian posters that I have not photographed as yet, many of which might not have been seen before. They are very low on my priority list because they are either in poor condition or have little or no value and I just don't have the time. There are other collectors who have posters that might not have been seen but they have no reason to load images to the internet because they never sell anything.

    Are you referring to the Blake films Jack the Ripper with Klaus Kinski? If so, I have two versions.


    All valid and logical points, probably close to the mark on all of them, except the one about you having no time...
  • John said:


    Are you referring to the Blake films Jack the Ripper with Klaus Kinski? If so, I have two versions.

    Blake films released two Jack The Ripper films. The 1979 version with Klaus Kinski I have seen the daybill but thank you John.The version I would love to see is the 1959 version which was originally banned in Australia but passed, I assume in a reconstructed version,  not long after.
  • edited August 2015
    John said:

    I don't think you can expect images for everything to appear on the internet. I have hundreds of Australian posters that I have not photographed as yet, many of which might not have been seen before. They are very low on my priority list because they are either in poor condition or have little or no value and I just don't have the time. There are other collectors who have posters that might not have been seen but they have no reason to load images to the internet because they never sell anything.

    The most obscure daybill titles turn up on eBay & eMoviposter along with many dealers sites and often in multiple copies. I am wondering why at least one copy hasn't surfaced of mainly moderate titles that one would think people wouldn't collect and save and would want to sell off. I have also been privileged to view a few large collections in my day and I have never sighted a large amount of titles. 

    John's point is valid but there are so many Blake and Regent titles in question that I fear many may not still exist or ever surface.

  • edited August 2015

    Although ebay and emovieposter have had lots of posters listed there are plenty of others that have not appeared on those sites eg Bruce has never had daybills for Rope, Dial M for Murder, Lifeboat, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur etc etc. There are also lots of Blake Films posters that I have in boxes that have not appeared anywhere (I don't think Bruce would want any of them!).

    On the "Where are these daybills?" thread a few of us have come up with quite a few images for titles not seen before. There are probably a lot more rare Australian posters lurking in private collections.

    Over the last few weeks I have been photographing posters from a collection I picked up in Victoria and I think a lot of the one sheets I have put up haven't been seen before.

    Lets hope that more of the missing images surface.



  • edited August 2015
    I too, in the last few months have picked up posters for titles no one has ever seen (or have memory of seeing) yet titles one would have thought one would have, I can also name off the top off my head half a dozen titles that I have or that have passed thru my hands that EMP has never sold (yet I am sure wish they had) - I think John's theory is on the money.
  • David said:
    I too, in the last few months have picked up posters for titles no one has ever seen (or have memory of seeing) yet titles one would have thought one would have, I can also name off the top off my head half a dozen titles that I have or that have passed thru my hands that EMP has never sold (yet I am sure wish they had) - I think John's theory is on the money.
    Some of the images you have posted recently are firsts for me. Broken Melody (from memory) was one standout.
  • Members keep on mentioning well known films like Broken Melody, Rope etc.They would be expected to turn up at some stage along with titles equally well known in the future. We seem to have lost our way a little in the purpose of my introducing this thread.. I am only talking about mainly obscure titles printed for Blake Films and Regent ( RFD ).

  • David said:
    I too, in the last few months have picked up posters for titles no one has ever seen (or have memory of seeing) yet titles one would have thought one would have, I can also name off the top off my head half a dozen titles that I have or that have passed thru my hands that EMP has never sold (yet I am sure wish they had) - I think John's theory is on the money.

    Again in line with the purpose of introducing this thread I will ask you how many are posters from Blake or Regent ( RFD )?
  • Many of these Blake Films releases are for sexploitation films. It would be very difficult indeed to get a list of all the films that they distributed.

  • John said:

    Many of these Blake Films releases are for sexploitation films. It would be very difficult indeed to get a list of all the films that they distributed.


    I don't require a list. I intentionally excluded the sexploitation films when asking my original question. The two companies released a lot of horror, foreign language films ( Blake mainly ),re-releases, exploitation, teen movies, science fiction, sword and sandal and other genres where no images appear to have been posted on any websites.

    These are the films I have been solely talking about.

  • John said:

    Many of these Blake Films releases are for sexploitation films. It would be very difficult indeed to get a list of all the films that they distributed.


    The sexploitation titles which I mentioned previously that I hadn't included  would have been be minimal in the 1960s as this type of film only flourished after the R certificate was introduced in late 1971.
  • John said:

    I don't think you can expect images for everything to appear on the internet. I have hundreds of Australian posters that I have not photographed as yet, many of which might not have been seen before. They are very low on my priority list because they are either in poor condition or have little or no value and I just don't have the time. There are other collectors who have posters that might not have been seen but they have no reason to load images to the internet because they never sell anything.

    Are you referring to the Blake films Jack the Ripper with Klaus Kinski? If so, I have two versions.

    You had me at "hundreds of Australian posters" - The Z-Grade sexploitation / drive in / grind house fare is right up my alley. If you've got dozens of these sorts of titles - we need to talk!  =)
  • I will have to try and get a list together. The majority of the Blake Films posters I have are 1970s.


  • I can hear him drooling from here...
  • David said:
    I can hear him drooling from here...
    I am not sure that's drooling you're hearing
  • I don't think that a daybill is all that absorbent...
  • Pancho said:
    I don't think that a daybill is all that absorbent...
    =)
  • I think i might be drooling as well!
  • Rick said:
    I think i might be drooling as well!
    We'll get John to ship us a big box of unsorted 70's daybill gold and we can spend the day sorting them for him!
  • Rick said:
    I think i might be drooling as well!
    Happens when you get to your age...
  •   The Devil Bat ( 1940 ) appears to have obtained an Australian theatrical release in 1945. I don't know for sure but I believe a daybill would have been printed by W.E.Smith and the distributor would have been British Empire Films ( BEF ). It doesn't matter who the printer was though as long as we will someday site a daybill or any Australian paper. Another extremely rare film that no Australian posters appear to have surfaced fot the general public to see.
  •         

    The Ape ( 1940 ) was released in Australia in 1941. Another extremely rare horror film to find an Australian daybill or any other Australian paper for and to date to my knowledge nothing has been found as yet.  BEF would have been the distributor and W.E. Smith the likely printer.

  • Keep them coming lawrence! Enjoying this thread
  • Sven said:
    Keep them coming lawrence! Enjoying this thread

    Thanks for your support Sven. A couple more titles you should enjoy soon.
  •                           Bluebeard ( 1944 ) was released in Australia in 1946. A rare title to find any Australian posters on and to date I have never sited any. The film most likely was released in Australia by BEF and printed by W.E. Smith.

    Interestingly the supporting film at the venue above and also at other venues was the well regarded Lewis Milestone war film A Walk In The Sun ( 1945 ), which had a much longer running time and was a much superior film. It makes one wonder why it had a first release on the bottom half of the program.?

  • edited November 2016
    Coming soon I will cover seven Val Lewton RKO titles on a new thread to be called ''Val Lewton Missing Daybills  ( And Other Australian Posters ), that readers of this thread may be interested in having a look at.
  • Only a stock daybill and two handmade 30x40 Australian 1Sheets exist? Interesting? If the US 1SH is anything to go it'd be nice paper downunder?

    MEET JOHN DOE Australian daybill movie poster '41 Gary Cooper

    Date Sold 8/17/2004
    Sold For: $52.00

    An Original Vintage Theatrical Folded Australian Daybill Movie Poster (measures approximately 13" x 30")
     (Learn More)


    Meet John Doe, the classic 1941 Frank Capra political populist melodrama (about a female reporter who writes a fictional story, which she presents as fact, about a man who is planning to commit suicide in protest of the world's treatment of downtrodden people; when the column is a giant hit, she must find a man to portray the writer and hires ex-baseball player Gary Cooper; Capra filmed multiple endings to this movie, as no ending seemed "right") starring Gary Cooper(in the title role as John Doe), Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, Spring Byington, James Gleason, Gene Lockhart, and Sterling Holloway

    NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.
    If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know.

    Important Added Info:
     Note that we have no idea when this daybill is from! However, based on the paper quality and the look of the daybill, we would guess it might be from the first Australian release after World War II (WWII).

    Condition: good to very good. water stains at lower right as well as some discoloration throughout the poster; poster was oddly folded resulting in three horizontal folds instead of the usual two; top 3" folded back at one time; some creases, smudges, and scuffs throughout the poster (more so around the edges); tack holes in each corner of the poster 








     

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