Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
Continuing his film poster pictorial book series, Tony Nourmand journeys back to an early film era with Film Posters of the 30s: The Essential Movies of the Decade.
A common theme for films from the period was escapism, mostly in response to the Great Depression of the time. The book covers movies of the 1930s by organizing the film poster one-sheets by genre, such as: romance, adventure, comedy, war, and so on. The book includes over 240 images and features work by internationally famous artists including Albert Hirschfeld, Alberto Vargas and James Montgomery Flagg.
As shown on the book’s cover, the 1930s decade features three of the most timeless films of all time: The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and King Kong. Those popular films have used many different one-sheet “looks” through the years, with posters that differ from their initial ad campaigns from the 30s. For example, the original 1933 King Kong film has had many one-sheet variations through it’s many re-releases.
Written by Rudy Franchi and Barbara Franchi of The Nostalgia Factory, the book Miller’s Movie Collectibles is a guide to collecting movie memorabilia, with an emphasis on vintage film poster one-sheets. The book is nicely illustrated (over 300 full-color photographs) and categorized, offering information on movie poster sizing, collecting terminology, specific illustrators working in the field, genre films including the Star Wars saga, and other background on movie poster collecting.
A passage from the Miller’s Movie Collectibles guide:
“This book outlines some of the major areas of movie memorabilia, highlighting trends and warning of any potential land mines buried deep in the field of cinema collectibles. With over 65 year’s combined experience dealing with the topics discussed, the authors would advise collectors to regard acquiring this material as a hobby, and to temper their passion with common sense and caution.”
If you’re interested in the collecting side of movie posters, this book would be a great place to start.
In the 1950s the motion picture industry did battle with it’s newest and biggest rival: television. This meant trying everything from gimmicks (“in 3D!”), genre films (such as horror and science fiction), to a bit of sex appeal (courtesy of the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean).
In Tony Nourmand’s book Film Posters of the 50s: The Essential Movies of the Decade, the movie poster takes on a vital role in advertising films of the time: getting people to leave their home (and TVs) and into to the movie theater. Whether it was the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet or the emergence of designer Saul Bass, some consider the 1950s as part of the “golden age” of film poster art. The fifties certainly marked the transition into the modern equivalent of the so-called “star sell”, where big name movie stars began to drive film advertising (and film production in general).
X-Rated: Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s offers a visual online gallery (and book) from the “golden age” of porn films in the 1960s and 70s, when x-rated movies actually played in movie theatres. The movie poster art created for these x-rated films remain kitsch classics, with many invoking a surprising sense of style and design.
Featuring posters from such not-so classic adult films as The Love Robots, Call Girls of Frankfurt, Blackmailed Wives, The Pro Shop, Flesh Gordon, Kiss Me Mate, Space Thing, Slaves of the Sin-dicate, Girls That Do, Come Play With Me, Depraved!, Hot Lunch, Danish Pastries, Maid in Sweden, and oh so many more.
