Vintage Movie Posters
From the beginning of cinema, film posters were loaned to theatres to promote a film, then returned to the film exchange or sent to the next theatre on the distribution circuit. If the harshness of the 1920s and 1930s kept movie posters out of the hands of the general public, the paper shortage of the war years also helped to keep movie memorabilia out of general circulation; so it is no surprise that film posters from the years of 1930 to 1945 are quite scarce. It is said that fewer than 20 copies of movie posters exist from most films made between 1930 and 1945. As the years went by more and more theatre owners did not bother to return the posters and they remained in theatre exchanges and warehouses. Over the years many of these collections have been bought by dealers and collectors resulting in a huge market for vintage movie posters. However, the majority of these posters were printed on inexpensive paper and were never intended to be collectable items. Continue reading »
Filed under Film and Theatre | Tags: breakfast at tiffany's, charlie chaplin, james bond, MGM, movie posters, movies, silent movies, the italian job, the tramp | Comment (0)Toy Theatres
Toy theatres were made from pre-printed pieces to be assembled at home. Toy shops would offer ‘penny plain’ scenery and character sheets to be coloured at home, or ‘tuppence coloured’ ready finished sheets costings, one or two pennies each. Often, the toy theatres reproduced real life theatres and their plays. Continue reading »
Filed under Toys and Games | Tags: Alfred Jacobsen, charles dickens, charlie chaplin, Hans Christan Anderson, miniature theatre, paper theatre, penny plain, Pollocks, Priors, robert louis stevenson, toy theatre, toy theatres, tuppence coloured, winston churchill | Comment (0)