Our Mission

Sue and I have been poster collectors for over 30 years and sincerely love the hobby... Once we closed our retail store and decided to start LAMP in January 2001, we were committed to creating a place to document the hobby, primarily because very little existed out there. We thought that we were fairly knowledgable when we started, but each year we slowly began to realize what a vast amount of information was out there and how little was documented... AND THEN.. what an unbelievable amount was disappearing in front of our eyes.

Around 2007, we started talking with museums, film institutes and other types of repositories to try to understand how they work and what material was retained. And honestly, the realization of the current situation of the early years of our hobby is heartbreaking.

Here's the facts

FILM preservation was first brought up by Will Hayes in 1926 and by the mid 1930s, film preservation was a movement that continued to grow. BUT with all the time, effort and money that has been spent on film preservation .... 80%.... EIGHTY PERCENT of the silent films that were produced have been lost FOREVER!!! AND WHAT'S WORSE.... the ONLY reason that it's not HIGHER is from 1897 to 1912, films that were registered with the Library of Congress were submitted ON ROLLS OF PAPER!!!!  so THOSE have been saved!!.

All that time, effort and money being spent on film..... Film Preservation Societies and museum and government projects ALL focusing on film preservation..... BUT when you DON'T have the film anymore, the next best thing that was part of the release and historically documents that release is the advertising material issued with it..... in other words... posters, lobbies, stills, etc. BUT  with all the money spent trying to save the films......... NOTHING has been done specifically for POSTER or film accessory PRESERVATION!!

Here's the problem!

I always thought that the Library of Congress, Film Institutes, the Academy, museums and major archival facilities were agressively making efforts to find and preserve this material for the future.. Unfortunately, we had a RUDE AWAKENING!!!.

Let me give you a simplistic overview of the situation:
Institutions are donationed or acquire collections of material... Institutions HIRE Archivists, which are trained employees, to preserve any collection THAT particular institution has. Everything is filed and kept by donated collections. Film, letters, documents, etc. are important with posters considered as one of least importance. So if there happens to be posters in a collection, then they are supposedly listed and then put away. BUT the worse part is that many institutions WON'T share their list of what they have.

For state and federal institutions like museums, where they don't have any staff that knows about posters, they are normally just stored away in the boxes with the donor marked on the top. We have talked with museums that have had POSTER collections donated to them DECADES earlier, that have NEVER EVEN OPENED the boxes to see what is in them. The sad part is that most institutions wouldn't know what they have if they did open them.

After serious searching, there are NO institutions or academic facilities that we have been able to find that have put ANY aggression into finding, documenting and filling in and preserving WHAT was issued by the studios. A small effort has been made by a couple of studios to go back and document their releases, but their archive is satisfied with acquiring a single piece from a film. So, for example, if they have a one sheet on a title, that's enough.

It's like you reaching your hand into a sinking barrel of rice and coming up with a handful. They are ecstatic that they saved the handful of rice.. without any thought of the barrel full that was just lost.

It is NOT the institutions fault, they are doing what they can with the funds that they have. It's NOT the archivists fault, they are just employees preserving what material that is given to them to preserve by their employers. It's the fault of an archaic archival system that was established and accepted many decades ago. So while the world has made unbelievable technological advancements, our archival system is still operating basically the same as it did those same decades ago.

NO creative thinking, NO innovative procedures, NO new technology, NO consideration of what was lost or what could be improved.... just political and academic ... status quo... while information on film accessories goes down the tubes!!!

This became extremely evident when I was contacted by a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. They were looking for ANY material on a documentary film called 'The Policewoman'. This documentary was about Alice Stebbins Wells who was hired by the Los Angeles police department in 1910 and was considered the first policewoman in the world. This caused so much press that Balboa Studios made a documentary in 1914 about Alice and she played herself in the documentary. It was distributed nationally by Biograph.

I searched high and low...Academy, Library of Congress, Film Institues, Universities.... NOTHING... OK, the film was lost, but what about the thousands and thousands of pieces of material... stills, lobbies, posters, slides, heralds, etc that was issued with it....... NOTHING!. And the attitude of this extremely important documentary AND ALL of the material being LOST FOREVER!!! was.... Oh, well... at least we have a listing in the AFI Catalog (that's what I was told!!)

Is there any alternatives?

Posters are NOT the only material that is treated this way... as I stated, this is a problem with an archaic archival system. EVERYTHING is basically treated this way with a tier system of importance. (I was told by one museum.. "A Van Gogh is more important than a movie poster"). What they don't realize, is that by neglect and loss of this material, they are basically creating mini 'Van Goghs'. Some early titles that are lost would now go for exorbitant amounts which only leads to astronomical amounts in the future.

As an example, historical maps were also treated this way until a private company took it upon themselves to gather, preserve and document as many maps as they could (the Academic community calls that 'A SPECIAL COLLECTION' because it doesn't fit into their normal structure). NOW that 'SPECIAL COLLECTION' is considered one of the most important collections on maps EVER...

Movie trailers had the same problem. LUCKILY, Jeff Joseph, owner of Sabucat Productions has spent his life gathering movie trailers. He gathered over 60,000 trailers and is considered 'THE SAVIOR of the TRAILERS'. If left up to our archival community, these too would have been lost forever. Unfortunately, Jeff recently had to relinquish his collection of trailers to the academic community because the massive overhead was more than he could continue funding. So NOW, they are buried in the academic quicksand along with all the other institutionally guarded possessions that the public has no access to unless they travel great distances and spend massive amounts of time to attempt to see.

So what am I saying? When the 'system' FAILS, it takes PRIVATE companies and dedicated individuals that SEE the problem and have the commitment to try to save it.

WE have taken on that mission to locate, document, cross-reference and preserve the movie poster industry. In other words, we're building a digital repository of what was issued to try to document and preserve this information before it's gone.

IF WE FAIL....... There is NO ONE ELSE doing this.... and we can't even FATHOM the damage this will do to the hobby.

Our first commitment is to documenting and preserving as many IMAGES as possible. This first stage is faster, less expensive and allows us to cover a lot more titles than actually trying to preserve the physical poster. However, we are working towards, and hoping that in the future, we will be able to set up facilities and eventually start programs that preserve the actual posters. We would love to be able to save some of these jewels and be able to send them out to exhibits so others could enjoy them as well. AND a Poster or Film Accessory Preservation Society needs to be established. We have been talking with numerous people in the academic community trying to get support, but so far to no avail.

YOUR ROLE IN PRESERVATON

What poster dealers and collectors don't realize...... as a poster collector - YOU are helping to preserve history. There is FAR MORE movie posters in the hands of private collectors than there are in the institutions. Dealing with the institutions is FAR MORE difficult and frustrating than dealing with auction houses and collectors.

Our concern is especially the silent material.... all the way up to WWII posters. IF YOU HAVE ANY OF THIS TYPE OF MATERIAL..... POSTERS, LOBBIES, STILLS, HERALDS, SLIDES, PRESSBOOKS, ETC. - HELP US!!!

We want to make sure that we have documented YOUR pieces in the archive and documented. Here's what we're asking...

1. Check our archive to see if we have documented all pre-war material that you have. Any country, any size, any condition.
If we do..... YEAH!!! We sincerely 'Thank you' for checking.... If it's not there, then go to 2.

2. We have over 90,000 pieces online so far... unfortunately, that is just a DROP.. we also have over 400,000 images waiting to go online. So, if you do not see YOUR poster in our archive, please email me. Send me your name and email address PLUS a list of the posters that you have that is NOT in our archive.... title; year; size; style. I will check through all the images that we have in our queue to see if we have the images. I will then send you an email SAYING .... Thanks, we already have that on hand..... OR Thanks, we have the image, but I have a couple of questions on it..... OR We DON'T have that on hand.

3. If we DON'T have it on hand, of course, we will be asking you for some type of image, if possible, and the information on it... such as printer information, distributor information, anything written in the borders or on the back, copyrights or studio info, markings, etc.

If you are able to send us an image and we use the photo, we will GLADLY put a permanent tag underneath the image that it came from YOU. We are also making a list of contributors and YOUR name will be added to show that YOU helped save this information for future collectors.

WE get the image... YOU get the recognition!! Help us find and document as much as we can before it's gone..

How can YOU Help if you Don't have any RARE posters or information to document?

We are a private company and even though we are supported by some GREAT sponsors, most months we wind up spending more than we get from our sponsors. The constant expansion, need for newer programs, equipment, and ever increasing overhead is a huge problem. Eventually we hope to be add employees but we currently can't afford them. If you appreciate what we are doing in our efforts to save and document the poster industry, Help us by Buying a Book. We have poster and research information that won't find anywhere else. OR even better, please join us. Become a LAMP Member!! (Then if you buy a book, you get 25% off) Your support goes a long way in helping us grow and expand.

THANK YOU!!!

ed and Sue