Movie posters are a very unique type of collectible.
Even though they have been compared to many different types of
collectibles, they're not like any other type that we've been
able find. Coins, stamps, comic books, figurines, depression glass
and on and on were created in large quantities to be used or handled
by the general public. This is the first major difference. Original
movie posters were created to be used ONLY by a theater and then
disposed of, which is one of the things that causes us to want
it more. The second major reason is that this limited amount of
disposable advertising is also on every conceivable topic under
the sun. There is a topic that ANY type of person can identify
with.
The first step would be to derive at our definition
of the term "FAKE". To keep this as simple as possible,
LAMP's stance is that a FAKE is a poster that is created to
imitate another poster with the INTENT to defraud someone out
of ADDITIONAL funds under the misconception that they are obtaining
the original poster.
Commercial posters, reprint posters, and reissues
obviously don't fall into this catagory because they were created
for a specfic purpose. A reprint trying to be passed off to a
collector as an original does NOT make the reprint a FAKE, it
makes the dealer trying to pass it off a CROOK.
This very unique hobby also creates very unique
problems when attempting to categorize and document all the many,
many variations that have been created. Here's a few examples:
1. Over the years, major theaters quite often
created their own individual material for particular theaters
or campaigns that the other theaters didn't have.
a. George Eastman bought his own theater
in Rochester, NY in the 20s. Wanting to make his place a showplace,
he REFUSED to use any studio issued advertising material.
He hired local artist Baptiste Magdalena to specially create
ALL his ad material. From 1924 to 1928 over 1400 fantastic
pieces were created. The majority were trashed and only a
few hundred survived.
b. Major theaters have been known to create
all types of oddities for their individual theaters to help
promote an individual film. These fall into all types of crazy
oddites from horizontal one sheets to hand painted plywood
posters.
2. To find cheaper or more creative promotional
material, theaters and theater chains turned to other sources
for producing different variations. These other companies such
as Leader Press, the Other Company, Globe, Hatch, Benton just
to name a few of the literally HUNDREDS used all types of different
materials than the studio issued material. Some became known
for their type of variations such as Bentons duotone window
cards, Globes dayglow posters, Hatch's block stamp posters etc.
So different paper stocks, different versions and different
markings were common.
3. When the studios shifted to the use of
National Screen, of course this constituted an unbelievable
amount of printing to supply this myriad of theaters and movie
titles. Multiple printing operations and a huge management system
had to be established to handle this massive amount volume.
With the acquisition of Continental Litho, all phases from creation
to distribution could then be handled in-house creating all
types of OTHER variations when deadlines were trying to be met.
a. Multiple print shops meant different
varitations of markings from one print shop to the other.
One shop might have the NSS number and the title. Another
shop might only have the NSS tag and NSS number but forget
the title, etc.
b. Multiple print shops also meant varying
mistakes on the posters. Wrong NSS numbers on the wrong titles,
wrong credits, misspelled STARS names, and every form of misprint
imaginable. One color variation on one famous poster that
has been classified by many collectors as a fake, was just
a mistake in mixing the number codes by one of the print shops.
4. Studios haven't been the friends of poster
collectors either but then why should they be. Their only concern
is: promote the current film, then move to the next one. This
one track single-minded purpose has also created several problems
for collectors such as:
a. Not wanting to be charged for free give
aways, it's quite common for the studio to also create primarily
one sheets to be handed out that don't contain the regular
distribution markings.
b. To keep the ad cost down, some studios
use the same material for multiple purposes without marking
them accordingly. Ratings boxes sometimes left off during
rating negotiations, US material used for international promotions,
and even theater posters used in the video stores.
Does any of these situations constitute any of these posters
being classified as a 'FAKE'. Of course not!! They're just variations
that make classifying a fake more difficult.
Here's the problem situations that we have to consider:
I. When the studios took over the distribution of materials
from NSS, they placed the production of the posters in the commercial
realm of business and opened up a new set of problems for collectors.
An area that you never hear about but is probably the most common
of all problems in commercial distribution is over production.
This is done every day in just about EVERY type of industry
right under our noses and movie posters are definitely no exception.
When companies make a low bid to get a commercial contract,
they quite often don't stop production when the contract is
finished....... in other words .... they let the presses keep
running. Then they normally have someone ready to pay for the
over production. This way the company makes up for the low bid.
Of course, this is hard to prove but definitely a part of every
day business in the US. So additional posters are produced that
get on the market.
Is this a FAKE? No because it's the identical piece made
at the same time by the same company. It's not trying to pass
for a poster from years earlier. It's not a fake...... it's
just a sham! There's no way to tell the difference, and ultimately
it affects the value of the poster depending upon how many were
produced. WE BELIEVE THIS IS DONE MORE THAN YOU THINK.
II. Another situation would not involve the company, but
quite often the printer is approached to pull a plate and run
additional posters without the knowledge of the company. Yes,
this too is done quite often. There is no way of telling how
many times this has been done and what titles it affects because
the probability is that the majority of the time, the poster
would not be distinguishable from the others released through
normal distribution. The only hope is to find some way to distinguish
these from the legitimate posters. With no records, no documentation,
the myriad of variations already existing, the changing of hands
multiple times makes most of these hard to identify. The dealer
doing this is a real CROOK. Unfortunately sometimes honest legitimate
dealers wind up with some of these believing whole heartedly
that they are part of the normal distribution.
III. The last is the unscrupulous person who takes a poster
to a friend that owns a print shop and convinces them to try
to produce posters to be passed off as the poster that was issued.
THESE SCAM ARTISTS ARE OF THE WORST SORTS WITH NO INTENT EXCEPT
FRAUD ON THEIR MINDS.
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Where does LAMP stand on the problems? These are the areas
that are considered FAKES.
On I. There's no way to tell these and nothing can be done.
On II. This is the most controversial area of all with hard
to prove finger pointing and accusations between DEALERS. LAMP
does not condone these but at the same time LAMP is not set
up to be a judge or take sides. We take the stance to report
as much information as is available to the collector and try
to make the collector aware that conflicting controversy exists
on that piece. Then let the collector decide for themselves
if they want to take the chance one way or the other and make
up their own mind.
On III. Any time that we can identify these. LAMP condemns
and will GLADLY report ANY information about these to collectors.
