Bulletins - April-June 2001

Bulletins for April - June 2001

06/14/01 UPCOMING AUCTION!!!

I received catalogs for Bruce Hershenson's upcoming auction yesterday. Usually I look through catalogs and ALWAYS see great pieces that I would love to have. I looked through the 3 catalogs that's being auctioned off and I don't think I have EVER seen a more fantastic selection being offered at a single auction.

No, maybe they're not the most expensive pieces. That's the problem!!!! Why couldn't they be out of my price range and I wouldn't drool as much. This group is all GREAT classics that I grew up on. All my favorite 50's sci-fi, cheesy, bug and monster films.

A great grouping of Laurel and Hardy, Marx Bros, westerns, Disney animated, Abbott and Costello with some old classics thrown in. And then the largest selection of old serial posters I've ever seen. If you're a baby boomer (if you don't know what that means - good!!) and you love movie posters - BEWARE - get a bib before you see these:)

The auction is for the end of this month - GET YOUR CATALOGS NOW!!!! or at least go to his ad, or banner or our sponsor link page on this site and click through to see this group of GREAT posters being offered. You can see them online. The auction is for June 30th and July 1st - so DON'T FORGET or you'll be sorry that you missed out.

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04/23/01 HOLY BANANAS!!! THE REPRINTS ARE COMING!!!

For the last 9 years, the US and Europe have been in a dispute over (of all things) BANANAS.

So what? you say!!

Well, the dispute got so heated that in 1999 the US placed a tariff on hundreds of items imported from Europe. And one of the items was ....... reprint movie posters (I guess that makes sense to..... someone??)

So for the last couple of years, dealers that handled the theater size reprints have depleted their stock and struggled ( some even closing ) because the tariff was so high that it was not financially feasible to bring them in.

Well - guess what!!!!

On April 11th, the Bush administration worked out an agreement to end the dispute and as of JULY 1, 2001, no more banana tariff.

What does that mean, you say???

you can get bananas easier, NO.

It means theater size reprints are available again to bring in from Europe. (About 95% of all US theater size reprints come from Europe - NOT in the US)

SO GET READY - THE REPRINTS ARE COMING

NOW here's the problem - the new theater posters are 27x40 and so are the REPRINTS. The reprints are becoming so good that it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. To help with this, we're working on a new section on how to tell many of the titles, and a special section called 'Fake Alert'. Coming soon.........

til then

p.s. thanks to Michelle at Hollywood Posters for alerting me - great dealer in the LA area. His email address is HWOODPST@ix.netcom.com.

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04/10/01 STAR WARS BULLETIN

Over the past 2 weeks, we've received a number of questions regarding one particular Star Wars poster:

a 1977 Style 'A' one sheet, NSS No. 77/21-0.

Some versions of this poster appear to have a 'hair' just below and to the left of Luke's left belt buckle.

In order to find out the history of this poster, I did some research.

The Star Wars “Poster of Posters” gives the following printing details for the four different versions of the Style A one sheet. and then it states:

"…There are at least 4 printing variations on this poster. A printing variation involves only changes in the NSS number located at the bottom of the poster.

The first printing (fig A) has the printing "ONE SHEET-STYLE 'A' 77/21-0" in the lower right hand corner of the poster. The key here is the identifying code number 77/21-0. The "dash zero" is the special number that was used on all the first printed and distributed publicity material. The lobbies, 8x10 color stills and the one-sheet all had this code.

The second printing (fig.B) has the same printing as the first except for the absence of the "dash zero" at the end of the style description. The note to be made in the second printing is that the "dash zero" could have been printed at the end of the 77/21 and not extend beyond the natural border of the artwork of the poster. A framing mark is evident in this printing and shows where the "dash zero" could have been placed.

The third printing (fig. C) is similar to the second printing with the exception that the 77/21 NSS number has been set flush with the framing mark. Also, the title of the film Star Wars appears below the 77/21 number and is set flush with the framing mark.

The fourth printing (fig.D) is the same as the third printing except that the description of the style has been omitted from the printing style information.

Although not illustrated, the insert size style 'A' also has two known printing variations. The first version has NSS number 77/21. The second version has no NSS number, and was printed for the release of Star Wars on video tape."

Because of the limited number of the initial run of the 77/21-0 one sheets, the studio was required to go back and print more. However, the subsequent printings did NOT carry the number 77/21-0, which means that there was a limited number of these initial run posters.

However, there are two things to take into consideration. George Lucas is famous for keeping material and pulling it back out later, so was this possibly a fan-club issue or another printing off of the plates? Also, I remember an influx of Style 'A' posters in the collector’s market in the 80's on both paper and card stock.

To get to the bottom of this once and for all, I contacted a printer that I have known for several years who worked for George Lucas and who had handled a lot of this material.

The printer stated that the 'A' style had been pulled back out in the 80's and more posters printed for the video release on both card and paper stock. The original plates were used except they were released unmarked.

In other words, the NSS number was removed off the bottom border. Eliminating this as a possible solution to the “hair” question. When I asked him about other possible printings, he said that about 10,000 bootleg copies of this poster were made in the mid 80's.

The bootleg posters were actually printed on an NSS printing press in the northeast. The printing was excellent and some of the color was actually prettier than the original.

There were 2 ways to tell the bootlegs from the original 77/21-0 posters: (1)with a slight magnification you can see blue and red flakes in the upper right in the phrase 'a long time ago....'; AND (2) there is a 'hair' like line near Luke's belt.

The printer further explained that George Lucas had found the individual bootlegging the posters and shut him down. He thought that Lucas had recovered about 2,000 of the 10,000 posters, meaning that 8,000 posters could have possibly made it to the collector’s market.

He also stated that they had bootlegged a few of the 'A' insert, 'B' teaser and insert and the 'C' but not nearly as many. We were able to obtain a copy of this “hair” poster from a Star Wars collector we have known for years. Here is a scan of the poster that he provided: This, I hope, puts an end to the question of the 'hair' on Luke's belt.