About Us

LAMP is owned by Ed and Susan Poole. We started collecting movie posters by accident in the mid 1970s. While at a flea market, we saw a half sheet for Gidget which was one of Sue's favorite movies. We bought the poster, not really realizing what it was. After learning a little, we started looking for posters on other favorites films, but there were not very many around. If they had been plentiful, we probably wouldn't have persued it as much, but since they were a little hard to find, posters became a quest.

By the 1980s, we began running ads and buying collections, which led to the next step of selling our duplicates and posters that we weren't interested in keeping. As we bought and sold more, we started learning that some of the items were not what they seemed. Numerous times we had purchased items believing the seller, only to find out a totally different story when we started to sell it. Frustrated with the lack of accurate information, we started doing research for ourselves. We were amazed that there was basically nothing in the way of research material. The oddity was that as we started sharing some of the research that we learned, we started finding out that dealers also had lots of questions. More and more, we started providing information to collectors and dealers.

This slowly evolved into the publishing of our first book in 1997 called Collecting Movie Posters through MacFarland Publishers which was considered the first actual 'reference' book on the hobby.

At the time of the release of our book, we had a retail store in the largest mall in the area. Our store and inventory grew well until we had approximately 100,000 pieces in our inventory. The mall approached us to move to a larger store, which we did. In 2000, the mall approached to say that a national chain wanted our store and had offered a 10 year lease. Either match it, or move out. We had no alternative but to close our store and move out.

BIRTH OF LAMP

As soon as we finished closing the store, John Kisch asked us to write an online reference guide that was to become a part of his new online website Posterprice.com. Being writers and researchers at heart, we jumped at the chance to write more. After working on the project for a couple of months, we had assembled 200 pages of information and went back to present it to John. Unfortunately, John said that it was too much and he couldn't add that much to the website.. BUT if we would put it online, he would sponsor and promote it.

We decided that we wanted to create a place where collectors could come learn for themselves all different types of information and be able to do any associated research for themselves. We sold a large amount of our inventory for financing and worked another couple of months trying to learn how to layout and create a website. January 15, 2001 LAMP officially opened with a little over 200 pages of information. (It became the archive door on Posterprice.com which linked to LAMP)

Immediately after opening, our first sponsor joined .. Bruce Hershenson. We wrote continuously about all aspects of the hobby and by the end of the year, we were getting almost 10,000 visitors a month.

Since that time, we have spearheaded research into every phase, aspect and associated area of movie posters. LAMP has grown to over 200,000 pages and now encompasses 28 major countries film and poster industries, poster artists, sections on stills and production code numbers, 1000s of articles, research and recreation of such areas as litho plate number, censorship stamps, printers logos, studio logos.

And after extensive planning and design, we have built the ONLY movie poster archive that has unlimited capabilities to cross reference and document as much of the worldwide poster industry as possible. As of the beginning of 2011, our archive has over 190,000 film titles listed and over 90,000 movie posters documented and cross referenced.

We primarily target areas that have been completely overlooked by conventional academic facilities. We provide information that cannot be found anywhere else and draw approximately 2 million visitors a year to our websites.

In addition, since our first reference book publication in 1997, we have published a larger reference book on the hobby 'Learn About Movie Posters' (2004), a price guide 'LAMP Dealers Market' (2007), spearheaded research into movie studio production code numbers to help identify unknown production stills with a recurring publication '2007 US Movie Studio Production Codes with 20,000 production numbers and a 2008 US Movie Studio Production Codes with 22,000 production numbers. an expansion to world wide with 2009 Movie Studio Production Codes with 25,000 codes, and a reworked expansion in 2011 to 32,000 codes and retitled to Movie Stills Identification Book.

We also released a research booklet on the Legality of US Movie Posters (2007), and an indepth look at the film and poster industries of 38 major countries around the world with 'Learn About International Movie Posters' (2008).

In 2009, we released 2 additional books on the reconstruction of 70 years of US film industry domination of National Screen Service with National Screen Service Trailer Logs 1930-1962 and 50 years reconstruction of poster numbers with National Screen Service Poster and Accessories Number Log 1940-2000.

Our research is used by multitudes of institutions from film institutes, universities, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as well as dealers and collectors around the world. We have been expert witnesses in court cases in Louisiana, Missouri and California.

We have been featured in articles in dozens of magazines such as Star Wars Insider (5 times), Inc. Magazine, Smart Money, etc. as well as numerous newspapers.

Our website is sponsored by over 60 of the most recognizable names in the industry in all associated areas (dealers; restorers; framers; suppliers; and auction houses;). This allows us to present a huge amount of information FREE to the public.

We have recently turned more attention to developing an advanced research website for the academic community that is scheduled to go online in February 2011, called GlobalCinemaResearch.org

In addition, we also provide advance and specialized research in the form of membership or special reports.

To contact us, email me at edp@LearnAboutMoviePosters.com

or by mail at:

Ed Poole or
LAMP
Box 3181
Harvey, La. 70059