comments or suggestions, please let me know. We want this to be a help to our Members and not just useless dribble. The only way I will know if I am providing helpful info or 'dribbling' is for you to tell me.
LAMP Member News
Welcome all LAMP Members to the Third Edition of ...LAMP Member News
I know that it's been a few months since the last edition of Member News... but the pace and amount of work that we have been trying to handle has been unbelievable.
Covered in this Edition:
WHAT'S NEW - 1. NEW BOOK - NSS Trailer Logs 1930-1962 - FINALLY!
2. New article on Otis Lithographers and Othis Litho numbers
3. Columbia Studio Logo logs for Japan, Belgium and Italy
4. New Home Page for Netherlands and new additions
5. New Dutch Filmkeuring Log
6. New Belgian Film History
WHAT'S CHANGING - contact from Time-Life
SPOTLIGHT - New Production Still Section on the new academic site.
2009 Movie Studio Production Code Logs
MEMBER ALERT - Lawsuit filed for alleged fake lobby cards.
TRIVIA - The first recorded film award
FINAL NOTE - Intermission
First, we want to welcome our new LAMP Members.. and we hope that you will find what you're looking for and enjoy our research material.
BUT before we begin.. We have a wide variety of members so if you're NOT interested in Member News and tips on how to utilize LAMP more, you can opt out of receiving this Member News. Just email me and say 'OPT OUT of Member News' or something to that effect.
OK.. so let's try to cover several new areas this month.
1. The new NSS Trailer Logs Book is FINALLY ready!!! It is scheduled to start shipping MONDAY!!. OK... So What.. you say!..
We have compiled NSS numbers from 1930-1962. These numbers are presented in 3 completely different logs for easier research. Each log has 15,085 numbers listed (averaging about 500 per year). The first log is by NSS number which basically means that it is by Year and then by the assigned NSS number during that year. The second log is an alphabetical log by Title and the last log is then alphabetical by Distributor.
NOT Just For Someone Interested in Trailers
This gives you information that is not only for anyone handling trailers, but for anyone interested in information and identifying reissues as well. For example, the Distributor Log pinpoints the small distributors that handled rereleases during this time period, showing what they issued and when they issued it. Until now, this information has been almost impossible to document without having THAT particular distributor's records.
Because of the unique numbering system of National Screen, that SAME number also documents the posters and all other accessories as well. To NSS, it was a number assigned to ANY work done on THAT title. The trailer codes also let you know when NO trailers were issued, which means the number was used for posters and accessories that were issued. It also gives details like which ones were 3D, CinemaScope, and when the trailers were in color. So now in 3 different formats, you have at your fingertips, information that you can't find anywhere else.
So, we're proud to present the NSS Trailer Logs
2. Otis Lithographers - One of the areas that we try to keep track of is lithography plate numbers to help in dating reissues. This usually takes a long time because you have to have large enough images of the posters to be able to read the tiny plate numbers that are usually around the lithographer's logos. Then you have to acquire enough to create a pattern.
Well, when we first started tracking Otis numbers, they didn't make any sense, but we have finally acquired enough Otis numbers to form a pattern for dating. So we have put 2 new areas online for our LAMP Members... Otis logos and Otis Plate numbers. You can get to them 2 ways. In the Member Central Area... in the General Section under 'Logs' - go down to US and Lithographers. OR in the Country Section under 'US' - go down to Lithographers.
3. As most of you know, if it's on a poster..... we'll track it. (Just call us .. trackaholics :)
One of our objectives is to eventually have a breakdown of every studio, with histories and the logos they used.. WORLD WIDE.. We had started with the US studios and have been gathering info on the studios from other countries. Recently, we had 3 different dealers looking for information on Columbia Studio logos and dating because the Columbia logos used in other countries differ from the logos used in the US. So I compiled and have made the first step into adding studio logos for other countries. We will continue to expand and add more logo logs in the near future. Here are the new Columbia Studio Logo Logs for Japan, Belgium and Italy. I especially like the Columbia logo logs for Japan because I was able to find Japanese posters for Columbia that also had the Eiren marks next to the Columbia logo, verifying the date. You can find these in the member sections under each country OR in the Logs section.
4. We have a new Netherlands home page and section online. As you know, we are breaking each country into its own section to continue to expand the information and articles on that country. Besides the new Netherlands home page, we added the film industry history. Because the Netherlands primarily uses material from other countries, there is very little information on poster artists from there, so I was pleased to stumble over a batch of records on a Dutch poster artist... Joop Van Den Berg.
5. All collectors of Dutch material know that the vast majority of posters used in the Netherlands are from other countries (like New Zealand). They place the Filmkeuring stamp (censor stamp) for all posters used. In our Filmkeuring article, you see the variety of Filmkeuring stamps and for years have questioned WHY some of the variations. We've written to the Dutch Film Institute, Dutch historians... anyone that might know..... NOTHING..
Well, I noticed that only a few actually had numbers on them, so I focused on THOSE numbers and it created an interesting sequence. It appears that a certain batch was PRINTED in the Netherlands and for a time period (1934-1938) they NUMBERED those posters. So I started gathering and compiling those. So I present to you... The Filmkeuring Logs which should be helpful in dating when you have a poster with a numbered filmkeuring on it.
6. As an expansion of the Begian area, I have also added the Members Belgian Film History. We will be putting the new Belgian home page online very soon.
Time-Life project - We were contacted by Time-Life recently about our advanced information in the film accessory area. They asked if we were interested in releasing our advance research through their information program that they have for Colleges and Universities. Since we are not good at marketing and don't have the time to approach all the colleges and universities, this might be another way to expand into new markets. One of the things that was presented is the fact that the academic community or information services won't accept commercial sites.
So, after a LOT of consideration we have decided to put up an academic site that would be acceptable to the academic community. We think this should also be beneficial to our LAMP Members AND LAMP Dealers. The first benefit would be that it gives us the opportunity to re-organize, simplify and create a smoother presentation. Since we have continuously added more and more information for the past 8 years, a lot of the information needs consolidation. The second benefit would be for our LAMP Dealers. We will be placing numerous links back into LAMP to try to lead anyone doing research in the academic community back into LAMP when they are looking for material. So we think that this will be a win-win proposition.
As an additional benefit, we will be giving all LAMP Members and Sponsors full access to the Academic site as well. The new academic site will be called Global Cinema Research (GCR). The new Global Cinema Research is scheduled to open early next year and is a Member Only site.
We wanted to Spotlight our first section to be completed on the new academic site. We wanted our Members and Sponsors to be the first to see inside the new academic site. Our first section completed is 'Production Stills'. You will notice that all the articles have been consolidated and presented in presentation format. The new Production Stills section includes the 2008 US Movie Studio Production Codes AND the new 2009 Movie Studio Production Logs.
In the Member Section on LAMP, the Production Stills Section for Members will now move to the new Global Cinema site. As we complete a section, it will become available in the LAMP Members Section. Only this section is ready.. so other links will also show up in the new site as we turn them on... So HERE IS THE NEW GLOBAL CINEMA Article on Production Stills.
We would appreciate any and all comments, suggestions or criticism. please email me....
As most of you know, we have been screaming that the restoration side of the industry really needs to be set up and more controls put in place. Right after we started LAMP, we proposed a new Restoration Code to alert buyers when restoration had been done. The following year, we proposed establishing a limit of how much of a poster must be original for it to be labeled after restoration as an original poster. THEN, we proposed a Restoration Certificate to identify what was done to a poster and document all chemicals used and changes (we have blank Restoration Certificates and instructions on LAMP for anyone to use). But, like everything else in this world, they don't put up a stop sign until someone gets killed. Well, sadly, we have several disturbing activities going on in the hobby that are of major concern and may be the warnings that the stop signs need to be considered. We have been watching these for several months, but can report about one incident unfolding that will have repercussions through the industry.
There has been a lawsuit filed in California over alleged fake lobby cards. These are high end lobby cards. We were actually developing a section in Global Cinema just for Documents (which includes lawsuits). This section is NOT ready, but because we want our Members and Sponsors to know what is going on, I have turned on this one item. We believe that LAMP should remain in the position of presenting the information only and leave all opinions and decisions to the court. We have the lawsuit for you to be able to ready for yourself - GCR - Legal
There has been a rash of fakes that have been plaguing the industry and we believe that this is just the beginning and are aware of several other lawsuits that are in process. We will be posting them as we get them in this new section. You will be able to get to them through the LAMP Member Central Section.
We will be covering this in more detail next week when we send out our regular Newsletter and a new Authentication Service that is becoming available.
Here's some useless information that I thought was interesting....
The very first film award ... IN THE WORLD... OK.. give me your guesses.
The first RECORDED film award was...
In 1907, presented by the Lumiere Brothers
A gold plaque was presented to Societa Anonima Ambrosio (Ambrosio Studios) for their 1907 production of Il Cane Riconoscente (The Grateful Dog).
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FINAL NOTE:
Need a break from the chaos.
In case you didn't know, we have put a section just to get away. It's in the Member Central - in the General Area called 'Intermission'. I've added a couple of new items in there.. so if you have a few minutes to kill and want to let you mind go.... just visit our Intermission. and I'll keep adding odd and unusual things..
That's it for the Third Edition... If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. We want this to be a help to our Members and not just useless dribble. The only way I will know if I am providing helpful info or 'dribbling' is for you to tell me.
If I can help with any research, let me know
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