In the early 1920s, George Eastman (of
Eastman Kodak) decided he was going to put up a showcase theater in his hometown
of Rochester, New York. Hel built the Eastman Theatre, one of the most elaborate
theatres of the time. When it was time to open his theater, he decided that
the regular advertising material that was being distributed to other theaters
was not good enough for HIS theater, so he commissioned a local artist, Batiste
Madalena, to create all of his posters.
From 1924 until 1928, Batiste created
over 1400 fantastic posters especially for the Eastman Theater. Growing tired
of the tehater, Eastman sold it to a theater chain in 1928 and the standard
'studio-issued' posters began being used.
The new management literally threw hundreds
and hundreds of these beautiful creations in the trash. Only a few hundred
were saved.
We are compiling a list of the ones
that we can find that were saved. We will link them as we get images.
