Three Key Takeaways for the Collector
- A Survivor’s Story: Original movie posters are a very exciting and rare type of collectible. They were printed on cheap quality newsprint paper and were simply meant to be thrown away after a movie’s run. Finding them from the 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s is definitely a treat.
- The 1949 New Adventures One Sheet: This particular piece for the 1949 serial The New Adventures of Batman and Robin is a standard-sized, 27 inch by 41 inch “one sheet” poster. Its gorgeous colors are thanks to the beautiful stone litho artwork.
- More Than Just Posters: The world of movie advertising includes diverse formats, such as the smaller Lobby Card and the magnificent, oversized French Grand foreign posters.
A Piece of History Never Meant to Survive
Today, we are talking about a very exciting and rare type of collectible that sometimes can be overlooked: movie posters. These have been around for a long time and were essentially advertising material used to promote the movies when you went to the theater.
What is really interesting about movie posters is that they were never meant to survive. Essentially, they were printed on very cheap quality newsprint paper to be distributed to the movie theaters, and then after usage, they were meant to just be thrown away. This is why finding original movie posters from the 1960s, 1950s, 1940s, or earlier is definitely a treat.
Decoding the Original 1949 One Sheet
This particular poster is from 1949 for the serial The New Adventures of Batman and Robin.
The type of artwork printed on this is called stone litho, which basically results in this really gorgeous lithography artwork on the poster. As you can see, the colors are just absolutely magnificent for something this old.
One way you can tell that it is an original movie poster is by looking closely to see the fold lines and imperfections, which kind of tells you that it is an older piece, and it is original. This piece is a “one sheet,” which is the size of the poster-27 inches by 41 inches, a standard and common size.
If you look closely at the lower right-hand corner of the poster, you can see the number 49. Also, there is a little verbiage here that says it was the property of National Screen Service Corp, licensed only for display and meant to be returned or thrown away immediately thereafter. That makes it a really interesting piece of history.
Exploring Other Formats: Lobby Cards and Foreign Grands
Beyond the standard one sheet, the movie poster world is full of other exciting formats.
The Lobby Card
- This smaller collectible is called a lobby card.
- These were displayed in the lobbies of the movie theater to show viewers right before they went into the movie.
- One example shown is a 1954 reissue of the original 1941 Batman movie serial.
The Foreign Grand Poster
- This last piece is a foreign movie poster.
- It is much bigger with beautiful colors, and is called a French Grand.
- I just happen to love these foreign posters because some of these foreign ones just happen to look so much more visually appealing than their American counterparts.
Hopefully you enjoyed seeing this, and stay tuned for more content! See you later.