Reel Art

The four decades between 1910 and 1950 were the golden age of the American movie poster, an era when wonderful films wer promoted through the talents of legendary illustrators like Thomas Hart Benton, Norman Rockwell, Howard Chandler Christy and Jmes Montgomery Flagg, as well as a small army of unknowns. It was a time when big studios lavished fortunes on poster campaigns - from modest "one-sheets" posted on neighbourhood fences to the gargantuan "forty-eight sheets" that usurped entire sides of multi-storey buildings. Hollywood knew that the right image could seduce millions past the box office and into the theatre. Today such graphics fetch five-figure prices from collectors seeking a "Casablanca" or a "King Kong". A world-class selection of these posters, many never before published, is presented in this volume. The book also inludes historical photos documenting some of America's most memorable theatre lobbies and marquees; a concise biographical dictionary of movie-poster artists; and a text that tells the entertaining story behind the great movie posters and their creators.