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1890 - 1900's The artist given credit for creating the movie poster was Jules Cheret who created two posters in the 1890's. One was a film short called Projections Artistiques, and the other a Theater program called Pantomines Lumineuses. During this early time movie posters would not contain the title of a film short but just the name of the company who made them. 1896 marked the first time a poster would be made for a specific movie and not just a movie company. The film was called L'Arroseur Arrose. It was about a kid getting into trouble with a water hose spraying a gardener. The 1900's would mark the beginning of the utilization of modern film techniques which would be used in the American movie The Great Train Robbery. The movie only last eleven minutes and was extremely popular. By the end of the first decade of the last century movies had become a great source of entertainment for the public with movie companies growing in greater numbers. From this time period, the movie poster would get a standard size known as the one sheet measuring 27" x 41". 1910's - 1920's In the early days movie stars weren't known, so the names of actors did not appear on the posters. Besides the movie studios liked it that way so they wouldn't have to pay more money to actors. Things certainly have changed with actors like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis commonly getting checks over or around 20 million dollars per movie. During this early period in movie history movie studios realized that movie stars were as much an attraction for the moviegoer as the movie itself. So the movie star was born, and movie posters started showcasing the names of the actors as well as the title of the movie. The bigger the star the bigger their name appeared on the poster. Other promotional materials were soon used such as the lobby card and the press book. In the 1920's ,the golden age of the silent movies, posters became more artistic and spectacular. Accomplished Artists were hired to paint portraits of the stars for the movie studios to be used as movie posters. By the mid 1920's talkies as they were called were introduced. Movie attendance shot up to 110 million by 1929 from 60 million in 1927. During this time movie poster images would become sharper due to a new printing process by the Morgan Litho Company. 1930's 1940's - 1950's World War II came and war movies were the biggest theme for movies of the time. A number of movie stars joined the military and the entire industry did what they could for the war effort. The movie industry cut advertising costs using cheaper paper for posters due to the paper shortage of the war time. The 1950's would see the invention of the movie industry's biggest competitor, the television set. The movie industry came out with bigger screens for large scale movies like Ben Hur, and 3-D movies. Drive-in movies were at their peak, and movie posters adopted a style of the new fan magazines with color photographs of the major movie stars and large stock lettering. 1960's - 1970's Teen movies were the big thing in the early sixties. Beach movies and Elvis Presley ruled the movie theaters. James Bond stirred up the action genre, but by the end of the sixties into the seventies times were a' changing and posters reflected this change of attitude towards sex and violence. The 1970's were more of the same as everything changed. Gone were the simple days of Andy Griffith and Mayberry. Hello Dirty Harry! Before the decade was over Clint Eastwood would make our day, we would see gangsters in The Godfather, cheer Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, race off to other parts of the galaxy in Star Wars and Star Trek and be made to believe a man can fly in Superman. Movie posters used photography occasionally using drawing and painting styles. Star Wars and Star Trek posters were the most popular creating collectors out of many today. Movie posters at this time were now being printed on a clay-coated paper which gave them a glossy finish. 1980's - 1990's The age of special effects blockbusters. The 1980's broke records with awesome films like The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, E.T., more Superman movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, 2 more Indiana Jones movies, more James Bond movies, Ghostbusters, Batman, Back to the Future, The Terminator, more Rocky movies, and don't forget Rambo. This decade meant more screens per theatre and more advertising material. The mini sheet was invented, and the video store became popular creating the video store poster. The 1990's saw the beginning of new computerization technology used in films like Jurassic Park. Batman was forever until the movie Batman and Robin, Arnold was back, and Independence Day blew away the competition. The one sheet continued to be used for posters as well as the mini sheet. 2000- today Spider-man has web spun his way into the record books, dvds are slowly replacing the vhs video, and posters are sold in many stores with reprints of movie posters currently being mass produced. The beginning movie poster collector may have his hands full determining which poster is the original, but hey that makes it fun. And for the collector who just wants a Spider-man poster to hang over his comic book collection and doesn't care if its the original poster or the fifth reprint, the poster is just a click away on the internet. |
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