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Humphrey Bogart was born Christmas Day in New York City in 1899. Although he would become perhaps the greatest movie star of all time, his early life in no way predicted this, and he was well into his thirties before he had much success at all! His father, a surgeon, intended for him to become a doctor, but he was kicked out of college. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and managed a stage company in his early 20s. He began acting on the stage, but to no real success. In 1930 he got a Hollywood contract at Fox Pictures, but he had little success there, and they released him after two years. He returned to the stage, and in 1936 finally was noticed in the small but vital role in the stage production of The Petrified Forest, where he appeared with Leslie Howard. Howard was signed for the movie version of the play, and he insisted, over studio objections, that Bogart be cast as well (he sent a telegram to Warners that read "No Bogart, no Howard"). Bogart never forgot this great kindness, and he much later named his daughter "Leslie". While Bogart was well received in The Petrified Forest, it did not make him a first rank star (likely he was 36 and he had already failed in Hollywood years earlier), so he spent the next five years at Warner Bros appearing in 28 films, almost always in secondary roles, often as a gangster. Twice he played cowboys (in Virginia City and The Oklahoma Kid)! He played the title role in The Return of Doctor X, a second rate horror movie, and a wrestling promoter in Swing Your Lady. He was in the first two "Dead End" movies, but was overshadowed by the Dead End Kids. Bogart was now 40, and it seemed likely he would finish his career playing more and more minor roles. But in 1941 George Raft turned down the role of Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, an escaped legendary bank robber, and that role, along with the role of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (which Warners was remaking for the second time in 10 years) FINALLY made Bogart a top star (Warners thought so little of him as these movies were being released that most of the movie paper advertising for The Maltese Falcon showed Bogart with his cropped white hair from High Sierra!). Casablanca (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film) followed the next year, along with other patriotic World War II movies. In 1944, Bogart, who was 44 and had been married three times, was cast opposite 19 year old newcomer (and Howard Hawks' protege) Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, and Bogart left his wife and married Bacall the following year. They would make three more movies together (The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, and Key Largo) and have two children. Bogart had some of his very finest roles near the end of his career. In 1948 he starred as Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in 1951 he was Charlie Allnut in The African Queen (winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and in 1954 he was Lt. Cmdr. Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film; remember how he used "geometric logic" to prove there was a duplicate key?). I can't see anyone not agreeing that these are among the three finest acting performances ever! Bogart died from throat cancer in 1957 at the age of 57. He made many other memorable movies other than the ones noted above, and I urge you to seek them out! But be aware that he also appeared in a goodly number of MUCH lesser movies as well (especially in the first ten years of his career, so be sure to read reviews before starting one of his movies!)

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Important Added Info: Note that starting in the very early 1910s (around 1912, when studios realized that people were more likely to go to a movie if it had a star they liked in it), studios created sets of special "personality" posters, which theaters that showed their movies could hang in their lobbies. These had a big advantage over posters for specific movies, because they could be used whenever a movie with that star was shown, which meant they could be used over and over! Because studios realized this, they made these posters on a high quality paper stock, sometimes with a "linen" texture, and sometimes with elaborate border designs, and almost always with great quality color printing. They almost always measured exactly 22" x 28", the same as "half-sheets" (which were then known as "displays", except that they were taller than they were wide, and that the images almost always had a "full bleed", meaning that there were no blank borders. They almost always showed a head and shoulders image of the star, and the image on these posters is often very close to actual life-size! They almost always have the name of the star and the studio they worked for at the bottom. Even though there were many sets of these from many studios over a period of approximately 30 years (they were rarely made after the early 1940s), very few survive, likely partially due to World War II paper drives, and partially due to the fact that they were never folded and the paper they were made of sometimes aged poorly. We at eMoviePoster.com were just consigned a very special collection of 99 of these "personality" posters, which we are auctioning in separate auctions. They were collected starting in the mid 1980s, and the collector who assembled this collection tried to "upgrade" condition whenever possible over the years, so many of them are in excellent condition (sometimes likely the best surviving example), and on the ones where they are in lesser condition, it is because the collector never could find one in better condition! Now he has consigned them to us, and they will find new owners. If they were kept together, they would surely make an incredible display for the walls of any place where lots of people gather, like a museum, a restaurant, or any similar place. Of course, it is more likely that these will find many, many separate new homes, but we hope that they end up publicly displayed wherever they end up!

Note that Warner Bros. became a major Hollywood studio after merging with First National and having massive success with "The Jazz Singer" in the late 1920s, and remained at the forefront of Hollywood through the late 1940s. During this time, they had a great lineup of stars, and they created two sets of personality posters to promote their stars (one in the mid 1930s, and one in the late 1930s or very early 1940s, and there may have been others, but if so, we have not seen them). You can tell their two different sets apart in three ways. One is that all of the posters from a set have the same border design and the stars and studio names are written in the same font and layout. The other is that you can look at the age of the star in the image (although that might possibly be deceptive, because they might have sometimes used a slightly younger version of a star!). Also, the second set from Warner Bros. is on a "linen-like" paper (the same that they used for their lobby cards and some half-sheets and inserts in 1938 to 1941, which is why we know the second set dates from that time). Some of their major stars carried over from the first set to the second one, and in the second set, some stars were dropped and new stars were added. These posters are extremely rare as it is likely few theaters ordered them, and fewer still saved them, and in addition, they could be easily torn, and if they were not stored carefully, they would become fragile, and it is likely many were damaged and discarded for that reason! Note that the high quality paper stock these posters were printed on does not always age very well, and can become fragile (usually resulting in chips around the edges of the poster). This is especially true of those from the second set printed on the linen-like paper, because, just as with the linen lobby cards, these posters aged quickly if they were not stored really well. Because of their fragile nature and their age, we intend to send all of these personality posters in large flat packages, and never roll them into tubes (unless the buyer insists)! PLEASE DO NOT BID ON THIS POSTER, UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO PAY THE COST OF SHIPPING IT IN A LARGE FLAT PACKAGE! Also note that this poster has been paperbacked. What is paperbacking? This means the poster was backed onto a paper backing (acid-free), that is similar in feel to that of the original poster (except somewhat heavier). It is a similar process to linenbacking, except that most collectors use linenbacking for one-sheets and paperbacking for half-sheets, inserts, window cards, and lobby cards.

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