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Auction History Result 8s109 RAMON NOVARRO personality poster 1930s head & shoulders portrait wearing polka dot tie! Date Sold 8/19/2018 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Unfolded Personality Poster (measures 22" x 28" [56 x 71 cm]) (Learn More) Ramon Novarro was a major Mexican star from the 1910s to the 1930s. He was an extra until starring in The Prisoner of Zenda in 1922, for which he was paid $125 a week. Three years later, he was one of Hollywood's biggest stars, and he earned $10,000 a week for starring in his most famous role, 1925's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. He survived the coming of sound, but his popularity declined greatly after a few sound movies, and he mostly retired. Some of his other movies include: The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and The Big Steal. Sadly, in 1968, he was beaten to death by two punks who invaded his Hollywood home thinking he had a large amount of cash hidden away (he did not!). He was 69 years old. If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know. 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 MGM became a major studio after its creation (through merger) in 1924, and at some point in the 1920s, they created two different sets of personality posters to promote their stars, and in the 1930s, when they had "more stars than there are in Heaven", they created four more sets! You can tell the sets apart in two 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!). The MGM sets were likely made every two to three years, and some major stars carried over from set to set, but with the passing years, some stars would be dropped and new stars 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). 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! Condition: good. The poster was once attached to a backing board with tape on the back of the left, right, and top borders. The tape is long gone, and there is residue on the back of the borders, but it is not at all sticky, and it has little effect on the front. There are pinholes in the corners. There are also a number of creases in the right side of Novarro's face, including one that enters his lower eyelid. The poster is not at all fragile. Learn More about condition grades 
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