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I am very sad to report that Jean-Pierre Giangrande has passed away. From the 1970s on, Jean-Pierre Giangrande and Stanislas Choko were the two leading French movie poster dealers, and now they have both passed away.

They were about as opposite as could be! Stanislas Choko ran the Intemporal Gallery, and published lots of books about movie posters. He was a "good will ambassador" for the hobby, always promoting the collecting of posters.

Jean-Pierre Giangrande was a much more private person. He operated as a number of U.S. poster dealers have over the past decades, NOT owning a store or gallery, and instead endlessly searching for "poster finds" and building a large network of collectors and dealers who might sell him posters, and finding collectors and dealers he might re-sell those posters to, all without a gallery or even a shop. He was also very much a "straight talker", describing things as he saw them, and not worrying about making friends, or even making people like him!

I first met him in 1989, when I took a trip to Paris (and London) with legendary American poster dealer, Jose Ma Carpio, owner of the Cinemonde poster gallery in San Francisco, and undisputedly the leading movie poster dealer in the entire world throughout the 1980s. He said that he wanted to take a trip to Paris and London, and go "first class" all the way, and he invited me to go with him, and he promised to introduce me to the very top French and English dealers, which he did.

When we arrived in Paris, we first had a memorable day with Stanislas Choko, who showed us his gallery and his home, and we had a memorable dinner with him, which I described in the club message written after he passed away (see it here: https://www.emovieposter.com/club/returnmessage.php?id=981).

The next day Jose told me we would be meeting Jean-Pierre Giangrande, and he warned me that "JP" as he called him, was VERY different from Stanislas! He told me that JP would not be trying to impress me, and that he was like that with everyone, and that I shouldn't be offended.

We met him on the streets of Paris, and he took us to a garage on the street. He lifted the large door, and, to my amazement, the entire garage appeared to be filled with posters from front to back, and side to side! I asked him what his plans for them (I had visions of buying them all!), but he said they were his "retirement", and that he would sell them slowly over many years.

We then had lunch together at a street cafe, and he told me stories about poster dealers and collectors from all over the world, and he gave his honest opinion of each, not holding back in the slightest if he had a negative opinion. After being around so many people who were so careful in the words, it was so refreshing to be around someone who obviously had no "political correctness".

Over the years since then, Jean-Pierre Giangrande would consign posters to me on a regular basis, often excellent ones, but only a few at a time. I never saw him in person again, but we "stayed in touch", and I know that he traveled extensively, especially loving to visit Las Vegas and Hollywood, often going to special events.

Last week, a very good friend of his gave me the news that JP had passed away. I asked him whatever became of that garage filled with posters, and he said that, as Jean-Pierre had planned so many years ago, he HAD slowly dispersed them through the years!

I bid a very sad farewell to the great French poster dealer Jean-Pierre Giangrande. Here are several images of him: