eMoviePoster.com

RIP George Theofiles (read an obituary of him here: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/baltimoresun/name/george-theofiles-obituary?id=35508684)

We lost another major figure in collectibles in June, but I (Bruce) just learned about his passing recently. I first met George through Ron Barlow (who also spent his life in collectibles, and who sadly also recently passed), when Ron and I were partners in a movie poster business in 1983. Ron knew George from when George had opened his first shop in Baltimore in 1970 (where Ron was from), and he told me he was sure I would love George, because like us, collectibles were "in his blood".

George had opened that first shop in 1970, and it was called Miscellaneous Man, and it was one of the VERY first actual stores that sold collectible movie posters (and all kinds of other advertising paper) anywhere in the world (as opposed to the remaining poster exchanges), and George would truly buy ANY kind of collectible paper, if the price was right, and he soon filled a warehouse, and had to move!

Back in the early 1980s I went with Ron to meet George, and once I heard his magnificent booming voice, and saw his great intellect and knowledge that showed through in everything we talked about, I knew he would be my lifelong friend, and he was! George surely did love paper collectibles of every kind, and he had an extremely close friendship with legendary collector Richard Allen, and the two did lots of business together, with Richard first acquiring many gems through George, and years later, selling many through him.

When I became partners in an image archive with Richard, that brought me even closer to George, and over the last decade of George's life I switched from being one of his good customers to being someone he consigned lots of material to. If there is ever a Hall of Fame of movie paper people, George would surely be elected on the very first ballot. He was one of the very best people in this hobby, and he will be very missed.