eMoviePoster.com

We were recently asked:

"Do you know who the artist was who did both "Congo Crossing" and "Tanganyika" (from Universal Studios) - AND - are there other films he did posters in that same style?"

Bruce replied:

"Unfortunately, we don't. There was either one artist who did a lot of work for Universal at that time, or several artists who either imitated each other or who collaborated on their work. The same was true at other studios from the 1930s to the 1960s. Sadly, they were almost never allowed to sign their work, and we have been able to track down few of the artists.

This is really a shame, because some of those artists are probably still alive (and if not them, their children), so it shouldn't be that hard to track them down, if anyone cared enough to do so. I sometimes joke that more is known about who built the ancient pyramids in Egypt than is known about who drew movie posters in the 1950s! (of course, this is an exaggeration, but not by that much)"

We also received a question asking why the poster they purchased was on different paper stock than most posters from the same time frame. In this case, the customer was asking about a poster from the 1980s, but our reply applies to all original movie posters that were, for whatever reason, printed in a different way from other posters of that time. Here is how we replied:

"Not all posters of a given time period (in this case, this mid-1980s) were printed on the same type of paper. In fact as an example, we've seen posters for the same film that were printed in up to 3 different ways (heavy card-like stock, "traditional" movie paper stock, and thin paper stock). This could be because those posters were printed in different locations, or because they were intended for different uses (such as domestically or overseas, OR for theater fronts or mass posting in cities, etc). Unfortunately, there is very little documentation about this, so it is hard to know for certain. But whatever the reasons, we have seen these variations come direct from theaters, so we know they are original authentic theatrical posters. I hope this helps. It is just very tricky with "modern" posters to know all the variations for each type of poster."

IF ANY OF YOU READING THIS HAS MORE INFORMATION TO ADD ABOUT THESE SUBJECTS, PLEASE LET US KNOW (and we also would gladly print entire articles from experts, if any of you care to submit some!).

See Also:
Did you know... that the artist who drew the iconic "Endless Summer" poster, John Van Hamersveld, has created a beautifully printed full-size 50th anniversary limited edition print and it is available NOW?
Did you know... that we believed an Internet rumor that the famous Belgian artist "Wik" was thought to be Jacques Thibesart but actually HE IS NOT?
Did you know... that there are many uncredited artists of classic posters that are currently unknown?
Did you know... that more is known about who built the ancient pyramids in Egypt than is known about who drew many of the movie posters in the 1950s?
Did you know... that some modern theatrical re-releases (as well as art prints and more) of classic movies can be collectible (and sometimes fetch surprisingly high dollars)?
Did you know... that December 1st we held a special sale of limited edition "A Charlie Brown Christmas" prints by Tom Whalen and we sold out in just 30 minutes?