Horror & Cult Classics Lead Heritage’s $2.5 Million Movie Poster Auction

When it comes to the collecting of vintage movie posters, one thing holds true above the rest: Classic horror is king. If there was a shred of doubt anywhere in the collectibles world, that doubt was shattered March 20–22, when a 1931 Style B one-sheet Dracula poster sold for $310,000, anchoring Heritage Auction Galleries' spring vintage movie poster auction, which generated $2.5 million — the second highest movie posters auction on record, according to Heritage. The Dracula poster is one of only three known existing copies in this style, and it has a rock solid provenance, coming from the collection of Nicolas Cage.

A rare 1932 insert poster for the Irving Thalberg produced MGM horror movie Freaks was the breakout star of the auction, selling for $107,550. If the Dracula poster performed up to expectations, it was a rare 1932 insert poster for the notorious Irving Thalberg-produced MGM horror movie Freaks that was the breakout star of the auction. A vintage movie poster purchased for $10 in a Southern California antiques store in the early 1970s, it sold for $107,550. Emerging as it did just two weeks before the auction as the singular poster it most certainly is, the determined winning bidder said he has wanted to add it to his collection for years.

The consignor, Anne Stafford, from Corona Del Mar, Calif., said she agonized over spending $10 to buy the poster for her husband, Phil, at a local antiques store in the early 1970s. Knowing of her husband's love of B-movies, and for Freaks, she spent the sawbuck. Almost four decades later that initial investment has paid off more than 10,000 times.

The winning bidder, Ralph DeLuca, is a retired financial executive and a longtime collector from Madison, N.J. He said he intends to hang the poster in a place of honor on his wall next to his other famous horror movie posters, including the Dracula poster he also purchased at this auction.

"I am writing a check for both of the posters and am sort of in shock," DeLuca said after the auction. "Freaks is a film that I loved and always wanted a poster from, and Dracula, well, it is one of the most important movie posters in the world," said the movie poster expert, "it's just the best there is."

The other top highlight of the auction, which also brought more than $100,000, was a stunning 1933 stone lithograph for Walt Disney's The Mad Doctor, released by United Artists. A surreal masterpiece of both cartoons and horror in its own right, apart from its early Disney pedigree, the poster attests to the lasting craftsmanship and artistry of the H.C. Miner Lithograph Company. There is only one other copy of this poster known to exist, and it is reportedly in lesser condition.

"The chances of seeing this poster come back on the market anytime soon are very slim," said Smith. "This is a once in a generation poster, if that."

Obama Shad Poster Gets Mixed Reviews

Look Familiar? 'Shad Queen' Amy Coss of Sojourner and gallery owner Hrefna Jonsdottir display a controversial poster Sha-dama, that will be auctioned off at Sunday's Shad Festival original art poster auction. Artist Robert Waters was inspired by the HOPE political poster of Barack Obama, so dear to Obama supporters.

LAMBERTVILLE -- Is it disrespectful to replace the president's ears with fins to make him look like a shad? Artist Raymond F. Waters doesn't think so. Were President Obama to attend the original art Shad Fest Poster Auction on Sunday, Mr. Waters thinks our country's leader would "give it the thumbs-up, and want to buy it." Some feel differently, says gallery owner Hrefna Jonsdottir. She displayed the poster in the window of her Bridge Street gallery this month, one of a number of Lambertville businesses promoting this weekend's festival. She said the poster has drawn substantial interest, including the ire of an older woman who demanded its removal from display, feeling that the poster was disrespectful, even racist.

More people have appreciated the wry poster, wanting to buy it on the spot. They couldn't; it goes on the auction block with about 175 other posters on Sunday in the First Presbyterian Church gym, starting at 3 p.m. Auction proceeds fund art scholarships for students from the South Hunterdon and New Hope-Solebury high school districts.

Mr. Waters, who retired after teaching art or special education for 32 years to devote more time to his art, gained notice in community with his "best of show" award at the poster auction last year for How Many Angels Could Dance on the Head of a Pin, inspired by a friend.

Of this year's Sha-dama poster, he says, "I don't think there's anybody that respects him more than I do," he says from his Hillsborough home.

Mr. Waters considers himself "more of a conceptual artist," usually creating what's called outsider art with found objects. Doing this successfully requires a sense of humor, he adds.

Fishing around for this year's poster subject, he decided he wanted one of his two submissions to be something "very timely." He had followed the national controversy surrounding Shepard Fairey's political poster that resulted in a lawsuit because he'd used a photographic image without the photographer's permission. Nevertheless, the poster became the standard at Obama rallies and campaign headquarters.
Mr. Waters' Sha-dama is "a take on a take," he says, employing the same colors and format as the Fairey poster, and replacing "HOPE" with "SHAD."

The president's ears do stick out, he says, so it was easy to replace them with fins, morphing him into a shad. "During trying times, the best way to go through life is with a light heart," he feels.

His other poster could prove equally controversial: Saint Shadbastian is a twist on St. Sebastian's story, with fish hooks turned outward so that this will "never hurt" the fish, an allusion to the arrows that failed to take the saint's life.

He welcomes commentary on his work. "When there's dialogue, there's growth," he says. "What's fun about art is everyone's interpretation."

His thoughts on the two works is that they're "celebrating," his country and his religion.

Antique poster spurs new hope for today

A British World War II propaganda poster discovered a decade ago at the bottom of a box has become the latest craze among shoppers scrambling to buy anything and everything emblazoned with the posterís wartime motto: "Keep Calm and Carry On."

A British World War II propaganda poster discovered a decade ago at the bottom of a box has become the latest craze among shoppers scrambling to buy anything and everything emblazoned with the poster’s wartime motto: “Keep Calm and Carry On.”

Printed on a bright red background and topped by the crown of King George VI, the posters have sprung up everywhere lately, from an art show in New York City to Buckingham Palace.

Commissioned by the British Ministry of Information in 1939, the original poster was meant to be distributed in the case of a catastrophic event, such as a German invasion. That invasion, of course, never happened. The 2.5 million copies of the posters were never distributed, never seen by the public and were eventually pulped.

The inspirational message was lost to history until nine years ago, when Stuart Manley, a seller of used books in Northumberland, England, found it at the bottom of a box of books.

After scores of people asked to buy it, Manley decided to have a few copies printed. Since then, he and his wife, Mary, have sold 40,000 reproductions. (To buy one, go to: barterbooks.co.uk/catalog.)

“What I love, right along with everyone else, is how that poster itself would be, against all odds, a survivor of war,” Mary Manley wrote in her blog this month. “Its message — so simple, so clean, so without spin — has turned out to have meaning not just for a single people in a time of trouble, but for all of us, wherever we live, whatever our troubles.”