Heritage Galleries Conducts First Million-Dollar Movie Poster Auction!

Dallas, Texas: Heritage Movie Poster Auctions (HMPA) held its first sale of 2005 on Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18, in Dallas, Texas. 91.08% of the lots offered were sold, for a total of $1,047,267.95. 1,218 total bidders competed for 1,212 lots, 349 of them successfully.

"This was, to say the least, a very strong auction," said Grey Smith, Director of HMPA. "For the first time in nearly a decade, a public auction of classic movie posters reached the million dollar mark. We also set a number of new records for the sale of vintage posters, including the sale of:

• Casablanca one-sheet for $25,300
• Invisible Man Returns one-sheet for $12,650
• Citizen Kane Style A one-sheet for $14,950
• Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, both the one-sheet for $8,050
• Attack of the 50-Foot Woman three-sheet for $13,800
• House of Dracula one-sheet for $10,350

The number of records set in this auction was astounding, with far too many to list here. Suffice it to say, this was a sale that will not soon be forgotten."

"We knew going in that the star of this sale was going to be the second part of the fantastic collection of rock legend Johnny Ramone," Smith continued. "Johnny was a big fan of the Universal horror films, and he managed to assemble one of the best collections of this material I've ever seen. As we predicted, bidders responded enthusiastically to this highly desirable material."

"Unfortunately. Johnny's Bride of Frankenstein half-sheet failed to sell at the reserve price of $57,500," said Smith, "but we're confident that this piece, which will certainly be the crown jewel of someone's collection, will find an after-auction purchaser in the days ahead, which will then raise our total auction realization to an even higher level."

"I was very gratified by the strong participation in this sale," Smith enthused, "with 20% more bidders than in our last Signature auction. There was lots of activity on the floor, on the phone, and especially via eBay Live. More and more people are becoming interested in vintage movie material, and it's great to be in a position to see this hobby grow and prosper."

"Western posters have been in a slump over the last several years, as have serial posters," Smith added, "but both of these areas did extremely well in this sale, with several examples bringing many times their pre-auction estimate. I'm personally excited about this, as these have always been two of my favorite categories to collect, and I'd recommend that other collectors take a serious look at these areas that they may have neglected."

"Another area that pleased me greatly was the strong showing of Humphrey Bogart material. Strong bidder interest in the films of this classic actor drove prices for things like lobby cards from The Big Sleep to heretofore unheard of levels. Bogie was one of the greats, and I'm glad to see him finally receiving the attention and interest he deserves."

HMPA's next Signature Sale will be held on July 15, 2005 in Dallas, Texas.

Additional sale highlights include:

Frankenstein (Universal, 1931) Half Sheet (22" X 28"). Colin Clive stars in the title role of James Whale's adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. Although co-screenwriter Robert Florey was originally set to direct, Carl Laemmle turned the project over to Whale who instilled a dark sense of humor in the project. When the film was released to critical and popular acclaim, Laemmle assigned Whale to a number of his horror projects including "The Invisible Man," "The Old Dark House" and "The Bride of Frankenstein." Whale also had an eye for talent, casting a relatively unknown bit part actor as the Monster. Boris Karloff had to undergo extensive makeup sessions with Jack Pierce everyday to turn into the Monster and the result was shocking. When the film premiered, women were seen running up the aisle of the theatre in fright! And it wasn't a staged publicity stunt. Overnight, Karloff became a sensation and a household name. His career took a deliberate turn towards horror and he would eventually become known as "The King of the Monsters". "Frankenstein" is a true classic of the cinema and the posters for this title are in higher demand than any other film. The portrait lobby card for this title sold at Heritage last year for $18,400.00 and the one sheet sold for $189,750.00. To say that the posters and lobbies on this title are highly collectible is putting it mildly. This poster has had extensive restoration. The original portion of the poster includes the image of the monster, the "FR" in Frankenstein and the portrait of Dwight Frye. The rest of the poster has been painted in. This does constitute a large section of the poster, however, it is interesting to observe that the majority of the poster is a white background. The restoration was expertly done by Carol Tincup. Now, that being pointed out, one has to keep in mind that this is the only half sheet that has ever turned up on this title so if you're in the market for that format, this is the only one that is known to exist. As is we grade the poster in fair condition but has an "apparent" grade of Fine on paper. This was one of the cornerstone pieces in the Collection of Johnny Ramone. Johnny had always wanted an original poster from the 1931 release of Frankenstein and, with the addition of this half sheet to his collection, he achieved that goal. Fair on Paper. REALIZED: $25,300.

Casablanca (Warner Brothers, 1942) Script (158 Pages). The American Film Institute calls "Casablanca" the second greatest film of all time. The Academy Award winning script written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch, was based on the unproduced stage play, "Everybody Comes to Rick's," written by Murray Bernett and Joan Allison. It's timeless sense of love and danger has made this Best Picture of 1944 a beloved classic in any sense of the word. This bound copy of the script comes from the Jack Warner library and is said to be Mr. Warner's personal copy. Markings on the inside cover show this to be the final revision dated June 1, 1942. There are the words, Col. Warner, handwritten in pencil in the upper left hand corner of the inside front soft cover. Revision pages are all dated and the final page sports a cast and crew list complete with phone numbers and addresses including Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Peter Lorre. Binding and outer hard cover is in near perfect condition. The inside bound soft cover shows some curling and tears along the edges. Pages of the script are near mint. This lot was sold at Christie's East on June 20, 1991, Lot 633. REALIZED: $12,650.

Cat People (RKO, 1942) One Sheet (27" X 41"). Simone Simon stars as Irene, a wife whose jealous streak turns her into a cat, or does it? Producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur collaborated for the first time on this classic horror film. Lewton produced a style which was more reliant on suspense and suggestion creating more of a psychological thriller that paid off nicely at the box. "The Cat People" was a major hit for RKO and the two men went on to make a series of moody and atmospheric horror films for the studio. There is light fold line wear with a touch of paper loss at the crossfolds, slight tears, and few small holes in the graphics. There are pinholes, tears, and small areas of paper loss in the borders. The poster actually measures just slightly shy of the full 27" X 41" but we are not sure that there has been any trimming as the borders are uniform and straight. The poster has been professionally restored, rendering these defects hard to detect. Posters for "The Cat People" are hot commodities and are seldom available to collectors. Fine on Linen. REALIZED: $11,500.

The Bride of Frankenstein (Universal, 1935). Lobby Card (11" X 14"). James Whalen directed this Universal Horror classic that many claim to be the best of the Frankenstein series. The story starts as the Frankenstein monster, again portrayed by Boris Karloff, is found to have miraculously survived the windmill fire. Once he is revived, Henry Frankenstein's (Colin Clive) former mentor, Doctor Praetorius (Ernst Thesiger), decides the monster needs a mate. Praetorius kidnaps Frankenstein's wife in order to force poor Henry into helping him create a new creature, a woman, to be the companion of the monster. This wonderful scene card captures this intense moment in the film, showing the exhausted Frankenstein being coerced by Praetorius and the monster. There are several pinholes in the corners and the top border, slight corner chips and creases, small tears, light surface creases and several pinholes in the graphics. The professionally restoration to this card was top-notch, rendering these defects virtually undetectable. From the collection of Johnny Ramone. Fine+. REALIZED: $11,500.

Maltese Falcon (Warner Brothers, 1941) Three Sheet (41" X 81"). This was the third film version of Dashiell Hammett's detective novel, and without doubt, the best. This classic film noir was directed by John Huston, a long-established screenwriter who was making his directorial debut. Humphrey Bogart would achieve true stardom portraying Sam Spade, a hard-boiled San Francisco private eye, who at times uses unscrupulous methods as a means to an end, but also adheres to his own personal code of honor. There is fold line wear with small points of paper loss at the crossfolds, small tears and a few border pinholes. The poster has been professionally restored, effectively minimizing these defects. Fine/Very Fine on Linen. REALIZED: $10,350.

For more information about Heritage's auctions, and a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HeritageGalleries.com.

Prospective consignors and sellers of vintage movie posters and related material should contact Grey Smith at 214-252-4367 or email GreySm@HeritageMoviePosters.com.

To order the next three sale catalogs, visit Heritage's website to pay by credit card, or send a check or money order payable to Heritage Galleries in the amount of $100 (a fraction of Heritage's actual cost-to-produce the catalogs) to: Customer Service, c/o Heritage Galleries, 3500 Maple Avenue, 17th Floor, Dallas, TX 75219.