Vintage Movie Posters at Heritage
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When a rare, one-of-a-kind B-style stone litho movie poster for the 1934 classic Universal horror movie The Black Cat, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, crosses the auction block on November 12-13, 2009 as the highlight of Heritage Auctions’ Signature Vintage Movie Posters Auction, the entire hobby will be holding its breath to see if it becomes the most valuable movie poster of all time, the company said.
It is estimated at $250,000+.
“This is a poster that really does transcend the genre,” said Grey Smith, Director of Vintage Movie Posters at Heritage Auctions. “Graphically it’s an obvious stunner, and it’s the only one of its kind known to exist on the planet. It’s as important as a piece of art and pop culture as it is as a movie poster.”
Heritage reports that the poster comes from the legendary collection of Todd Feiertag, who set the current world’s record price for a movie poster a decade ago with the $453,500 sale of a one-sheet for 1932’s The Mummy in 1997.
“We’re obviously hoping for a world record price,” said Smith. “It’s easy to throw around the term ‘museum-quality,’ but this truly fits the bill.”
Another incredibly rare classic horror poster, a 1934 White Zombie half-sheet, along with four original lobby cards, provides extra heft to the Heritage Auctions sale, with a rarity almost equal to the headlining poster.
It is estimated at $75,000+.
“Lugosi’s performance as Murder Legendre in White Zombie is one of the great performances of Golden Age Hollywood,” said Grey Smith, Director of Movie Posters at Heritage Auctions, “and the poster for the film is one of the most sought after in the realm of movie poster collecting. You simply never see this poster or these lobby cards all together at once.”
If classic horror tops the bill in the realm of Vintage Movie Posters, then it’s legendary leading ladies that come in a close second, the company said. Heritage Auctions fills that bill with a gorgeous six-sheet poster for 1943’s The Outlaw, featuring a controversial Jane Russell in the movie, and the seductive pose that made her a household name. It didn’t hurt the film’s notoriety, either, that Howard Hughes stepped in to finish the movie after the original director, Howard Hawks, stepped down.
Heritage estimates the poster at $30,000+.
Also among the high profile items on tap for this event are Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (Universal, 1938), a series of three Italian display posters from the premiere of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, the B-style one-sheet for Ten Cents a Dance (Columbia, 1931), the only known copy of the one-sheet for Tarzan of the Apes (First National, 1918), the title card from Fritz Lang’s Spies (MGM-UFA, 1928), the one-sheet from Of Human Bondage (RKO, 1934), and the one-sheet from Lost Horizon (Columbia, 1937).
