“…They were meant to grab you by the shirt collars and scream ‘Get into this theatre now and see this picture!’…”
So explains Dwight Cleveland, author of Cinema on Paper, a book of more than 100 film posters and lobby cards selected from his expansive collection of vintage film posters that recently sold at auction for $1.45 million. Cleveland has a particular interest in the subset of his collection that he titles“Remarkable Women Behind the Camera”.
Here, Picture This Post (PTP) interviews Dwight Cleveland (DC) about the history of movie posters in general, and his collections in specific.
(PTP) Why were movie posters created and how did their use evolve over time?
(DC) Movies were a novelty at the beginning, so the film companies had to educate the population about this new form of entertainment. Posters were plastered all over town, Not only inside and out of theatres, but also in stores leaning against the cash register, tripods on sidewalks, on billboards, on the side of barns—literally everywhere where folks would pass-by and see them. Stone lithography came from Europe and involved meticulously running each poster over a hand-colored stone for each color used. Most had 4 or 5 colors; some had up to 7. This was incredibly laborious, but talented immigrants brought this skill with them.
My sweet spot is the early 19teens through 1940. During this time period 100% of the advertising budget was allocated to the posters. The posters were stone lithographs and the lobby cards were hand-tinted. Most are incredibly beautiful works of art, well beyond just utilitarian advertising.
Once TV became a competitive media in the 1940s, the budgets decreased significantly. Plus, printing technology evolved to photo lithography, which saved a lot of money but resulted in less interesting posters from an artistic standpoint.
When 'talkies' came in the Wall Street banks took over financing and the budgets and investments exploded. 1,000 seat movie 'palaces' were built all over the United States to accommodate the popularity of what was a burgeoning new art form and entertainment. These theatres were meant to transport patrons to exotic lands like Persia, Egypt and Spain. Production budgets for everything exploded as well — stars, wardrobe, sets, lighting, make-up - all increased substantially. So, the poster art was at a peak in the 1930s.
Who were the women in the industry that you describe as “behind the scenes”?
Alice Guy Blaché, was the first woman to direct a moving picture. Lois Weber is considered the most important film director of the silent film era. She was also a screenwriter, producer and actress. Dorothy Arzner, was the first woman to direct a talking picture. Frances Marion was the first person to win back-to-back Academy Awards for screenwriting. Frederica Sagor Maas was the youngest ever studio script director. Ruth Roland was Hollywood High School's first homegrown movie star. She produced and starred in her own films, and was also known for performing her own death defying stunts. Anita Loos, the first female screenwriter in Hollywood was also an actress, novelist and playwright. She is best known for Gentleman Prefer Blondes.
There are over 1,000 women on my list and virtually all of them are forgotten and unacknowledged today.
The artistic and talented women just took the bull by the horns back then. The movie industry was wide open and if you could deliver, you were given immediate responsibility. Because they were shunned by more accepted professions, women really thrived in this environment during the early days of cinema.
Thorough research has yet to be done on studying the female gaze for the films on which women had meaningful roles behind the camera shaping the narratives. Since silent films were made on nitrate film stock, most have disintegrated and burned. Virtually 85% of all silent films are considered "lost." So my lobby cards are the only tangible evidence these films ever existed. If we digitize them and use A.I. to collect pattern data, we can learn more about and help define women's true impact.
Hollywood really shaped how we view beauty, both female and male ,having graced the silver screen, magazines and newspapers and personal appearances since the 19teens. We are saturated with these images all day, every day for the past 125 years.
The ones who truly amaze me though are the women who wrote, directed, edited and starred in their own films. That seems more mainstream now, but back in the day, it's incredible to consider what these women were able to accomplish. The tragedy is that there are only a handful of film scholars worldwide who know this. The other tragedy is that Hollywood doesn't seem to care, even the women industry leaders now.
How did you get your start in Movie Poster collecting?
In 1977 I fell in love with lobby cards as a naive 17 year-old senior in high school. I've taken the collecting gene deficiency to an uber level. My OCD tendencies and love of 'the hunt' have helped me focus and achieve far more than I ever thought. My arc has gone from collector, to archivist, to restorer, to advocate and philanthropist, to helping create museum exhibitions, author a book, and a long list of friends and associates all over the world. It has been truly rewarding on many levels.
These lobby cards and posters are important artifacts of American culture that need to be saved. And I've gone way beyond what is normal for someone of my means; this now needs a benefactor at a higher level than what I can provide. Film has been one of our major exports since the turn of the 20th century and continues today. Now, both the distribution and production side of the business is being disrupted at a pace no one really fathomed. I believe its important to preserve the origin stories to map where we've been thus allowing us to better prepare for where we're going. The power to do this is mostly in the hands of those responsible for the dramatic tectonic shifts going on. I can only hope that one of them rise to the occasion.
Editor’s Note: Click for more information on Dwight Clevelands book, published by Assouline— Cinema on Paper,
Images courtesy of Dwight Cleveland
