MovieArt Collecting Basics

Collecting Basics

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: Sometimes producers would lithograph (print) color still sets in 8x10 format for use at the theater location for display. These are called still sets, and they are sometimes numbered like lobby card. But the garden variety black and white still is the copper penny of movie posterdom. Normally in the bottom border are printed title, production and copyright information. There were billions of these produced worldwide. Sometimes stills were produced in 11 by 14 inch formats - oversized stills. (The most regal type of still are the glamorous stills produced by smart photographers like George Hurrell which are generally elegant photographs of the stars. These are quite valuable and are not to be confused normal production stills. They are often embossed with the photographer's imprimatur.) It actually can be hard to buy stills mail order because they are such a pain for the average dealer to sell. Generally you find them in shops where you can look through the inventories in a self-serve situation. Or you may see them at poster and movie conventions around the world.
: 2) Lobby cards . These are 11 inch by 14 inch posters printed on card stock. Hence they are called cards. They are generally printed in sets of eight different cards, but not always. Each set will consist of one (usually) title card and several scene cards. The scene cards are so called because a black and white still, a scene from the movie, is generally hand tinted and reproduced in color on the card. The card is embellished with other art, text and design and each scene card will have a same or perhaps similar design with a different still used.. The title card is like a small poster with the title and credits of the film setting it apart from the other cards. In later years, generally the late sixties and after, true color photography was used in the creation of scene cards. Lobby card collecting is one of the most varied and interesting areas in the hobby because of the endless variety of cards and the varying quality of the images used. Generally the more pertinent, memorable and central the image on the scene card is, the more valued the card is. The term dead card refers to a card that has the more interesting or compelling aspects of the film - either stars or subjects missing from the scene portrayed - for example a scene card from an obscure Bela Lugosi film in which Lugosi, the chief element of interest, is not portrayed, or a card from a Marx Brothers film where there is not one brother. Individual scene cards from many films have a number printed in or near the border area. Some films have no title card in the set. Sometimes there may be only four cards or perhaps more than eight. Most lobby card sets have been broken up over years of collecting, so finding a set which is integral is increasingly difficult. Lobby card set collectors are often challenged with assembling a complete set. Complete sets often came in paper bags with the name and studio information printed on the bag. The presence of the bag with the set is very unusual today. Very occasionally, two different lobby sets may exist for the same film. There are also jumbo lobby cards, 14 inches by 17 inches. These can be oriented either vertically or horizontally. These poster range from the silent era through the early forties and they are not as common as standard lobby cards.

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