I am a nut for vintage movie posters. I have been collecting them for more than 40 years. I was alone in my hobby for most of those years, but then I discovered a wonderful website, All Poster Forum, and I was finally able to chat with fellow collectors, share my collection, and ask questions. It was/is a great cyber community and I love being a part of it.
On APF, I had my own thread where I shared my collection and updated it frequently with new additions. In the 2 1/2 years I had my thread, I had more than 50 pages of entries. I was constantly working on my thread---preparing posts, taking pictures of my poster collection and updating when I'd get some things hung up in my house, etc. It got all consuming and I had decided to more or less take the summer off. I was still collecting, but I was trying to focus my new purchases on things I really "needed" instead of just buying stuff of mild interest that was cheap.
And then, sometime last week, the site I had used for photo hosting for years, Photobucket, stopped allowing what they called 3rd party hosting. Unless I coughed up $400 a year, every single one of my images--all 50+ pages--is filled with images that look like this:
...instead of pictures of my beautiful posters.
This is the SECOND time I've had a collection thread wiped out on me. The first time was when I had a collection thread (back when I was trying to find someone else interested in posters---long before finding APF) on something called Fanbolt. Fanbolt initially had a large audience when I joined, but it soon lost popularity and died. The owners of the site tried to jump start the site by going with a new format...and dumping all of the previous content. The attempt to resurrect the site failed...but my thread was still lost.
So now, I do not know what I am going to do. Some have suggested I join Flickr...and I may just do that. If I do, maybe I'd be allowed by the administrators to go in and replace all of my old images that were shot down by the blackmailing Photobucket? Hmm. However, I've read stuff online that suggests Flickr's days may be numbered as their parent company was bought out by someone else. I don't know if I could stand a THIRD collection being wiped out.
That brings me here. Back in the day when everyone was seemingly getting a blog, I started one, too, back in early 2007 (Golly, I even had a MySpace page back then. That's been obliterated now, too). However, I found that even though I had a blog, I really had NOTHING to say. By and large, I found blogs to be somewhat pretentious (Is that the right word? Not really... but for lack of a better one for the moment, it will suffice). They were, to my way of thinking, desperate calls for attention. Hey world, look at my life. Aren't I fabulous and interesting? I'm NOT fabulous or interesting. If I have anything to share, I would just share it with my friends (instead of the entire world) via email.
However, there is a finite amount of space email companies provide for free. I was not only using mine up---but clogging up the emails of my friends. A few weeks ago after a big trip, I remembered this comatose blog and decided to see if I could do one of my usual email travelogues with blog posts instead. I could just send links to the blog pages INSTEAD of the text and photos as I had been doing. It seemed to work.
And then it occurred to me that, for the time being at least, I could continue my APF thread here...until I decide what to do about the photo hosting situation (and I am NOT the most tech-savvy guy on the planet...so this may take a while to figure out).
So, below, I am going to post the entry I was working on for my APF thread. I was saving it for my "return" in the fall. My last real entry had been around Memorial Day or the beginning of June---the "beginning" of summer, and I had a summer/beach-themed layout to go with my posters. For this return post, I was planning it for Labor Day weekend--the unofficial "end" of summer and was also planning an end of summer/beach theme. Just because of the whole Photobucket fiasco, I am posting it now so I do not permanently lose the elements in my very messy computer files.
Here it is:
COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK:
Zowie! I have long wanted one of these cool posters. For a while there, there seemed to be a glut of these posters showing up. At one point I was actively bidding on a copy when another APFer (I forget who it was) started bidding on it as well. Fortunately, I recognized the name and gracefully backed out of the auction. He got it and I was happy for him, thinking I'd get another pretty quick as they seemed to show up almost weekly...but after that auction, I didn't see any for MONTHS! Ha! I snagged one though, finally. All is good.
KILL BABY KILL:
Yahoo! Mario Bava is on my list and this poster for KILL BABY KILL is certainly creepy. The three sheet, with the elements in different positions, is actually creepier in my opinion---but I am delighted to have the one sheet. Great creepy movie with super atmosphere as only Bava can deliver.
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (re-release on linen):
Hmm. I got this--hooray---but I'm kind of already disappointed with it. Ha! I paid too much for it--but probably couldn't get this any cheaper. Why am I disappointed? Because there is a combo re-release for SON OF and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN that uses the exact same art...except the Bride is on the bottom instead of the image of the Son. Oh well. Something Uni Frankenstein-y...if only a re-release. Better than I ever expected to get, I guess.
HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN (Style B):
Oh my STARS! I have LONG wanted this (actually, I wanted the OTHER style of one sheet...who knew there were TWO styles?). These are almost impossible to find. I've only seen them a few times and I've never been able to score one. This is for the nudie cutie HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN that features, in addition to nudie cuties, Dracula, a Wolfman, and Frankenstein's Monster! How MONSTER-ously marvelous! A horror nudie cutie! Ha!
THE FILTHY FIVE:
Oh my stars! I paid WAY too much for this...but how could I let it go? It is a super rare full-color one sheet for Andy Milligan's LOST sexploitation flick (and the debut of actor Frederic Forrest), THE FILTHY FIVE. eMovie has only sold one other copy (in 2010) and Heritage has apparently NEVER sold one. You know I dig Andy Milligan (although WHY I do not know... Ha!). This film, however, allegedly got "rave reviews" from Variety and the New York times...earned a staggering $300,000 (in 1968...that was quite a sum back then) and was allegedly one of Andy Warhol's favorite films. So how did it (and other several other Milligan sexploiters) become a "lost" film? Easy. The distributor's (William Mishkin) son, Lew, took over the company and melted all of the pre-porn potboilers down for their silver value, thinking no one would ever want to see them again. ARGH! I keep hoping that prints of some of these old flicks will be found--but I doubt it. From what I know of Mishkin, he was a penny-pincher and he kept on top of all of his business dealings. He was NOT about to let a film he "owned" go missing and unaccounted for. It's our loss, as I would LOVE to have seen this flick.
THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN:
Yabba dabba doo! This was not officially listed on my list---but in a sense it was. I wanted to complete various poster series. Although this is a stand alone movie, it's cowboys vs dinosaur theme reminds me of/often confuses me with VALLEY OF THE GWANGI. I have a GWANGI...I just needed this one. Amazingly, I've never seen either film. Ha!
STARLET:
Although I do NOT think this poster was actually written on my list, it has been in my mental want list for ages. I love the cheesy art. For an early porn film, it's cool they spent the money for painted art. I like it because it looks like an old pulp novel from the 60's. No, I've never seen the flick--but who needs to? I'm sure the poster is way better than the movie any way. Ha! This is an image of the poster taken from the internet---NOT the poster I got (which is folded). The image of my poster was kind of blurry, so... I used this one instead.
ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY (Country of Origin Mexican poster):
Zowie! I finally have my FIRST poster from the AZTEC MUMMY series (original Mexican versions). I am really hoping to get the first poster in the series ---but this one for the third (and final) film is a groovy start. I, of course, would also love the poster for the second film (even though the 2nd film is basically a re-edit of the first film), All three posters are super rare (and super fragile). But, at last, one is mine!
DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1949 re-release linen):
Even though it is only a re-release and on linen (blah)---wow! Wow! WOW!!! Another piece of classic Uni horror. Nearly 70 years old as well. Simply stunning. I am thrilled.
SEVEN (Advance):
Do I have this already? I'm NOT sure. If I didn't, I do now.
MESSIAH OF EVIL:
Hot diggity... In my quest for early, rare post-NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD / pre-video zombie flick posters, this quasi-zombie title has been elusive. MESSIAH OF EVIL is a decidedly odd flick, with the original producers (who later scored big with "American Graffiti"--REALLY! It is even mentioned, and misspelled, on the poster) running out of money before completion and the incomplete film bought by someone else, edited together to make a somewhat coherent story from the available footage, and then released to lukewarm results. The film is on DVD, but still almost as hard to find as this poster is.
THE LONELY SEX:
Yes, I DID score one of these a little while back, but this pre-PSYCHO classic came available and I stupidly bid on it before work...and came home to discover I had won it. Oh well.
MOTHER GOOSE' BIRTHDAY BASH:
Another kiddie matinee poster. When I bid on this, I was thinking this was one I needed. However, I think I HAVE this already. It was something about Santa's Film Festival---and NOT Mother Goose--that I was needing. Drat!
BLOOD BATH:
Yet another title I already have. I THOUGHT I had learned my lessons about repeat buys, but I guess not...
THE FINAL DESTINATION (lenticular):
The fifth in the series---but, like the first movie in the series, this one is sporting a cool lenticular, albeit with a wild broken glass effect. And I got it fairly inexpensively. Score!
That's it for now. I'll be around, but not as frequently as I was before. I hope you had a super summer that eclipsed any summer before this one. Make the most of your Labor Day weekend and happy poster hunting this fall.
CHEERS!
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