Part of it was logistics and wall space, but then another layer to the filter was, what is the story of the show? What's the history of movies? And Dwight's collection would illustrate that most clearly. We established a sort of artificial target of about 150 posters. How do you decide which ones?īIRD: It was a really fun/challenging/impossible situation because of working backwards from what could fit in the room. When you were both working on choosing the posters for the show I want to know what those conversations were like. And that's what motivated you to go into the theater and see the film. It was leaning up against a cash register or posted from the theater. There was no television, but the poster was really the thing that you walked by on the street. The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938 United States Releaseĭuring the silent era and into the 30s, the poster was really the only way to communicate and sell the film. A whole bunch of us were sort of crowded around looking over his shoulder and this one from "Wolf Song" just reached out and grabbed me and said 'take me home.' It really sparked my love of the graphic art in these posters. And I never really paid too much attention to them until one day he came back from a buying trip and he was leafing through this group of lobby cards he'd acquired. It was owned by the art teacher at my high school who was a great collector and had things hanging up in the gallery and in his office. It was a "Wolf Song" lobby card, which is a 1929 film with Lupe Velez and Gary Cooper. It still burns brightly in my mind and that's sort of the fire that keeps me going. The oldest ones I have are all from the late 1800s.ĭo you recall the first movie poster you ever got in your collection? I buy them at flea markets, antique shows and off the Internet. This transcription has been edited lightly for clarity.ĬLEVELAND: I've spent nearly half a century hunting these down all over the world. Guest curator of the exhibition Matthew Bird and owner of the pieces Dwight Cleveland joined Sundial.
It’s the largest show of movie posters, with films like the "Godfather," "Singing in the Rain" and "Casablanca." It opens Friday, July 12 and runs through the end of October. Cleveland Collection” is all about movie art and includes more than 200 posters of westerns, sci-fi thrillers, dramas and other movies that date from the turn of the 20th century to the late 1980s. Its newest exhibition, “Coming Soon: Film Posters from the Dwight M. If you love movie posters - the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach is taking a trip back in time to Hollywood’s Golden Era.