Once upon a Time in the West

DumbTube

AT the estate sale of a California movie lover I bought this lovely "Once upon a time in the West" poster. Good condition, never folded but with a few creases.

I did some research and found that the film was released in 1968, but re-issued in 1980. It's a very striking poster and I know it's very collectible so I was wary of it's authenticity. Comparing the 1968 and 1980 versions, I noticed that mine had the 'M for Mature' rating and I was assuming that was recent, but was basing that on the 'M for Mature' on video games.  According to WIkipedia, the 'M' rating was discontinued in favor of 'GP' (then 'PG') in 1970 which fits in nicely with my poster being the original release.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America_film_rating_system#From_M_to_GP_to_PG

SO, I'm off to get it linen backed and then framed.

Here are the photos. https://goo.gl/photos/aBFKXySeMjWasxmV8 

I also bought an album with about 50 B&W photo stills of Brigite Bardot, some weird "sex in the cinema" type photo books and a slide projector. win win!

Mark (DumbTube)

theartofmovieposters

Great movie and beautiful poster.

Congratulations and welcome.

The NSS numbers in the bottom right corner tell you what year the film was released in...so the 69 is for 1969 and the second number indicates what number film it was released in that year...so 200 and something film released that year (sorry forget the number)

Bruce

theartofmovieposters said:

Great movie and beautiful poster.

Congratulations and welcome.

The NSS numbers in the bottom right corner tell you what year the film was released in...so the 69 is for 1969 and the second number indicates what number film it was released in that year...so 200 and something film released that year (sorry forget the number)

Slight correction! I too used to think the numbers after the slash referred to the release order of the year. But I learned that the numbers were given in chunks to each studio at the start of the year, based on how many they planned to release that year. So the 200 one could have been released before the 100 one.

theartofmovieposters

Oh thanks.  I did not know this, and it is good to know!

Eisenhower

Bruce said:

theartofmovieposters said:

Great movie and beautiful poster.

Congratulations and welcome.

The NSS numbers in the bottom right corner tell you what year the film was released in...so the 69 is for 1969 and the second number indicates what number film it was released in that year...so 200 and something film released that year (sorry forget the number)

Slight correction! I too used to think the numbers after the slash referred to the release order of the year. But I learned that the numbers were given in chunks to each studio at the start of the year, based on how many they planned to release that year. So the 200 one could have been released before the 100 one.

So the numbers 0-99, or 100-199, 200-299 could have been movies released at any random time by a variety of movies studios? In a given year? The #'s apply to order of studio release only?

So really the actual release date of the movie in theaters is really what counts. 

HONDO

When you think about it there is no way the numbering could be anything but what Bruce has explained to us. A question then to Bruce. Is it possible that some numbers allocated were never used within that year? For arguments sake, say 1,000 were allocated and only 900 were used. Any number after 900 wouldn't matter if it wasn't used, but isn't it possible for some earlier allocated numbers between I and 900 that they were never used for whatever reason? Would this have meant the last allocated number on a poster for a film that was released within a year, may not have meant that this was the exact number of films released in that year?

Bruce

Yes Mark, the actual release dates mean WAY more than the NSS numbers. There are also tons of cases where the NSS numbers don't even correlate to the right year! I mean where the movie was intended to have a late 1947 release, so it was given a 47 NSS number, but then (for whatever reason) it was released in early 1948, but with a 47 NSS number. And it also works in reverse, where the movie was released early, and it has an NSS number that is the year before it was released.

Remember that TONS of movies had very limited releases at first, sometimes to qualify for Academy Awards, sometimes to build word of mouth, so many movies actually first played in a year one prior to the NSS number for that reason alone.

Lawrence, I know what you are saying, and it absolutely IS possible there are some skipped NSS numbers, but I think the unused ones were given to not yet released movies at the end of the year. Since we record EVERY single NSS and litho number that passes through our hands, we can easily find any skipped numbers, but if there are any, they are VERY few. One of the most amazing collections of all time, which I was privileged to be consigned, was from a man who spent nearly 40 years trying to get one example each of EVERY one-sheet that had an NSS number, and he came pretty darn close!

And absolutely, if the highest NSS from 1967 you can find is 67/478, that does NOT at all mean for sure that there were 478 movies released that year (especially because a LOT of movies were never released through NSS every single year).

Eisenhower

Thank you for sharing, Bruce  I am fascinated by the history & workings of the (somewhat mysterious to me) NSS. I wish there was more info about it...

I guess I fantasize of a time from the 30s - late 70s when they were in their prime, sending out posters and had stores of vintage paper! And then they sold their stocks (or so Ive read) for weight in paper?!!! If I had a time machine...

Are their any books on the NSS? I'd love to read one!

HONDO

Thanks Bruce for answering my question. All very interesting reading. Unfortunately, whether it be the U.S.A., Australia or other countries, a great deal of film history regarding film posters was never recorded and is now lost to current and future generations. It is great to have Bruce's extensive knowledge to draw upon regarding U.S. ( any other countries ) material. I am pleased I have been able to share my extensive knowledge on Australian posters to help fill in missing gaps and to correct some incorrect information previously stated, due mainly to the lack of any information to draw upon. It is an ongoing work in progress for me and something new and usually previously unknown, regularly seems to be discovered.

Bruce

I am more than happy to share what I know (and I don't pretend to know anything I don't, so I will either said that I know something for sure, that I think I know something, or that I don't know at all). So feel free to ask away! However, if I start getting trolled, as I have on the other forums, then I will simply stop posting.

Lawrence, I have often joked that I think more is known about how the ancient pyramids were built than how movie posters were printed in the 1930s! Yes, that's an exaggeration, but not by much.

What makes this SO sad is that as little as ten or twenty years ago, there were still a lot of people alive who were there first hand, and if anyone had taken the time to thoroughly interview them, we might have learned so much. But one has to be careful about first hand eyewitness testimony! Just as at crime scenes, where witnesses get details wrong after just a few hours or days, often people get lots of details wrong when recounting details about their work 40 years before!

It is like the witnesses in Twelve Angry Men. Maybe they want to make themselves more important, or maybe it is a faulty memory, but who knows how reliable what they say is, when there is NO supporting evidence? Consider Bill Gold. Maybe he really did design the Casablanca one-sheet and so many other 1940s posters, but I would like to see some work orders backing up what he says.

Rick

nice poster and great movie

HONDO

Thanks Bruce for your latest comments.One of my highlights in my film research would have to have been finding an article published in a newspaper on January 2, 1954 on Aub. Mosley. Aub. was an Australian poster artist who worked for W.E.Smith, designing film posters between around 1948 to 1953. I did a little detective work and tracked him down. I had a few interesting telephone conversations with him before asking John Reid to make contact with him as well. His memory, in his own words, wasn't the best regarding the posters he designed during his stay at W.E.Smith, so therefore information gained from him would have to classified as being not 100% accurate after 60 plus years. What is factual is information gained from the newspaper article. One thing mentioned was that the three daybill posters that were prepared on one large sheet were Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Sailor Of The King and City Of Bad Men, possibly being the only example to come to light of the titles of three daybill posters  designed at the same time. Aub. also designed Moulin Rouge. The majority of information I use and treat as being factual come from printed material from the period when anything in question is being discussed.  

Bruce

I agree Lawrence. That is why I collect exhibitor magazines (I have a near complete run of Box Office, and keep adding to the other titles whenever I can).

Someday I hope to have enough time to start going through them! I am sure they contain a wealth of information that has been unseen since its first publication.