It's a bonus when two of one's passions coincide and such is the case with my love for film eliding smoothly with my recent interest in the dangers of natural gas drilling in The Marcellus Shale. For several months now I've been plugging a friends blog ( Gracenomics ) which has published a flurry of entries warning of the ecological nightmare that is going to be unleashed on the lower third of New York State if uncontrolled horizontal drilling for natural gas in The Marcellus Shale is permitted. Grace van Hulsteyn who publishes the blog has a place in Cochection New York, two miles from the Delaware River, one of the threatened resources and a short distance down river is the town of Milanville, home of Josh Fox, whose film, Gasland just won a special jury prize for a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Fox is more of a performance artist than a film maker ( though he does have an earlier film, Memorial Day, to his credit ), but he grew alarmed about the potential damage to the delicate eco-system of the Delaware based on evidence of gas company abuses in other parts of his home state of Pennsylvania. The review from Variety that was datelined Park City, Utah, home of Sundance, tells the story of what happened next.
I'm looking forward to the opening of this film since it will no doubt bring to the forefront the dangers of unfettered gas drilling to the water supply of New York City as well as Philadelphia and dozens of other cities and towns. Along with Gracenomics there are numerous blogs on the subject and there have been editorials in The New York Times, meetings and demonstrations in New York and Albany and all sorts of conclaves, seminars and other discussions of this problem, but all of that will fade to silence before the power of a well crafted, accurate polemic film. No doubt the oil and gas megadons will smear Mr. Fox and offer distorted rebuttals, but so it was with SuperSize Me and eventually McDonald's had to back down and remove the offensive marketing device from its menu. From Triumph of the Will to Farenheit 9/11, the power of cinema to persuade has been proven time and again. One can only hope that the early enthusiasm for Gasland's ability to influence opinion is warranted.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Monday, February 01, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Saturday, January 02, 2010
MARCELLUS SHALE BATTLE RAGES ON
The State of New York is soon to start the process of assigning leases for drilling using the highly controversial "fracking" method which involves pushing huge quantities of chemically infused water several miles beneath the earth's surface so as to break up the Devonian Era rocks that contain natural gas. The process is fraught with many dangers, from pollution to radiation. A friend whose land sits atop the vast Marcellus Shale field has started a blog commenting on the ongoing attempts to limit the number and placement of drilling sites in New York. Here is the latest entry:
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Economics and Gas Drilling in the Marcellus Shale
From the beginning of the Marcellus gas hoopla in our region, I’ve been hearing about the local benefits that drilling will bring to local communities, including my little town in the New York Catskills. Set aside for the moment the environmental issues that are getting all the press. I’m talking here about economics. Gas drilling will bring jobs, jobs, jobs, we are urged. It will bring other wealth in the form of stimulus to business activity and royalties to local landowners. We, the locals, will enjoy the benefits of the cleanest form of fossil energy, even while we’ll be doing our part to free the U.S. from dependency on foreign oil. These are the reasons we should bow to the wisdom of our state governments and welcome out-of-state developers to dig for gas in our hills and valleys.
None of these “benefits”seem to me to pan out, at least not at the end of the day. Here’s my take on them, below. If you disagree, I invite you to refute what I say, but with facts, please, not rhetoric. And that's not just rhetoric on my part;I really do want to receive some feedback from both sides of the gas drilling debate.
Jobs: Start with on-site jobs. The best of the jobs, I’ve been informed, come along with the gas operators. These are professional and management posts, and the rig jobs that are filled by highly paid itinerant workers. No kidding, these rig operators pull down some $75,000 a year and up. Do these jobs figure into the impressive Pennsylvania statistics that we’ve seen, for example, on gas play job growth? They shouldn’t. These workers are residents of other states whose local jobs will end and who are not likely to stay or to invest their riches locally. We’re told that the well drilling and fracking processes will be completed in a matter of weeks or a few months, so that rig workers, and presumably the managers, professionals, foremen, et al, will at that point move on. What seems to be in the offing for locals in the way of industry jobs are truck driving, security, and some low-level office work
Non-industry jobs and business development: Yes, the workers will need to be housed and fed as long as they are around, so there will be new staffing at delis, restaurants, bars, and real estate agencies. For how long? Weeks? I’m hearing the sound of a quickee boom, and then a bust. Gravel quarries will do well in the longer haul. But what the yea-sayers are leaving out is that much of the other work that will generated by the gas play will be in the nature of policing, social services and cleanup. And that will need to be funded, not by the gas companies or out of gas income, but by the same strapped taxpayers who will not have benefitted from the gas play in any way, including those whose real estate values have plummeted through proximity to it.
Landowners: Those who have entered into well-negotiated leases will certainly come out ahead economically. Even many of them may be unsettled to learn of the extent to which their lives and their land will be disrupted, but they will probably be rewarded in due proportion to the harm that comes their way. That is, a protracted disruption will be due to high production which will also produce substantial royalty payments. So, the more damage is done, the more likely it is that they will move away, leaving their property desolated and taking their disposable income with them.
Clean energy: Many reporters have noted the distinction between the environmental effects of the harvesting process and those of the use of gas as a heating fuel: the former is very dirty; the latter is clean as fossil fuels go. The people in the Marcellus will be getting the dirty. Many will not get the clean, as there is no natural gas service throughout large rural reaches of the region.
Patriotism: Finally, there’s the What’s Good for the Country is Good for You argument. “Our” gas will be used in the U.S.and help to wean our country from reliance on wicked oil suppliers in the Middle East. Nonsense, I say. We’re not geared to keeping the gas here for future use, and have nowhere to put it all. I’m certain that much of Pennsylvania’s gas is already destined, if it has not been delivered, to overseas markets. Who is it that controls where the volumes pumped out of the Marcellus via the massive pipelines, such as the newly expanded Millennium, will go? It’s the gas companies, including the foreign entities like Statoil that hold substantial interests in them, who will decide. It won’t be Uncle Sam.
So, if these arguments are supposed to be delivering the good news on gas drilling, they’re lost on me.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Economics and Gas Drilling in the Marcellus Shale
From the beginning of the Marcellus gas hoopla in our region, I’ve been hearing about the local benefits that drilling will bring to local communities, including my little town in the New York Catskills. Set aside for the moment the environmental issues that are getting all the press. I’m talking here about economics. Gas drilling will bring jobs, jobs, jobs, we are urged. It will bring other wealth in the form of stimulus to business activity and royalties to local landowners. We, the locals, will enjoy the benefits of the cleanest form of fossil energy, even while we’ll be doing our part to free the U.S. from dependency on foreign oil. These are the reasons we should bow to the wisdom of our state governments and welcome out-of-state developers to dig for gas in our hills and valleys.
None of these “benefits”seem to me to pan out, at least not at the end of the day. Here’s my take on them, below. If you disagree, I invite you to refute what I say, but with facts, please, not rhetoric. And that's not just rhetoric on my part;I really do want to receive some feedback from both sides of the gas drilling debate.
Jobs: Start with on-site jobs. The best of the jobs, I’ve been informed, come along with the gas operators. These are professional and management posts, and the rig jobs that are filled by highly paid itinerant workers. No kidding, these rig operators pull down some $75,000 a year and up. Do these jobs figure into the impressive Pennsylvania statistics that we’ve seen, for example, on gas play job growth? They shouldn’t. These workers are residents of other states whose local jobs will end and who are not likely to stay or to invest their riches locally. We’re told that the well drilling and fracking processes will be completed in a matter of weeks or a few months, so that rig workers, and presumably the managers, professionals, foremen, et al, will at that point move on. What seems to be in the offing for locals in the way of industry jobs are truck driving, security, and some low-level office work
Non-industry jobs and business development: Yes, the workers will need to be housed and fed as long as they are around, so there will be new staffing at delis, restaurants, bars, and real estate agencies. For how long? Weeks? I’m hearing the sound of a quickee boom, and then a bust. Gravel quarries will do well in the longer haul. But what the yea-sayers are leaving out is that much of the other work that will generated by the gas play will be in the nature of policing, social services and cleanup. And that will need to be funded, not by the gas companies or out of gas income, but by the same strapped taxpayers who will not have benefitted from the gas play in any way, including those whose real estate values have plummeted through proximity to it.
Landowners: Those who have entered into well-negotiated leases will certainly come out ahead economically. Even many of them may be unsettled to learn of the extent to which their lives and their land will be disrupted, but they will probably be rewarded in due proportion to the harm that comes their way. That is, a protracted disruption will be due to high production which will also produce substantial royalty payments. So, the more damage is done, the more likely it is that they will move away, leaving their property desolated and taking their disposable income with them.
Clean energy: Many reporters have noted the distinction between the environmental effects of the harvesting process and those of the use of gas as a heating fuel: the former is very dirty; the latter is clean as fossil fuels go. The people in the Marcellus will be getting the dirty. Many will not get the clean, as there is no natural gas service throughout large rural reaches of the region.
Patriotism: Finally, there’s the What’s Good for the Country is Good for You argument. “Our” gas will be used in the U.S.and help to wean our country from reliance on wicked oil suppliers in the Middle East. Nonsense, I say. We’re not geared to keeping the gas here for future use, and have nowhere to put it all. I’m certain that much of Pennsylvania’s gas is already destined, if it has not been delivered, to overseas markets. Who is it that controls where the volumes pumped out of the Marcellus via the massive pipelines, such as the newly expanded Millennium, will go? It’s the gas companies, including the foreign entities like Statoil that hold substantial interests in them, who will decide. It won’t be Uncle Sam.
So, if these arguments are supposed to be delivering the good news on gas drilling, they’re lost on me.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Marcellus Shale Letter
The following letter was sent by a friend to the President of Chesapeake Energy, one of the major players in the Marcellus Shale natural gas sludge rush. It appears on the same day that New York Mayor Bloomberg issued a report calling the potential damage to the New York's water supply a disaster waiting to happen. But not only is New York threatened, but as the letter points out, the beautiful Delaware River, which supplies Philadelphia with most of its drinking water, also lies in the path of polluted run-off from the method of drilling used to extract gas from far beneath the surface.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Letter To Chesapeake Energy Re: Marcellus Shale
Welcome to Gracenomics. I'm opening with the theme of drilling in New York's and Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus Shale. Recently, one of the major industry players, Chesapeake Energy, announced that it would not be doing any development within the New York City watershed, although it is the sole gas leaseholder of properties there. The announcement was taken by many city dwellers as an admission that hydrofracking poses a danger to drinking water. Today, Mayor Bloomberg joined the rising throngs opposing its use. I give grudging credit to Chesapeake for helping to bring that about.
Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia and other mayors should be urged to oppose fracking wherever their communities' water supply may be at risk. Here's what I wrote to Chesapeake's CEO last week:
"December 11, 2009
Mr. Aubrey McClendon
Chesapeake Energy Corporation
Post Office Box 18496
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73154-0496
Dear Mr. McClendon:
As a part-time resident of New York City, I was very happy to learn that Chesapeake Energy voluntarily decided not to drill for natural gas in the City’s watershed, owing to concerns about water contamination. As you know, you are several steps greener than our Department of Environmental Conservation in that regard.
I am also a part-time resident of Sullivan County, New York, below the watershed but less than two miles, as the bird flies and the water flows, from the Upper Delaware River. Next door to me is a hunting parcel that has been leased to Chesapeake-Appalachia LLC, which I take to be a wholly-owned Chesapeake Energy subsidiary. Most of the groundwater on the particular parcel flows across and under mine, as it does those of my lateral neighbors, and, during seasonal flooding, it gushes without any filtration into the Delaware. I have personally tracked it doing so. I surmise that the same can be said of the water on and under virtually any property in this hilly, wet region that is within a few short miles of the river on either side.
I am concerned, of course, for my own water well in the event that natural gas drilling takes place next to me. But the river itself provides drinking water, I’m told, to some 18 million people, even more than the New York watershed does. Philadelphia is just now waking up to the possibility of contamination from gas drilling. You would win millions more fans if you would make the same pledge to them that you made to Gotham.
The Delaware, of course, is vital not only as a drinking water source but as a federally designated Wild and Scenic River and a recreational resource. I would like to propose a protection zone from drilling of three to five miles from the river’s edge, and hope you would find such a gesture appealing and worthwhile. Wishing you success in your commercial ventures and your pro-environment initiatives, I am
Sincerely yours,"
Posted by Grace at 10:59 AM
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Letter To Chesapeake Energy Re: Marcellus Shale
Welcome to Gracenomics. I'm opening with the theme of drilling in New York's and Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus Shale. Recently, one of the major industry players, Chesapeake Energy, announced that it would not be doing any development within the New York City watershed, although it is the sole gas leaseholder of properties there. The announcement was taken by many city dwellers as an admission that hydrofracking poses a danger to drinking water. Today, Mayor Bloomberg joined the rising throngs opposing its use. I give grudging credit to Chesapeake for helping to bring that about.
Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia and other mayors should be urged to oppose fracking wherever their communities' water supply may be at risk. Here's what I wrote to Chesapeake's CEO last week:
"December 11, 2009
Mr. Aubrey McClendon
Chesapeake Energy Corporation
Post Office Box 18496
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73154-0496
Dear Mr. McClendon:
As a part-time resident of New York City, I was very happy to learn that Chesapeake Energy voluntarily decided not to drill for natural gas in the City’s watershed, owing to concerns about water contamination. As you know, you are several steps greener than our Department of Environmental Conservation in that regard.
I am also a part-time resident of Sullivan County, New York, below the watershed but less than two miles, as the bird flies and the water flows, from the Upper Delaware River. Next door to me is a hunting parcel that has been leased to Chesapeake-Appalachia LLC, which I take to be a wholly-owned Chesapeake Energy subsidiary. Most of the groundwater on the particular parcel flows across and under mine, as it does those of my lateral neighbors, and, during seasonal flooding, it gushes without any filtration into the Delaware. I have personally tracked it doing so. I surmise that the same can be said of the water on and under virtually any property in this hilly, wet region that is within a few short miles of the river on either side.
I am concerned, of course, for my own water well in the event that natural gas drilling takes place next to me. But the river itself provides drinking water, I’m told, to some 18 million people, even more than the New York watershed does. Philadelphia is just now waking up to the possibility of contamination from gas drilling. You would win millions more fans if you would make the same pledge to them that you made to Gotham.
The Delaware, of course, is vital not only as a drinking water source but as a federally designated Wild and Scenic River and a recreational resource. I would like to propose a protection zone from drilling of three to five miles from the river’s edge, and hope you would find such a gesture appealing and worthwhile. Wishing you success in your commercial ventures and your pro-environment initiatives, I am
Sincerely yours,"
Posted by Grace at 10:59 AM
Friday, April 24, 2009
Marcellus Shale Letters
I received the following two letters from a friend who has a summer home in New York's Catskill mountains. Her property sits atop The Marcellus Shale, a huge Devonian geologic formation that contains ( potentially ) billions of cubic feet of natural gas. To extract the gas from the rock formation they most be "fraced"(hydraulic fracturing ) using water injected at high pressure. Naturally there are formidable environmental consequences to the use of this process. Local, State and Federal government agencies charged with regulating such activity have been quite hesitant to impose proper controls because of the huge amount of taxes that would flow to their coffers. They use the excuse that extracting this gas will go a long way to making the U.S. energy independent. Aside from the dubious truth of this statement, the price paid would be the moon-scaping of large parts of New York, Pennsylvania and many other states the contain The Marcellus Shale.
Also, many individual property owners are not raising their voices because they have sold leases for their property to be fraced and stand to gain considerable royalties if gas is found. But the problem goes far beyond the immediate areas atop the shale. The vast amounts of water to be used in eastern New York, for example, will overflow into the Delaware River, the major source of water for the Philadelphia metro area and a signficant part of New York City. The chemicals used in the fracing process would then flow in into river, making the water untreatable for potability. Here are the letters, which contain further information about what I've termed, The Quiet Disaster.
From: gracewildhack@yahoo.com
Subject: Fw: Regulation gone wrong: the DEC on gas drilling
Date: April 24, 2009 2:26:22 PM EDT
To: rudy@posterappraisal.com
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: grace van hulsteyn
To: editor@riverreporter.com
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 12:13:51 PM
Subject: Regulation gone wrong: the DEC on gas drilling
Dear Editor: I am a retired attorney with a home in the
Catskills. The letter below was mailed Tuesday to the named officials
of New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, concerning what
I believe to be its corrupted stance on proposed natural gas drilling
in the Marcellus Shale. Below the letter is an earlier letter dated
September 22, 2008, which is referenced therein, and which sets forth
the legal basis of my complaint. If you have questions, please e-mail
me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grace van Hulsteyn
364 New Turnpike Road
Cochecton, New York 12726
April 21, 2009
Alexander Grannis, Commissioner
Jack Dahl, Oil & Gas Bureau Chief
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, New York 12233
Dear Messrs. Grannis and Dahl:
I wrote to you last September, reproaching the Department for its
support and encouragement of the Marcellus gas play, contrary to its
statutory mandate and despite the environmental dangers posed by
high-volume hydrofracturing. If you have forgotten my letter, I am
enclosing a copy. I note that the misstated purpose clause in the
NYCRR that I drew to your attention still stands uncorrected after
seven months. .Your sole response to my letter was by way of a flyer
directing my attention to the first draft scope for the supplemental
GEIS that the Governor had ordered. I read it and submitted my
critical comments.
Now that you have heard from many
hundreds of articulate citizens who have voiced their fears for their
families’ health and safety, their land, their livelihoods, their homes
and their communities, – those things it is your statutory mandate to
protect – it is even more troubling that the “final scope” of the
scope adheres to the same “don’t worry, be happy” theme.
It
would have been heartening to read, in Part 7, that you plan to review
such alternative courses of action as phasing in gas development and
even banning it, had you not in the preceding Parts reiterated your
stubborn conviction that the process is essentially benign and that
your procedures will prevent all harm from occurring. That tells us
you will not be doing any serious rethinking unless and until something
confounding or apocalyptic happens. In the meantime, the new scope
still offers no protection to private water wells, the predominant
drinking water sources in the region, and it perpetuates the wishful
fiction that “the practice ( of casing and cementing) eliminates the
possibility of ...contaminants contacting ground water”. As you
surely know by now, geologists who recently examined several newly
contaminated water wells near a Cabot exploration at Dimock,
Pennsylvania, have had to conclude otherwise. And what happened at
Dimock was already prefigured by numerous contaminations in Colorado
and other states. The Pennsylvania geologists are still scratching
their heads as to how that methane could have migrated. You should be
scratching yours, and returning to the drawing board. Please, let us
not wait for an apocalypse.
At times when the Department has
chosen to, it has acted as a serious, science-minded defender of the
environment. Recently, the subject was the NYRI power line. In
January more than a dozen DEC biologists and other specialists took the
time to appear and give testimony before the Public Service Commission
on the impacts of the proposed line upon surface water, wetlands,
wildlife, and the environmental quality of the region. They expressed
their concerns about forest fragmentation (Mr Rudge), trout stream
disturbance (Mr. Ferracane), erosion and water turbidity (Mr. Eaton),
and more. Power lines are ugly; they hum, they divide the landscape,
they reduce property values, they may have health impacts. Next to
the gas play, however, NYRI is an environmental piker. Its power line
would not foul the air, divert precious water supplies, or crisscross
the landscape with truck trails and pipelines. It would not create toxic waste, or contaminatewells (or soil or surface water), or bang the eardrum 24/7. Now that
we are faced with these far greater environmental challenges, we’re
being told that we, the water, and the forests will be fine and that
micro-management by the Department will protect us.
These
positions on NYRI and the gas play are irreconcilable. If a power line
will fragment the forests and threaten wildlife habitat, why won’t
active 2- to 10-acre wellpads do so, especially at an allowable density
of 16 per square mile? If power lines will endanger trout streams,
won’t humongous water draws do so? And migrating methane? And toxic
wastes which, under current federal and New York law, are exempt from
treatment as hazardous wastes? What is to be gained by protecting the
environment from one kind of developer like NYRI and then delivering
it into the hands of another, like Cabot? For that matter, what is
the point of SEQRA and of environmental review powers at any
governmental level if environments that have been saved by them may
now be trampled by Big Gas?
The ECL is not to blame
for this disconnect, as the legislature made abundantly clear when it
amended the Declaration of Policy for oil and gas in 1987. Nothing in
the law contemplates that standards of environmental protection which
the Department knows to be appropriate may be downgraded on the basis
of a cost-benefit analysis or a national energy shortage. Those
concerns are appropriate to the State Treasury and the Energy
Department, but they are not the bodies charged with the management of
the gas play. You are. Because the Department is the lead agency in
the permitting process, it is obligated under the law to adopt the same
defensive posture in the gas play that it has shown in other
situations, and in due proportion to the many-faceted risks that it
presents.
Properly, permits for high-volume hydraulic
fracturing as now contemplated should be off the table until science
and experience can demonstrate that the process is safe for the
environment and human health. If the Department cannot wait for that,
then it must grasp the reins and direct the development itself. This
will mean adopting the phased-in permitting approach which you have
said you will consider. You will win back some lost respect and be
off to a good start if you limit initial exploration to sites that are
substantially distant from habitations and water sources. If you do
that, then you and the rest of us will be better able to assess the
true scope of the risks in advance of serious impacts. I don’t know
who could legitimately quarrel with that approach.
Sincerely,
cc: Congressman Maurice Hinchey
Senator John Bonacic
Senator Charles Schumer
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther
Councilman James Gennaro
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grace van Hulsteyn
364 New Turnpike Road
Cochecton, New York 12726
September 22, 2008
Alexander Grannis, Commissioner
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, New York 12233
Re: DEC role in gas drilling
Dear Commissioner Grannis:
I am a retired attorney and the owner of an improved five-acre parcel
in Cochecton, New York. Like many people of this Catskill region, I
have grave concerns about the potential impact upon life and health
posed by the advent of natural gas drilling. Like them, I have heard
and seen many consistent reports from areas near drilling sites in the
West where the same state-of-the-art fracture techniques expected to be
used here, inclusive of noxious chemical agents, have been used. The
reports detail the despoliation of the landscape, toxicity in the
water, foul air, an uncommonly high incidence of illness and damage to
bodily organs, and round-the-clock clangor and tumult. We demand more
than lip-service assurances that the same will not happen here, and the
DEC is apparently the sole body to which we can turn.
What
distresses me most is the position the DEC has openly taken on the gas
issue. Notwithstanding the careful language on its website, Director
Brad Field has plainly stated at a number of meetings that the
Department’s mandate under the Environmental Conservation Law (“ECL”)
is maximizing the recovery of gas. That this is genuinely the
Department’s position is borne out by its sponsorship of the 2008
amendment to the ECL which includes gas-friendly provisions directed at
eliminating untappable zones between spacing units, even while they
bring wellheads and wellbores closer to homes outside the spacing units
than was previously permissible. In furtherance of what I submit is
its mistaken mandate to assist development, the DEC apparently stands
ready to begin issuing drilling permits in the coming months, without
having put our concerns to rest. This will be a travesty, as well as a
breach of the public trust, as the DEC is the
appointed
trustee of the state’s environment under the ECL and its actual mandate is something completely different.
For whatever reason, the current Code of Rules and Regulations, to
which the Department looks to interpret the ECL for regulatory
purposes, continues to show the Department’s principal oil and gas
objective to be “the fostering, encouragement and promotion of the
development... of oil and gas in such a manner as will prevent waste.”
(6 NYCRR §550.1). This language cannot Alexander Grannis, P. 2
serve
as support for any development-oriented mandate because in 1987 the
legislature deleted it from its source, the first clause of the
Declaration of Policy at Section 23-0301 of the ECL, and substituted
the word “regulate” for “foster, encourage and promote”, See Laws of
1987, chapter 396. In the same chapter it transferred the language
“foster, encourage and promote” to the Energy Law.
It is
important that the mandates of the DEC and the State Energy Department
not be confused. The DEC’s role is to serve as a check on
development. Its powers under the ECL to issue permits, designate
spacing units and oversee the gas extraction process are to be
exercised not to make development efficient but to carry out the
agency’s true mandate, set out in Title 1 of the ECL: “ to conserve,
improve and protect [the State’s] natural resources and environment
and control water, land and air pollution in order to enhance the
health, safety and welfare of the people of the state and their overall
economic and social well being” and the other goals expressed in that
Title.
Title 1 applies to each and every Article of the ECL;
hence, the language of §23-0301 setting the policy for oil and gas,
must itself be read in such a manner as to be reconcilable with Title
1. It is thus error to read the second clause of §23-0301 as calling
for any encouragement or enhancement of gas extraction at all, much
less where the rights of the parties that the Department is bound by
the same clause to fully protect are placed at risk. I submit that the
wording “to authorize and provide for the operation and development of
oil and gas properties in such a manner that a greater ultimate
recovery of oil and gas may be had” merely carries forth the concern
about waste that is expressed in the first clause. The word “ultimate”
is key. The definitions of waste set forth in §23-0101.include
improper “locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating or
producing” which reduce or tend to reduce the quantity of oil or
gas that is
“ ultimately recoverable”. Gas is wasted where, in the extraction
process, it is allowed to escape into places from which it can never be
harvested. Gas left imprisoned in the shale remains conserved and
ultimately recoverable. That its recovery at a later time might not be
economical is not the statute’s concern, and it is not a proper concern
of the DEC.
The obvious point of the above is that the
DEC should be reordering its priorities. It should be contemplating
this gas rush defensively and with utmost caution, not enabling it at
risk to the environment and the people. This is so not only because
the Department’s current stance contravenes its proper mandate under
the ECL but because the Department is clearly unprepared for an
onslaught of the anticipated magnitude of this one and the potential
harm it poses. Our citizens cannot accept “learn as you go” regulation
where people get sick during the learning process, nor will the
Department be forgiven if the beautiful Catskills are traded off for
the value of the gas underneath them. We are not persuaded that a tiny
force of 19 inspectors statewide will be capable of effectively
monitoring tens of thousands of present and future wells so as to
prevent local disasters and keep our water and air clean.
I
am urging you on behalf of all the people whose health, safety and
well-being may be in your hands, to hold off on issuance of permits
for any drilling employing the techniques and Alexander Grannis, p. 3
materials
which gave rise to the environmental and health complaints reported in
the West, until such time as the hazards have been scientifically
eliminated and effective enforcement is in place to assure compliance
by the gas companies. Nothing less than that will do.
Sincerely,
cc: Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Hillary Clinton
Representative Jerrold Nadler
Representative Maurice Hinchey
Senator John Bonacic
Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther
Jack Dahl , Bureau Chief, Oil & Gas
Also, many individual property owners are not raising their voices because they have sold leases for their property to be fraced and stand to gain considerable royalties if gas is found. But the problem goes far beyond the immediate areas atop the shale. The vast amounts of water to be used in eastern New York, for example, will overflow into the Delaware River, the major source of water for the Philadelphia metro area and a signficant part of New York City. The chemicals used in the fracing process would then flow in into river, making the water untreatable for potability. Here are the letters, which contain further information about what I've termed, The Quiet Disaster.
From: gracewildhack@yahoo.com
Subject: Fw: Regulation gone wrong: the DEC on gas drilling
Date: April 24, 2009 2:26:22 PM EDT
To: rudy@posterappraisal.com
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: grace van hulsteyn
To: editor@riverreporter.com
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 12:13:51 PM
Subject: Regulation gone wrong: the DEC on gas drilling
Dear Editor: I am a retired attorney with a home in the
Catskills. The letter below was mailed Tuesday to the named officials
of New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, concerning what
I believe to be its corrupted stance on proposed natural gas drilling
in the Marcellus Shale. Below the letter is an earlier letter dated
September 22, 2008, which is referenced therein, and which sets forth
the legal basis of my complaint. If you have questions, please e-mail
me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grace van Hulsteyn
364 New Turnpike Road
Cochecton, New York 12726
April 21, 2009
Alexander Grannis, Commissioner
Jack Dahl, Oil & Gas Bureau Chief
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, New York 12233
Dear Messrs. Grannis and Dahl:
I wrote to you last September, reproaching the Department for its
support and encouragement of the Marcellus gas play, contrary to its
statutory mandate and despite the environmental dangers posed by
high-volume hydrofracturing. If you have forgotten my letter, I am
enclosing a copy. I note that the misstated purpose clause in the
NYCRR that I drew to your attention still stands uncorrected after
seven months. .Your sole response to my letter was by way of a flyer
directing my attention to the first draft scope for the supplemental
GEIS that the Governor had ordered. I read it and submitted my
critical comments.
Now that you have heard from many
hundreds of articulate citizens who have voiced their fears for their
families’ health and safety, their land, their livelihoods, their homes
and their communities, – those things it is your statutory mandate to
protect – it is even more troubling that the “final scope” of the
scope adheres to the same “don’t worry, be happy” theme.
It
would have been heartening to read, in Part 7, that you plan to review
such alternative courses of action as phasing in gas development and
even banning it, had you not in the preceding Parts reiterated your
stubborn conviction that the process is essentially benign and that
your procedures will prevent all harm from occurring. That tells us
you will not be doing any serious rethinking unless and until something
confounding or apocalyptic happens. In the meantime, the new scope
still offers no protection to private water wells, the predominant
drinking water sources in the region, and it perpetuates the wishful
fiction that “the practice ( of casing and cementing) eliminates the
possibility of ...contaminants contacting ground water”. As you
surely know by now, geologists who recently examined several newly
contaminated water wells near a Cabot exploration at Dimock,
Pennsylvania, have had to conclude otherwise. And what happened at
Dimock was already prefigured by numerous contaminations in Colorado
and other states. The Pennsylvania geologists are still scratching
their heads as to how that methane could have migrated. You should be
scratching yours, and returning to the drawing board. Please, let us
not wait for an apocalypse.
At times when the Department has
chosen to, it has acted as a serious, science-minded defender of the
environment. Recently, the subject was the NYRI power line. In
January more than a dozen DEC biologists and other specialists took the
time to appear and give testimony before the Public Service Commission
on the impacts of the proposed line upon surface water, wetlands,
wildlife, and the environmental quality of the region. They expressed
their concerns about forest fragmentation (Mr Rudge), trout stream
disturbance (Mr. Ferracane), erosion and water turbidity (Mr. Eaton),
and more. Power lines are ugly; they hum, they divide the landscape,
they reduce property values, they may have health impacts. Next to
the gas play, however, NYRI is an environmental piker. Its power line
would not foul the air, divert precious water supplies, or crisscross
the landscape with truck trails and pipelines. It would not create toxic waste, or contaminatewells (or soil or surface water), or bang the eardrum 24/7. Now that
we are faced with these far greater environmental challenges, we’re
being told that we, the water, and the forests will be fine and that
micro-management by the Department will protect us.
These
positions on NYRI and the gas play are irreconcilable. If a power line
will fragment the forests and threaten wildlife habitat, why won’t
active 2- to 10-acre wellpads do so, especially at an allowable density
of 16 per square mile? If power lines will endanger trout streams,
won’t humongous water draws do so? And migrating methane? And toxic
wastes which, under current federal and New York law, are exempt from
treatment as hazardous wastes? What is to be gained by protecting the
environment from one kind of developer like NYRI and then delivering
it into the hands of another, like Cabot? For that matter, what is
the point of SEQRA and of environmental review powers at any
governmental level if environments that have been saved by them may
now be trampled by Big Gas?
The ECL is not to blame
for this disconnect, as the legislature made abundantly clear when it
amended the Declaration of Policy for oil and gas in 1987. Nothing in
the law contemplates that standards of environmental protection which
the Department knows to be appropriate may be downgraded on the basis
of a cost-benefit analysis or a national energy shortage. Those
concerns are appropriate to the State Treasury and the Energy
Department, but they are not the bodies charged with the management of
the gas play. You are. Because the Department is the lead agency in
the permitting process, it is obligated under the law to adopt the same
defensive posture in the gas play that it has shown in other
situations, and in due proportion to the many-faceted risks that it
presents.
Properly, permits for high-volume hydraulic
fracturing as now contemplated should be off the table until science
and experience can demonstrate that the process is safe for the
environment and human health. If the Department cannot wait for that,
then it must grasp the reins and direct the development itself. This
will mean adopting the phased-in permitting approach which you have
said you will consider. You will win back some lost respect and be
off to a good start if you limit initial exploration to sites that are
substantially distant from habitations and water sources. If you do
that, then you and the rest of us will be better able to assess the
true scope of the risks in advance of serious impacts. I don’t know
who could legitimately quarrel with that approach.
Sincerely,
cc: Congressman Maurice Hinchey
Senator John Bonacic
Senator Charles Schumer
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther
Councilman James Gennaro
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grace van Hulsteyn
364 New Turnpike Road
Cochecton, New York 12726
September 22, 2008
Alexander Grannis, Commissioner
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, New York 12233
Re: DEC role in gas drilling
Dear Commissioner Grannis:
I am a retired attorney and the owner of an improved five-acre parcel
in Cochecton, New York. Like many people of this Catskill region, I
have grave concerns about the potential impact upon life and health
posed by the advent of natural gas drilling. Like them, I have heard
and seen many consistent reports from areas near drilling sites in the
West where the same state-of-the-art fracture techniques expected to be
used here, inclusive of noxious chemical agents, have been used. The
reports detail the despoliation of the landscape, toxicity in the
water, foul air, an uncommonly high incidence of illness and damage to
bodily organs, and round-the-clock clangor and tumult. We demand more
than lip-service assurances that the same will not happen here, and the
DEC is apparently the sole body to which we can turn.
What
distresses me most is the position the DEC has openly taken on the gas
issue. Notwithstanding the careful language on its website, Director
Brad Field has plainly stated at a number of meetings that the
Department’s mandate under the Environmental Conservation Law (“ECL”)
is maximizing the recovery of gas. That this is genuinely the
Department’s position is borne out by its sponsorship of the 2008
amendment to the ECL which includes gas-friendly provisions directed at
eliminating untappable zones between spacing units, even while they
bring wellheads and wellbores closer to homes outside the spacing units
than was previously permissible. In furtherance of what I submit is
its mistaken mandate to assist development, the DEC apparently stands
ready to begin issuing drilling permits in the coming months, without
having put our concerns to rest. This will be a travesty, as well as a
breach of the public trust, as the DEC is the
appointed
trustee of the state’s environment under the ECL and its actual mandate is something completely different.
For whatever reason, the current Code of Rules and Regulations, to
which the Department looks to interpret the ECL for regulatory
purposes, continues to show the Department’s principal oil and gas
objective to be “the fostering, encouragement and promotion of the
development... of oil and gas in such a manner as will prevent waste.”
(6 NYCRR §550.1). This language cannot Alexander Grannis, P. 2
serve
as support for any development-oriented mandate because in 1987 the
legislature deleted it from its source, the first clause of the
Declaration of Policy at Section 23-0301 of the ECL, and substituted
the word “regulate” for “foster, encourage and promote”, See Laws of
1987, chapter 396. In the same chapter it transferred the language
“foster, encourage and promote” to the Energy Law.
It is
important that the mandates of the DEC and the State Energy Department
not be confused. The DEC’s role is to serve as a check on
development. Its powers under the ECL to issue permits, designate
spacing units and oversee the gas extraction process are to be
exercised not to make development efficient but to carry out the
agency’s true mandate, set out in Title 1 of the ECL: “ to conserve,
improve and protect [the State’s] natural resources and environment
and control water, land and air pollution in order to enhance the
health, safety and welfare of the people of the state and their overall
economic and social well being” and the other goals expressed in that
Title.
Title 1 applies to each and every Article of the ECL;
hence, the language of §23-0301 setting the policy for oil and gas,
must itself be read in such a manner as to be reconcilable with Title
1. It is thus error to read the second clause of §23-0301 as calling
for any encouragement or enhancement of gas extraction at all, much
less where the rights of the parties that the Department is bound by
the same clause to fully protect are placed at risk. I submit that the
wording “to authorize and provide for the operation and development of
oil and gas properties in such a manner that a greater ultimate
recovery of oil and gas may be had” merely carries forth the concern
about waste that is expressed in the first clause. The word “ultimate”
is key. The definitions of waste set forth in §23-0101.include
improper “locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating or
producing” which reduce or tend to reduce the quantity of oil or
gas that is
“ ultimately recoverable”. Gas is wasted where, in the extraction
process, it is allowed to escape into places from which it can never be
harvested. Gas left imprisoned in the shale remains conserved and
ultimately recoverable. That its recovery at a later time might not be
economical is not the statute’s concern, and it is not a proper concern
of the DEC.
The obvious point of the above is that the
DEC should be reordering its priorities. It should be contemplating
this gas rush defensively and with utmost caution, not enabling it at
risk to the environment and the people. This is so not only because
the Department’s current stance contravenes its proper mandate under
the ECL but because the Department is clearly unprepared for an
onslaught of the anticipated magnitude of this one and the potential
harm it poses. Our citizens cannot accept “learn as you go” regulation
where people get sick during the learning process, nor will the
Department be forgiven if the beautiful Catskills are traded off for
the value of the gas underneath them. We are not persuaded that a tiny
force of 19 inspectors statewide will be capable of effectively
monitoring tens of thousands of present and future wells so as to
prevent local disasters and keep our water and air clean.
I
am urging you on behalf of all the people whose health, safety and
well-being may be in your hands, to hold off on issuance of permits
for any drilling employing the techniques and Alexander Grannis, p. 3
materials
which gave rise to the environmental and health complaints reported in
the West, until such time as the hazards have been scientifically
eliminated and effective enforcement is in place to assure compliance
by the gas companies. Nothing less than that will do.
Sincerely,
cc: Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Hillary Clinton
Representative Jerrold Nadler
Representative Maurice Hinchey
Senator John Bonacic
Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther
Jack Dahl , Bureau Chief, Oil & Gas
Saturday, September 08, 2007
MYSTERY REVIEW SITE NOMINATED FOR ANTHONY
Los Angeles, CA - 8 Sept -- The internet crime fiction review web site,
www.reviewingtheevidence.com has been nominated for an Anthony Award, to be presented at the upcoming gathering of hundreds of mystery writers, editors and fans, Bouchercon. The event will take place this year September 27 - 30 in Anchorage, Alaska.
The six year old site is a totally cyber entity. It’s editor, Sharon Wheeler, works from Cheltenham, England, where she is also teaches journalism at the University of Gloucestershire. The site’s founder and publisher, Barbara Franchi, lives in Los Angeles, which is also her home base for her travels as a contributor to the PBS series, Antiques Roadshow. The site’s reviews are written by a team of authors, librarians and mystery aficionados scattered across the U.S. and around the globe.
The Anthony Awards, named after famed mystery writer, editor and founder of the Mystery Writers of America, Anthony Boucher, are among the most prestigious in a genre that was once a quiet backwater of the literary world, but now regularly produces books that dominate the best seller lists.
Nominated in the Special Services category, the site presents at least a dozen new reviews each week while maintaing a complete archive of its earlier critiques.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Contact: rudy franchi
rudy@firedog.cc
310 360 0830
http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com
www.reviewingtheevidence.com has been nominated for an Anthony Award, to be presented at the upcoming gathering of hundreds of mystery writers, editors and fans, Bouchercon. The event will take place this year September 27 - 30 in Anchorage, Alaska.
The six year old site is a totally cyber entity. It’s editor, Sharon Wheeler, works from Cheltenham, England, where she is also teaches journalism at the University of Gloucestershire. The site’s founder and publisher, Barbara Franchi, lives in Los Angeles, which is also her home base for her travels as a contributor to the PBS series, Antiques Roadshow. The site’s reviews are written by a team of authors, librarians and mystery aficionados scattered across the U.S. and around the globe.
The Anthony Awards, named after famed mystery writer, editor and founder of the Mystery Writers of America, Anthony Boucher, are among the most prestigious in a genre that was once a quiet backwater of the literary world, but now regularly produces books that dominate the best seller lists.
Nominated in the Special Services category, the site presents at least a dozen new reviews each week while maintaing a complete archive of its earlier critiques.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Contact: rudy franchi
rudy@firedog.cc
310 360 0830
http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com
Sunday, November 12, 2006
POSTER NEWS BULLETIN
BONHAM’S/HERITAGE/WEB SITES
Auction news plus some web site recommendations make up the bulk of this issue. First, Bonham’s L.A. will be holding a movie memorabilia sale on 17 December. Along with the usual Hollywood high end garage sale detritus is a selection of movie posters. Most are the last batch from the Louis Leithold holdings (this is part III of the disposal of the late collectors’ hoard.) They will be offered without reserve and many in batches that should tempt some dealers to add to their inventory. Also featured is yet another 6 sheet ( 81 x 81 inches ) for The Outlaw starring Jane Russell. This one, as with the several others that have surfaced over the past few years, is from the furtive1943 showing of the film in San Francisco. Controversy has plagued this poster since its first appearance at Christie’s South Ken when it was declared the only known copy until it was revealed that the consignors had five more copies and then further rumored that the owners had destroyed the other four to preserve the value of the one being offered. On the day of the auction a lawyer crafted statement stating that this was the only copy “known to the consignors” was read out to the audience. It sold that day for $80,000. Another version showed up at Christie’s New York (in poor condition) and sold for $33,000. As with the one on offer in December (which bears a pre sale estimate of $15,000 to $20,000), this was stated as being from a different source than the Christie’s South Ken version. For further information: Go here
November 14 and 15 are the dates for the Heritage movie poster auction in Dallas. The sale contains over a thousand lots and its 300 page catalog is an excellent reference work (its annotated listings contain reams of off-beat and valuable information.) Among the highlights: the style B half sheet (28 x 22 inches) for War Of The Worlds (1953.) It carries an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000 and it the only U.S. art on the film that portrays the invading Martian space craft. There is also an amazing half sheet form Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956); an insert ( 14 x 36 inches) for The Thing (1951), perhaps the best art on this title; a lobby card (14 x 11) for the U.S. release by Paramount of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927); the one sheet ( 27 x 41) for Forbidden Planet (1956) and the large format (23 x 33) lenticular of the space wheel image from 2001 (1968.) These are just a handful of listings from the sci-fi section of the sale. There is a whole section of major horror titles, some super Disney material (including the one sheet (27 x 41) lenticular for Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), plus Marx Brothers material, film noir, westerns, silent material and on and on. The sale also contains the only known one sheet for the original 1941 release of The Outlaw. The film was pulled just before hitting theatres because Hughes would not allow the cuts that were demanded by censors. The official release was in 1946 (and there’s a one sheet for that also in the sale), but, as stated above, there were abortive attempts to put it before the public in between those dates.
Detailed information on the sale and the entire catalog with images, can be viewed here
One of the new found joys of the internet are blogs and one of the best movie blogs around is here Dave is a well known film critic and historian who writes the DVD column for the NY Times. This weekly screed on new releases had become a must read for those interested in older films. He presents a wealth of detail about the films, directors and stars featured in the increasingly sophisticated and arcane packages being put out by a handful of companies who have gone to heroic lengths to preserve and present some major movie material. Those columns are presented on his blog plus reviews of recent releases and a fascinating chain of comments by some pretty savvy cineastes. Dave is also a long time movie poster collector and author on the subject. His book on the Italian film paper fills a huge gap in the literature on our hobby.
Having sold my business last year, finished my novel, done with Roadshow until late next Spring and seeking some way to avoid starting the sequel to the first book, I launched a web sitehere that offers free evaluation of movie posters (as well as war, travel, music and advertising posters.)
We’re back in L.A. after a two month stay in London. This weekend we are off to Las Vegas. Daughter Regina is doing some promotional work on the Comic Relief taping and Barbara and I get to see the Beatles show, Love. We are going to spend the Holidays in California, visit DisneyWorld in January and then head back to London so as not to miss the misty, damp and chilly British Winter I enjoy so much. Regards, until next time, rudy franchi
BONHAM’S/HERITAGE/WEB SITES
Auction news plus some web site recommendations make up the bulk of this issue. First, Bonham’s L.A. will be holding a movie memorabilia sale on 17 December. Along with the usual Hollywood high end garage sale detritus is a selection of movie posters. Most are the last batch from the Louis Leithold holdings (this is part III of the disposal of the late collectors’ hoard.) They will be offered without reserve and many in batches that should tempt some dealers to add to their inventory. Also featured is yet another 6 sheet ( 81 x 81 inches ) for The Outlaw starring Jane Russell. This one, as with the several others that have surfaced over the past few years, is from the furtive1943 showing of the film in San Francisco. Controversy has plagued this poster since its first appearance at Christie’s South Ken when it was declared the only known copy until it was revealed that the consignors had five more copies and then further rumored that the owners had destroyed the other four to preserve the value of the one being offered. On the day of the auction a lawyer crafted statement stating that this was the only copy “known to the consignors” was read out to the audience. It sold that day for $80,000. Another version showed up at Christie’s New York (in poor condition) and sold for $33,000. As with the one on offer in December (which bears a pre sale estimate of $15,000 to $20,000), this was stated as being from a different source than the Christie’s South Ken version. For further information: Go here
November 14 and 15 are the dates for the Heritage movie poster auction in Dallas. The sale contains over a thousand lots and its 300 page catalog is an excellent reference work (its annotated listings contain reams of off-beat and valuable information.) Among the highlights: the style B half sheet (28 x 22 inches) for War Of The Worlds (1953.) It carries an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000 and it the only U.S. art on the film that portrays the invading Martian space craft. There is also an amazing half sheet form Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956); an insert ( 14 x 36 inches) for The Thing (1951), perhaps the best art on this title; a lobby card (14 x 11) for the U.S. release by Paramount of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927); the one sheet ( 27 x 41) for Forbidden Planet (1956) and the large format (23 x 33) lenticular of the space wheel image from 2001 (1968.) These are just a handful of listings from the sci-fi section of the sale. There is a whole section of major horror titles, some super Disney material (including the one sheet (27 x 41) lenticular for Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), plus Marx Brothers material, film noir, westerns, silent material and on and on. The sale also contains the only known one sheet for the original 1941 release of The Outlaw. The film was pulled just before hitting theatres because Hughes would not allow the cuts that were demanded by censors. The official release was in 1946 (and there’s a one sheet for that also in the sale), but, as stated above, there were abortive attempts to put it before the public in between those dates.
Detailed information on the sale and the entire catalog with images, can be viewed here
One of the new found joys of the internet are blogs and one of the best movie blogs around is here Dave is a well known film critic and historian who writes the DVD column for the NY Times. This weekly screed on new releases had become a must read for those interested in older films. He presents a wealth of detail about the films, directors and stars featured in the increasingly sophisticated and arcane packages being put out by a handful of companies who have gone to heroic lengths to preserve and present some major movie material. Those columns are presented on his blog plus reviews of recent releases and a fascinating chain of comments by some pretty savvy cineastes. Dave is also a long time movie poster collector and author on the subject. His book on the Italian film paper fills a huge gap in the literature on our hobby.
Having sold my business last year, finished my novel, done with Roadshow until late next Spring and seeking some way to avoid starting the sequel to the first book, I launched a web sitehere that offers free evaluation of movie posters (as well as war, travel, music and advertising posters.)
We’re back in L.A. after a two month stay in London. This weekend we are off to Las Vegas. Daughter Regina is doing some promotional work on the Comic Relief taping and Barbara and I get to see the Beatles show, Love. We are going to spend the Holidays in California, visit DisneyWorld in January and then head back to London so as not to miss the misty, damp and chilly British Winter I enjoy so much. Regards, until next time, rudy franchi
Monday, October 23, 2006
New Poster Appraisal Site
Now that my novel is finished and in the editing stage, I've had time to launch Poster Appraisal.Com http://www.posterappraisal.com an informatioin site for both movie and non movie (travel, war, etc.) posters. Basically, I'm offering free appraisals and a bit of advice about marketing. Only the first page is up -- poster size info, links, etc. will be coming next week.
If anyone on the board wants to trade links, let me know. (rudy@posterappraisal.com)
Also, I'm winding myself up tighter than 10 one sheets in a 2 inch tube in prepartation to letting loose with another Poster News Bulletin. This one will comment on the recent Christie's auction and the upcoming Heritage and Hollywood Poster Auction sales.
Regards, rudy franchi
If anyone on the board wants to trade links, let me know. (rudy@posterappraisal.com)
Also, I'm winding myself up tighter than 10 one sheets in a 2 inch tube in prepartation to letting loose with another Poster News Bulletin. This one will comment on the recent Christie's auction and the upcoming Heritage and Hollywood Poster Auction sales.
Regards, rudy franchi
Friday, June 23, 2006
POSTER NEWS BULLETIN; BONHAMS/HERITAGE
It was with trepidation that I opened the catalog for the upcoming ( June 25/26) movie poster sale at Bonhams in L.A. The chattering cineastes (especially the Morons Of Poster Obsession) had been filling cyber space with criticisms of the accuracy of the listings: re-releases had been listed as original release and sizes and conditions had been misstated and on and on. The catalog had taken awhile to reach me since it had traveled to several of my more recent addresses, finally discovering me unsuccessfully attempting to hide from the demimonde of movie collectors at my lair in the Little israel section of Los Angeles. During that gap in time, I began to wonder what could have come over Margaret Barrett, who was responsible for the sale, along with Greg Shaw and Dana Hawkes.
I had worked with Margaret at Christie’s New York when we put on several movie posters sales together. Greg had organized movie posters sales at Christie’s L.A. including the disposition of the George Cosmatos collection and Dana, of course, had been the head of the department that had put on the spectacularly successful sales at Sotheby’s in New York, working with their consultant Jose Carpio. Could all three of these totally professional experts on all aspects of movie paper lost their senses and put out a catalog rife with errors?
I needn’’t have worried. As I paged through the sales information, I did notice the odd inaccuracy, but not a single movie poster catalog issued in the last 20 years emerged with perfect listings. Auction houses have a routine method of dealing with catalog errors: as they are pointed out, a list is compiled and placed in the sales room while the pre-sale viewing takes place. These days, the corrections are usually made to the on-line catalog on a daily basis. The pressure of meeting catalog deadlines is responsible for most of these errors as is ever present human fallibility. The errors in the Bonham’s catalog were no more egregious then those that I had committed in the catalogs created for the sales at Skinner’s and Christie’s or ones that have appeared in sales at Christie’s London, those at Heritage in Dallas or the mega weekly eBay listings. Once more the idiots of the internet, who are obsessed with he condition of everything and know the value of nothing, had gone into another fit of bitchiness in an attempt to display their supposedly superior knowledge via picayune nit-picking. No wonder we are always disappointed our hobby finds it difficult to spread beyond the few thousand collectors and dealers who co-mingle like one large, incestuous family; with relatives like these, we’ll always remain the West Virginia of entertainment collectibles.
The movie poster section of the sale contains several major items, including the original U.K. program for Metropolis (1927) signed in dedication format by Fritz Lang in 1963. The inscription is to Forrest J. Ackerman, the Keeper Of The Flame for all things cinematic related to horror and science fiction. Another highlight is the original release one sheet (27 x 41 inches) for It Happened One Night (1934.) For the most part, the sale contains a broad range of mid-level posters, lobby card sets and even books, most with reasonable estimates.
The 200 + page catalog contains two other sections of interest: a number of lots devoted to entertainment memorabilia including a strong selection of Orson Welles material and the Vivian Leigh’s presentation script for Gone With The Wind (1939.) This part of the sale also includes rock ‘n roll material, featuring a large amount of Beatles ephemera. The catalog can be viewed online @ www.bonhams.com/us
Next month’s major movie poster is actually three sales by Heritage scheduled to take place July 12th and 13th. Three distinct catalogs have been issued and the movie poster auction contains 900 lots including the Style B one sheet for Citizen Kane (1941), perhaps the best U.S. graphic on the title; both the style A and style B one sheets for Son of Kong (1933); the six sheet (81 x 81 inches) for Dark Passage (1947) and the star of the sale, the original release one sheet for Grand Hotel (1932.) I had brought what was then thought of as the only known copy to the May 2000 sale at Christie’s, New York, where it fetched close to $50,000. It was purchased by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of their program to acquire a one sheet for every Academy Award winning film (their only gap is Cavalcade (1933), so keep an eye out.) The example Heritage is offering surfaced earlier this year on eBay and was quickly withdrawn when the consignor realized that such a major piece needed the special treatment and promotion that could afforded by a large auction house. There is much speculation among movie poster affichionados as to whether the poster can sell within Heritage’s rather broad estimate range ($50,000 -$75,000) without the Academy leading the bidding. But this is a major poster, albeit for a rather poor film. Perhaps the most important aspect of its appearance in the sale is the reinforcement of my new found belief that it is very unlikely only one example of a film poster exists.
The second catalog issued by Heritage is for a selection of over 400 Swedish movie posters, including the one sheet (27.5 x 39.5 inchesl) for The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). The other titles range back to the silent era and the display of images goes a long way to provide much needed information on Sweden’s contribution to film poster art.
The third sale, Lost Hollywood, consists of 150 original examples of special photography by such masters as George Hurrel and Clarence Bull. These are not the run of the mill 8 x 10 glossies shot by a film’s unit photography and found in a publicity departments key set. These are the large format photos shot and often printed by a select group of camera artists who had, from the silent era , developed thecniques and styles that captured and projected to the world the image of glamorous Hollywood. In most cases, only a few of each image were made from the negative since special photographs were sent as exclusives to major newspapers and magazines. Among the highlights of the sale are photos of Boris Karloff, Joan Crawford, the Marx Brothers and Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.
All of the above material can be found @ www.heritagemovieposters.com but as always with material from Heritage, I recommend obtaining the printed catalogs. They are filled with informative comments and are important additions to any movie poster reference library.
I write at the Comfort Inn, Richland, Utah., where I am being held prisoner until I promise to stop saying nasty things about all those nice movie poster collectors. Actually, this is a stopping off point on our way to Salt Lake City, where we tape the second show of the new season of Antiques Roadshow. Last week we drove from L.A. to Tucson, where we taped show #1. We then drove up to Sedona and onto the Grand Canyon for two days of awe. The other day we were at Lake Powell (where the opening to Planet of the Apes was shot) l and on the way back from Salt Lake, we’ll stop off at Boulder Dam. After a break to celebrate our Nation’s independence from just about everybody, we continue the Roadshow tour with stops in Mobile, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Somewhere in there, we’ll grab a week in New York. This year’s Roadshow schedule includes Honolulu, but I had long ago committed to appear at the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention, which is to held in Anaheim this year. We are off to London again in early September. Regards, rudy franchi
I had worked with Margaret at Christie’s New York when we put on several movie posters sales together. Greg had organized movie posters sales at Christie’s L.A. including the disposition of the George Cosmatos collection and Dana, of course, had been the head of the department that had put on the spectacularly successful sales at Sotheby’s in New York, working with their consultant Jose Carpio. Could all three of these totally professional experts on all aspects of movie paper lost their senses and put out a catalog rife with errors?
I needn’’t have worried. As I paged through the sales information, I did notice the odd inaccuracy, but not a single movie poster catalog issued in the last 20 years emerged with perfect listings. Auction houses have a routine method of dealing with catalog errors: as they are pointed out, a list is compiled and placed in the sales room while the pre-sale viewing takes place. These days, the corrections are usually made to the on-line catalog on a daily basis. The pressure of meeting catalog deadlines is responsible for most of these errors as is ever present human fallibility. The errors in the Bonham’s catalog were no more egregious then those that I had committed in the catalogs created for the sales at Skinner’s and Christie’s or ones that have appeared in sales at Christie’s London, those at Heritage in Dallas or the mega weekly eBay listings. Once more the idiots of the internet, who are obsessed with he condition of everything and know the value of nothing, had gone into another fit of bitchiness in an attempt to display their supposedly superior knowledge via picayune nit-picking. No wonder we are always disappointed our hobby finds it difficult to spread beyond the few thousand collectors and dealers who co-mingle like one large, incestuous family; with relatives like these, we’ll always remain the West Virginia of entertainment collectibles.
The movie poster section of the sale contains several major items, including the original U.K. program for Metropolis (1927) signed in dedication format by Fritz Lang in 1963. The inscription is to Forrest J. Ackerman, the Keeper Of The Flame for all things cinematic related to horror and science fiction. Another highlight is the original release one sheet (27 x 41 inches) for It Happened One Night (1934.) For the most part, the sale contains a broad range of mid-level posters, lobby card sets and even books, most with reasonable estimates.
The 200 + page catalog contains two other sections of interest: a number of lots devoted to entertainment memorabilia including a strong selection of Orson Welles material and the Vivian Leigh’s presentation script for Gone With The Wind (1939.) This part of the sale also includes rock ‘n roll material, featuring a large amount of Beatles ephemera. The catalog can be viewed online @ www.bonhams.com/us
Next month’s major movie poster is actually three sales by Heritage scheduled to take place July 12th and 13th. Three distinct catalogs have been issued and the movie poster auction contains 900 lots including the Style B one sheet for Citizen Kane (1941), perhaps the best U.S. graphic on the title; both the style A and style B one sheets for Son of Kong (1933); the six sheet (81 x 81 inches) for Dark Passage (1947) and the star of the sale, the original release one sheet for Grand Hotel (1932.) I had brought what was then thought of as the only known copy to the May 2000 sale at Christie’s, New York, where it fetched close to $50,000. It was purchased by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of their program to acquire a one sheet for every Academy Award winning film (their only gap is Cavalcade (1933), so keep an eye out.) The example Heritage is offering surfaced earlier this year on eBay and was quickly withdrawn when the consignor realized that such a major piece needed the special treatment and promotion that could afforded by a large auction house. There is much speculation among movie poster affichionados as to whether the poster can sell within Heritage’s rather broad estimate range ($50,000 -$75,000) without the Academy leading the bidding. But this is a major poster, albeit for a rather poor film. Perhaps the most important aspect of its appearance in the sale is the reinforcement of my new found belief that it is very unlikely only one example of a film poster exists.
The second catalog issued by Heritage is for a selection of over 400 Swedish movie posters, including the one sheet (27.5 x 39.5 inchesl) for The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). The other titles range back to the silent era and the display of images goes a long way to provide much needed information on Sweden’s contribution to film poster art.
The third sale, Lost Hollywood, consists of 150 original examples of special photography by such masters as George Hurrel and Clarence Bull. These are not the run of the mill 8 x 10 glossies shot by a film’s unit photography and found in a publicity departments key set. These are the large format photos shot and often printed by a select group of camera artists who had, from the silent era , developed thecniques and styles that captured and projected to the world the image of glamorous Hollywood. In most cases, only a few of each image were made from the negative since special photographs were sent as exclusives to major newspapers and magazines. Among the highlights of the sale are photos of Boris Karloff, Joan Crawford, the Marx Brothers and Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.
All of the above material can be found @ www.heritagemovieposters.com but as always with material from Heritage, I recommend obtaining the printed catalogs. They are filled with informative comments and are important additions to any movie poster reference library.
I write at the Comfort Inn, Richland, Utah., where I am being held prisoner until I promise to stop saying nasty things about all those nice movie poster collectors. Actually, this is a stopping off point on our way to Salt Lake City, where we tape the second show of the new season of Antiques Roadshow. Last week we drove from L.A. to Tucson, where we taped show #1. We then drove up to Sedona and onto the Grand Canyon for two days of awe. The other day we were at Lake Powell (where the opening to Planet of the Apes was shot) l and on the way back from Salt Lake, we’ll stop off at Boulder Dam. After a break to celebrate our Nation’s independence from just about everybody, we continue the Roadshow tour with stops in Mobile, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Somewhere in there, we’ll grab a week in New York. This year’s Roadshow schedule includes Honolulu, but I had long ago committed to appear at the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention, which is to held in Anaheim this year. We are off to London again in early September. Regards, rudy franchi
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Arabs Don't Suck, We Do
After spending 6 weeks in London:
The more time I spend here, the more I despair for our country. From a distance one can see clearly the suicidal path it has taken. I'm not only talking about our leaders, of both parties, who are just following the dictates of human nature. They are filling the vacuum left by a populace that has turned completely away from any sense of community. They want to be left alone in their jerrry built houses at the end of suburban cul de sacs and they don't really care what happens to anyone or anything beyond the borders of their gated community....except for those who have children in school and their only concern is that the number of black student be kept below 5%. They tune out most political noise and only the buzz words "God" and "Family Values" filter through. And they don't vote for The Republicans. They vote against Michael Moore and Whoopie Goldberg and all those Jews and Niggers in New York and L.A. They are the enemy, not the Arabs, whose cocks we all suck hoping oil will come out.
Now how's that for a totally illogical rant? As they said about the Junta with one honest man: there's a colonel of truth in there.
rudy franchi
rudy@firedog.com
The more time I spend here, the more I despair for our country. From a distance one can see clearly the suicidal path it has taken. I'm not only talking about our leaders, of both parties, who are just following the dictates of human nature. They are filling the vacuum left by a populace that has turned completely away from any sense of community. They want to be left alone in their jerrry built houses at the end of suburban cul de sacs and they don't really care what happens to anyone or anything beyond the borders of their gated community....except for those who have children in school and their only concern is that the number of black student be kept below 5%. They tune out most political noise and only the buzz words "God" and "Family Values" filter through. And they don't vote for The Republicans. They vote against Michael Moore and Whoopie Goldberg and all those Jews and Niggers in New York and L.A. They are the enemy, not the Arabs, whose cocks we all suck hoping oil will come out.
Now how's that for a totally illogical rant? As they said about the Junta with one honest man: there's a colonel of truth in there.
rudy franchi
rudy@firedog.com
Sunday, December 11, 2005
LONDON MOVIE POSTER AUCITON/SALE OF NOSTALGIA FACTORY
This weeks sale of Tony Nourmand’s collection of exploitation posters (aka Debbie Does Deptford) at Christie’s London was a bit of a damp squib, as they say over here. 123 of the 300 lots passed (for a 40% unsold rate) and the auction took in $120,000 (this and other prices given are net of the 20% buyer’s premium and are calculated at $1.75 to the the British Pound. )
This is a bit of a puzzlement since the auction was extremely well promoted: an excellent dedicated web site was launched for it, the sale was tied in to the publication of Tony’s new book on exploitation posters and the event received massive publicity not only in the British press, but there were coverage my media outlets around the world. There was a preview party (attended by the PPs - Privileged Punters) put on by Christie’s and there was a constant buzz on the movie poster discussion groups for weeks before the event and what was a first for a movie poster sale, Christie’s issued a special supplement to the catalog to correct color problems with 21 of the images reproduced.
I con only conclude that the avid movie poster buying audience Christie’s has created since its first sale in the late 90s did not take to what is obviously an acquired taste in kitsch. The youngish art directors who have decorated the light washed exposed brick walls of their Shoreditch flats with U.S. 3 sheets of The Italian Job (“It’s not really about he subjugation of women, you know. It’s more about the culture of violence”) and Yugoslavian posters for Taxi Driver (“I haven’t quite figured out what two ostriches and a zeppelin have to do with Scorsese’s vision of mid 20th Century America, but the graphics are quite striking, don’t you think?) weren’t ready to follow Tony Nourmand with a leap of faith off the cliff of bad taste. The danger with being on the cutting edge is that one can get sliced in half (or perhaps in this case it should be the rutting edge --- I know, I know: once a tart for puns, always a tart for puns.)
As for results the high point of the sale was the Italian large format poster for Big Jim McLain (title Marijuana in Italy.) Designed by Luigi Martinati, it went for $7900. This was a bit of a low point for me since I was the underbidder. My client had given me a brief to go as high as $7400 and while I might have pushed it a bit, I was in a battle with a phone bidder who was coming back on each bid with no hesitation. it was obvious they wanted this poster at just about any price. If I had been buying it for myself, I might well have gone on bidding so as to make it a really expensive buy for this person. I was also outbid on several other items. Several of my clients did not believe that posters such as this would go for more than a few hundred dollars. I did get Girl With An Itch for one happy customer and in this case, even though he was willing to go much higher, it cost him a mere $175. Obviously it had no reserve, which was a problem with many of the lots, where the base price seemed just too high. I think there would have been a lot more bidding action if the reserves had been removed. Among other results, Gun Crazy and Chelsea Girls sold for $5200, which was the low estimate for each. A stunning poster with art by Hap Hadley for Cock Of The Air went for $5600 which was one bid above the lowest guide price.
On the whole, I still think this was an important sale. For all its trendiness and penumbral relation to show business, the movie poster hobby is quite stodgy. Someone has to attempt to lift t he flap and let other types of film paper into the tent. We can’t go on selling the same 450 posters over and over again forever.
Coming up this week, also at Christie’s (South Ken, London) is a small (156 lots), but nicely put together sale of film and entertainment memorabilia. There’s some Chaplin material as well as a selection of golden age Disney animation cels and production drawings plus an impressive collection of autographs as well as props from Star Wars, Dr. Who and the Harry Potter series. Complete results of the exploitation sale and an online catalog of the entertainment sale can be found at www.christies.com
As indicated on this site’s (www.nostalgia.com) masthead, The Nostalgia Factory has been sold to Newbury Comics, a Boston based chain of record stores with outlets in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. In a bit of irony, back in the mid 90s, our second store in Boston was on Newbury Street, just about directly below Newbury Comics’ flagship outlet. Barbara and I are working with Lisa and the other nice folks at Newbury Comics in the transition of the inventory and web site. Pretty soon I will be launching an information only site (www.posterappraisal.com) that will cover travel, war and advertising posters as well as film posters. It will basically be a place to get some answers to the questions we keep getting about posters generated by our appearance on Antiques Roadshow. The site should be up and running in a few weeks. We’re currently in London through the end of March. I’m working on a couple of books and Barbara is finally able to devote more time to her mystery fiction site, www.reviewingtheevidence.com Meanwhile, I can be reached via: rudy@posterappraisal.com if there are any comments about Poster News Bulletin. Merry Christmas to all.
This is a bit of a puzzlement since the auction was extremely well promoted: an excellent dedicated web site was launched for it, the sale was tied in to the publication of Tony’s new book on exploitation posters and the event received massive publicity not only in the British press, but there were coverage my media outlets around the world. There was a preview party (attended by the PPs - Privileged Punters) put on by Christie’s and there was a constant buzz on the movie poster discussion groups for weeks before the event and what was a first for a movie poster sale, Christie’s issued a special supplement to the catalog to correct color problems with 21 of the images reproduced.
I con only conclude that the avid movie poster buying audience Christie’s has created since its first sale in the late 90s did not take to what is obviously an acquired taste in kitsch. The youngish art directors who have decorated the light washed exposed brick walls of their Shoreditch flats with U.S. 3 sheets of The Italian Job (“It’s not really about he subjugation of women, you know. It’s more about the culture of violence”) and Yugoslavian posters for Taxi Driver (“I haven’t quite figured out what two ostriches and a zeppelin have to do with Scorsese’s vision of mid 20th Century America, but the graphics are quite striking, don’t you think?) weren’t ready to follow Tony Nourmand with a leap of faith off the cliff of bad taste. The danger with being on the cutting edge is that one can get sliced in half (or perhaps in this case it should be the rutting edge --- I know, I know: once a tart for puns, always a tart for puns.)
As for results the high point of the sale was the Italian large format poster for Big Jim McLain (title Marijuana in Italy.) Designed by Luigi Martinati, it went for $7900. This was a bit of a low point for me since I was the underbidder. My client had given me a brief to go as high as $7400 and while I might have pushed it a bit, I was in a battle with a phone bidder who was coming back on each bid with no hesitation. it was obvious they wanted this poster at just about any price. If I had been buying it for myself, I might well have gone on bidding so as to make it a really expensive buy for this person. I was also outbid on several other items. Several of my clients did not believe that posters such as this would go for more than a few hundred dollars. I did get Girl With An Itch for one happy customer and in this case, even though he was willing to go much higher, it cost him a mere $175. Obviously it had no reserve, which was a problem with many of the lots, where the base price seemed just too high. I think there would have been a lot more bidding action if the reserves had been removed. Among other results, Gun Crazy and Chelsea Girls sold for $5200, which was the low estimate for each. A stunning poster with art by Hap Hadley for Cock Of The Air went for $5600 which was one bid above the lowest guide price.
On the whole, I still think this was an important sale. For all its trendiness and penumbral relation to show business, the movie poster hobby is quite stodgy. Someone has to attempt to lift t he flap and let other types of film paper into the tent. We can’t go on selling the same 450 posters over and over again forever.
Coming up this week, also at Christie’s (South Ken, London) is a small (156 lots), but nicely put together sale of film and entertainment memorabilia. There’s some Chaplin material as well as a selection of golden age Disney animation cels and production drawings plus an impressive collection of autographs as well as props from Star Wars, Dr. Who and the Harry Potter series. Complete results of the exploitation sale and an online catalog of the entertainment sale can be found at www.christies.com
As indicated on this site’s (www.nostalgia.com) masthead, The Nostalgia Factory has been sold to Newbury Comics, a Boston based chain of record stores with outlets in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. In a bit of irony, back in the mid 90s, our second store in Boston was on Newbury Street, just about directly below Newbury Comics’ flagship outlet. Barbara and I are working with Lisa and the other nice folks at Newbury Comics in the transition of the inventory and web site. Pretty soon I will be launching an information only site (www.posterappraisal.com) that will cover travel, war and advertising posters as well as film posters. It will basically be a place to get some answers to the questions we keep getting about posters generated by our appearance on Antiques Roadshow. The site should be up and running in a few weeks. We’re currently in London through the end of March. I’m working on a couple of books and Barbara is finally able to devote more time to her mystery fiction site, www.reviewingtheevidence.com Meanwhile, I can be reached via: rudy@posterappraisal.com if there are any comments about Poster News Bulletin. Merry Christmas to all.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
MOVIE POSTER NEWS BULLETIN;EXPLOITATION POSTERS
A pair of major auctions loom on the horizon: The Heritage Vintage Movie Poster sale on November 10th and 11th and the Christie’s (London South Ken) Exploitation Poster Art event.
First, the Christie’s sale: the venerable auction house is taking a bit of gamble, devoting an entire sale to what might be considered, at first glance, tawdry promos for guys in raincoats movies. But several factors lead me to believe that they might be onto a runner here. Firstly, this isn’t just any group of flea-pit/drive in posters. The sale is based on a book published this week, Exploitation Poster Art by well known London based film poster dealer and author of many books related to the field. Actually, the book is the basis of the auction, which is properly titled: Exploitation Poster Art: The Tony Nourmand Collection. The sale features over 300 pieces and many are featured in the book. Secondly, there are some amazing posters on offer, including a double crown (30 x 20 inches) for Andy Warhol’s and Paul Morrissey’s Chelsea Girls ( 1966)with art by Alan Aldrige; the Italian quattro (79 x 55 inches) for Marijuana (Big Jim Mclain - 1952) starring John Wayne with art by Luigi Martinati and and a U.,s. one sheet (27 x 41 inches) for one of the classic psychedelic poster images, The Acid Eaters (1967..) Add up the impressive credentials of the collection’s source, the prestige of the venue, the surprising quality of the posters included and the massive publicity campaign undertaken (the book/auction have their own - very well produced - web site with background, images and links: www.exploitationposterart.com) and I think there will be some surprising events. Barbara and I will be at this auction and I might note, as a merely anecdotal indication of the auction’s potential success, we have been commissioned by several of our customers to place substantial bids on some of the more interesting lots.
The Heritage sale will take place at their Dallas headquarters. The entire catalog is on line at www.heritagemovieposters.com (and bidding can be done on the Internet as well as the traditional format - left bid, phone etc.), but as with previous sales, I strongly recommend one purchase this catalog as a reference work. It runs over 300 pages and the comments on each poster, written mainly by Grey Smith and Ron Moore, contain often never before revealed gems of information about either the subject poster or the film it promotes. There are over 1000 lots in this auction and one is hard put to pick out highlights, so I’ll go with some personal favorites: the six sheet (81 x 81) for Laura (1944); Wings (1927) one sheet: Italian quattro for Assalto Al Cielo (Chain Lightning 1950) with fantastical futuristic artwork by Martinati and a stunning one sheet for Thief of Bagdad (1924.) This is just a bare taste of the 1000+ lots. There is a massive Humphrey Bogart section, some major horror and sci-fi pieces and a nice selection of 30s Disney material. Warning, once you hit the website and start looking at lots, you’ll be there for hours.
There are a two books just issued that deserve some attention. First is The Star Wars Poster book by Steve Sansweet and Peter Vilmur(Chronicle Books.) Until now poster dealers and collectors have had to rely on scattered sources of information about the Star Wars posters produced. There are web sites, auction catalogs, such oddities as the Star Wars Checklist (which was invaluable) and oral history from grizzled ex-projectionists, movie theater managers and ushers who actually handled the posters when they were issued. Well now there has appeared what I believe will be the definitive work in the field. This large format 300+ page hardcover book displays 288 images of star wars posters from all six of the films. It is exhaustive in its coverage of U.S. and foreign posters, tie-in promotional posters, special issues, etc. Each posters has descriptive text and the quality of the visuals is exceptional. I’m fairly sure that from now on we will be referencing Star Wars posters by the page numbers in this book. Steve Sansweet has long been known to Star Wars poster collectors as someone you could e-mail with a tough question and always get a response from. His knowledge and that of his co-author, drench each page. There is a great section on bootlegs and reprints (with a method for telling an original Star Wars Style D from fake a that will make your head spin the first time you read it. But it’s well worth memorizing -- don’t try to understand it, just how to repeat to yourself. It rivals attempting to understand the Italian poster re-release codes, the Belgian telephone numbers, the French printers and other arcane ways to date posters.) The back of the book contains 27 pages of miniscule type that lists every known theatrical release Star Wars poster; every known advertising and promotional poster and every know commercial poster. These pages are worth the price of the book ($50.00) alone.
The second book is Leonard Maltin’s 2006 Movie Guide. I reprint the review I wrote for Barbara’s site www.reviewingtheevidence.com The site is devoted to reviewing mystery fiction, but every once in awhile, the publishers send along a movie book, aware of our other interests. Barbara has this strange compulsion to review just about every book sent her. Those books that don’t make it through the review process are the really badly written self published works. Once not too long ago, there were vanity presses for compulsive authors who couldn’t write and they are still around. I love to read the titles from the Exposition Press ad in the Sunday Times ( God Was My Co-Signer: Memoirs Of A Loan Officer). But now we have self publishing with print to order so not even the modest amount of money needed to self print holds back the flood of horrid writing. This is the kind of stuff that came in over their transom which first readers at publishing houses had to pour through in hope of finding another Gone With The Wind. Rant over. reviewing the evidence is an enjoyable site if you are a mystery fan and Leonard Maltin’s book is a joy to hold in both hands.
LEONARD MALTIN'S 2006 MOVIE GUIDE
by Leonard Maltin
Plume, August 2005
1664 pages
$20.00
ISBN: 0452286999
Reviewed by rudy franchi
When Barbara and I were writing our book, MILLER'S MOVIE COLLECTIBLES, we relied on a number of sources for release dates, plots, casts, names of directors, and so on. The imdb (www.imdb.com) was invaluable of course as were Ephraim Katz's FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA and the various books by the late Leslie Halliwell. But the one work we kept by our side and referred to most often was Leonard Maltin's MOVIE GUIDE. Updated annually, this huge (1500+ pages) work not only contains information on 16,000 movies but its accuracy is amazing.
Mr Maltin is not just an expert on films old and new, he is steeped in a cinematic brew that seems to have penetrated his every pore. His love of movies, especially early comedy shorts and animated films, shows through in every entry and his comments on each film are a joy to read.
Even when he is forced to give half a star (or even his lowest rating BOMB), he finds something positive to say about a particular actor or scene or line of dialogue. I've always felt that he agrees with me that there are really no bad movies, just some bad editing that left out all the really good parts.
Aside from the thousands upon thousands of capsule reviews, the book has a few other interesting features. One my favorites is the directory of movie stars that lists the titles of all the films that are mentioned in the book. There is a similar index for directors, an addition dear to the heart of this unreconstructed auteurist.
One quirky page that I expect to disappear from every new printing is the Widescreen Glossary. The two columns of tiny type lists over 100 different formats and their exact aspect ratio. I have the feeling that Mr Maltin has stubbornly resisted the removal of this example of foofish* arcana. It proudly serves as the frontispiece to the first page of capsule reviews in this current edition.
*FOOF (archaic): Friend Of Old Film; term was popular in the 1960s, but an apt description of Mr Maltin
www.reviewingtheevidence. com
Barbara and I continue to enjoy the California sunshine, but not for long. We leave for London next week and plan to spend four months in the gloom of a British winter. We will watch some bad Brit TV, take in a few plays and concerts, eat out with old friends and occasionally tdp into the swirling waters of the London movie poster scene. We will visit some of the very upscale Cinema Poster Galleries, where price is never mentioned....not because of any remnants of British reserve, but rather because the owner is afraid the customer will faint dead away and mess up their newly installed parquet floor. Until next time, rudy franchi
rudy franchi/rudy@nostalgia.com/poster: http://www.nostalgia.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
First, the Christie’s sale: the venerable auction house is taking a bit of gamble, devoting an entire sale to what might be considered, at first glance, tawdry promos for guys in raincoats movies. But several factors lead me to believe that they might be onto a runner here. Firstly, this isn’t just any group of flea-pit/drive in posters. The sale is based on a book published this week, Exploitation Poster Art by well known London based film poster dealer and author of many books related to the field. Actually, the book is the basis of the auction, which is properly titled: Exploitation Poster Art: The Tony Nourmand Collection. The sale features over 300 pieces and many are featured in the book. Secondly, there are some amazing posters on offer, including a double crown (30 x 20 inches) for Andy Warhol’s and Paul Morrissey’s Chelsea Girls ( 1966)with art by Alan Aldrige; the Italian quattro (79 x 55 inches) for Marijuana (Big Jim Mclain - 1952) starring John Wayne with art by Luigi Martinati and and a U.,s. one sheet (27 x 41 inches) for one of the classic psychedelic poster images, The Acid Eaters (1967..) Add up the impressive credentials of the collection’s source, the prestige of the venue, the surprising quality of the posters included and the massive publicity campaign undertaken (the book/auction have their own - very well produced - web site with background, images and links: www.exploitationposterart.com) and I think there will be some surprising events. Barbara and I will be at this auction and I might note, as a merely anecdotal indication of the auction’s potential success, we have been commissioned by several of our customers to place substantial bids on some of the more interesting lots.
The Heritage sale will take place at their Dallas headquarters. The entire catalog is on line at www.heritagemovieposters.com (and bidding can be done on the Internet as well as the traditional format - left bid, phone etc.), but as with previous sales, I strongly recommend one purchase this catalog as a reference work. It runs over 300 pages and the comments on each poster, written mainly by Grey Smith and Ron Moore, contain often never before revealed gems of information about either the subject poster or the film it promotes. There are over 1000 lots in this auction and one is hard put to pick out highlights, so I’ll go with some personal favorites: the six sheet (81 x 81) for Laura (1944); Wings (1927) one sheet: Italian quattro for Assalto Al Cielo (Chain Lightning 1950) with fantastical futuristic artwork by Martinati and a stunning one sheet for Thief of Bagdad (1924.) This is just a bare taste of the 1000+ lots. There is a massive Humphrey Bogart section, some major horror and sci-fi pieces and a nice selection of 30s Disney material. Warning, once you hit the website and start looking at lots, you’ll be there for hours.
There are a two books just issued that deserve some attention. First is The Star Wars Poster book by Steve Sansweet and Peter Vilmur(Chronicle Books.) Until now poster dealers and collectors have had to rely on scattered sources of information about the Star Wars posters produced. There are web sites, auction catalogs, such oddities as the Star Wars Checklist (which was invaluable) and oral history from grizzled ex-projectionists, movie theater managers and ushers who actually handled the posters when they were issued. Well now there has appeared what I believe will be the definitive work in the field. This large format 300+ page hardcover book displays 288 images of star wars posters from all six of the films. It is exhaustive in its coverage of U.S. and foreign posters, tie-in promotional posters, special issues, etc. Each posters has descriptive text and the quality of the visuals is exceptional. I’m fairly sure that from now on we will be referencing Star Wars posters by the page numbers in this book. Steve Sansweet has long been known to Star Wars poster collectors as someone you could e-mail with a tough question and always get a response from. His knowledge and that of his co-author, drench each page. There is a great section on bootlegs and reprints (with a method for telling an original Star Wars Style D from fake a that will make your head spin the first time you read it. But it’s well worth memorizing -- don’t try to understand it, just how to repeat to yourself. It rivals attempting to understand the Italian poster re-release codes, the Belgian telephone numbers, the French printers and other arcane ways to date posters.) The back of the book contains 27 pages of miniscule type that lists every known theatrical release Star Wars poster; every known advertising and promotional poster and every know commercial poster. These pages are worth the price of the book ($50.00) alone.
The second book is Leonard Maltin’s 2006 Movie Guide. I reprint the review I wrote for Barbara’s site www.reviewingtheevidence.com The site is devoted to reviewing mystery fiction, but every once in awhile, the publishers send along a movie book, aware of our other interests. Barbara has this strange compulsion to review just about every book sent her. Those books that don’t make it through the review process are the really badly written self published works. Once not too long ago, there were vanity presses for compulsive authors who couldn’t write and they are still around. I love to read the titles from the Exposition Press ad in the Sunday Times ( God Was My Co-Signer: Memoirs Of A Loan Officer). But now we have self publishing with print to order so not even the modest amount of money needed to self print holds back the flood of horrid writing. This is the kind of stuff that came in over their transom which first readers at publishing houses had to pour through in hope of finding another Gone With The Wind. Rant over. reviewing the evidence is an enjoyable site if you are a mystery fan and Leonard Maltin’s book is a joy to hold in both hands.
LEONARD MALTIN'S 2006 MOVIE GUIDE
by Leonard Maltin
Plume, August 2005
1664 pages
$20.00
ISBN: 0452286999
Reviewed by rudy franchi
When Barbara and I were writing our book, MILLER'S MOVIE COLLECTIBLES, we relied on a number of sources for release dates, plots, casts, names of directors, and so on. The imdb (www.imdb.com) was invaluable of course as were Ephraim Katz's FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA and the various books by the late Leslie Halliwell. But the one work we kept by our side and referred to most often was Leonard Maltin's MOVIE GUIDE. Updated annually, this huge (1500+ pages) work not only contains information on 16,000 movies but its accuracy is amazing.
Mr Maltin is not just an expert on films old and new, he is steeped in a cinematic brew that seems to have penetrated his every pore. His love of movies, especially early comedy shorts and animated films, shows through in every entry and his comments on each film are a joy to read.
Even when he is forced to give half a star (or even his lowest rating BOMB), he finds something positive to say about a particular actor or scene or line of dialogue. I've always felt that he agrees with me that there are really no bad movies, just some bad editing that left out all the really good parts.
Aside from the thousands upon thousands of capsule reviews, the book has a few other interesting features. One my favorites is the directory of movie stars that lists the titles of all the films that are mentioned in the book. There is a similar index for directors, an addition dear to the heart of this unreconstructed auteurist.
One quirky page that I expect to disappear from every new printing is the Widescreen Glossary. The two columns of tiny type lists over 100 different formats and their exact aspect ratio. I have the feeling that Mr Maltin has stubbornly resisted the removal of this example of foofish* arcana. It proudly serves as the frontispiece to the first page of capsule reviews in this current edition.
*FOOF (archaic): Friend Of Old Film; term was popular in the 1960s, but an apt description of Mr Maltin
www.reviewingtheevidence. com
Barbara and I continue to enjoy the California sunshine, but not for long. We leave for London next week and plan to spend four months in the gloom of a British winter. We will watch some bad Brit TV, take in a few plays and concerts, eat out with old friends and occasionally tdp into the swirling waters of the London movie poster scene. We will visit some of the very upscale Cinema Poster Galleries, where price is never mentioned....not because of any remnants of British reserve, but rather because the owner is afraid the customer will faint dead away and mess up their newly installed parquet floor. Until next time, rudy franchi
rudy franchi/rudy@nostalgia.com/poster: http://www.nostalgia.com
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Saturday, September 10, 2005
TORONTO/LONDON FILM AUCTIONS; POSTER NEWS BULLETIN
BLOG PRESENTS NEWS ABOUT MOVIE POSTERS;
POSTER NEWS BULLETIN;
A flurry of upcoming activity in the world of movie paper collecting with three auction/shows in the next few weeks.
September 11 marks the first Sunday cinema poster sale for Christie’s South Ken in London. When we were on the antique show circuit, Sunday was our dreaded day, filled with tire kickers, be backers and lid lifters. Most dealers called it Museum Day, with mostly browsers. There were also The Vultures, since this was the last day of most shows and creepy groups of bargain hunters would hang around till we were about to pack and then start making lowball offers. I hope Christie’s has better luck. But then, after eons in business, they’ve hardly depended much on luck all that much. As for the auction, it’s just about the best selection in several years. With over 400 lots, they are revving back up to the late 90s five hour marathon auctions. Among my favorite lots: one sheet (27 x 41 inches) for the 1949 re-release of Tod Browning’s Freaks; War of the Worlds (1953) half-sheet (28 x 22) -- with a hefty estimate of $11,000 to $14,000; 2001 (1968) Eye one sheet; the style B one sheet for The Producers (1967); the Japanese double panel (20 x 58) for Two For The Road plus a strong selection of paper from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) including several lobby cards (14 x11) a window card (14 x 22) as well as a 3 sheet (41 x 81) and an Italian photbusta(various sizes - this one is 19 x 27). There’s also the 1965 release one sheet, which is one of the better images on the title. The sale also features some strong Bond material, new wave country of origin posters, Hitchcock items and a number of original release UK quads. To order the catalog or view it on line: www.christies.com
Mike Orlando of the noted Toronto poster shop Hollywood Canteen, is organizing a show of tv and movie ephemera to take place Sunday, September 11 at Days Hotel, 30 Carlton Street, Toronto. Mike says there are to be 30 dealers with at least 5 from the U.S. The Saturday before the show, Hollywood Canteen is also having an auction (in association with Richie’s of Toronto) featuring “Art, Fiction & Fantasy In Film” with posters by Rockwell, Vargas, Petty, Bass, etc. plus posters based on famous literary works and a number of posters for major science fiction and fantasy films. Information on both events can be found at www.hcanteen.com Bonus is that all prices realized will be in Canadian $, which gives buyers about a 15% discount. This is in sharp contrast to the Canadian Internet dealers who post prices in U.S. dollars and then pocket the difference. A few years ago I was in Toronto when the Canadian dollar was at about 70 cents. I called a major poster dealer and said I would like to come over and buy a pile of stuff. She told me she was much too busy and that I should use their web site when I got back to the States. Needless to say, I never did. I only register this complaint because we started business in Canada and dealt with American dealers and collectors for ten years . Whenever the C$ was below the US$ (and it did fluctuate back then), we would always give the discount. At any rate (pun intended) Mike’s auction and sale would make for a nice weekend in Toronto, a city that will surprise and amaze you with how boring it is. (Obviously, we spent our ten years in Canada in Montreal, arch enemy of Hog Town.)
rudy franchi
rudy@nostalgia.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
POSTER NEWS BULLETIN;
A flurry of upcoming activity in the world of movie paper collecting with three auction/shows in the next few weeks.
September 11 marks the first Sunday cinema poster sale for Christie’s South Ken in London. When we were on the antique show circuit, Sunday was our dreaded day, filled with tire kickers, be backers and lid lifters. Most dealers called it Museum Day, with mostly browsers. There were also The Vultures, since this was the last day of most shows and creepy groups of bargain hunters would hang around till we were about to pack and then start making lowball offers. I hope Christie’s has better luck. But then, after eons in business, they’ve hardly depended much on luck all that much. As for the auction, it’s just about the best selection in several years. With over 400 lots, they are revving back up to the late 90s five hour marathon auctions. Among my favorite lots: one sheet (27 x 41 inches) for the 1949 re-release of Tod Browning’s Freaks; War of the Worlds (1953) half-sheet (28 x 22) -- with a hefty estimate of $11,000 to $14,000; 2001 (1968) Eye one sheet; the style B one sheet for The Producers (1967); the Japanese double panel (20 x 58) for Two For The Road plus a strong selection of paper from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) including several lobby cards (14 x11) a window card (14 x 22) as well as a 3 sheet (41 x 81) and an Italian photbusta(various sizes - this one is 19 x 27). There’s also the 1965 release one sheet, which is one of the better images on the title. The sale also features some strong Bond material, new wave country of origin posters, Hitchcock items and a number of original release UK quads. To order the catalog or view it on line: www.christies.com
Mike Orlando of the noted Toronto poster shop Hollywood Canteen, is organizing a show of tv and movie ephemera to take place Sunday, September 11 at Days Hotel, 30 Carlton Street, Toronto. Mike says there are to be 30 dealers with at least 5 from the U.S. The Saturday before the show, Hollywood Canteen is also having an auction (in association with Richie’s of Toronto) featuring “Art, Fiction & Fantasy In Film” with posters by Rockwell, Vargas, Petty, Bass, etc. plus posters based on famous literary works and a number of posters for major science fiction and fantasy films. Information on both events can be found at www.hcanteen.com Bonus is that all prices realized will be in Canadian $, which gives buyers about a 15% discount. This is in sharp contrast to the Canadian Internet dealers who post prices in U.S. dollars and then pocket the difference. A few years ago I was in Toronto when the Canadian dollar was at about 70 cents. I called a major poster dealer and said I would like to come over and buy a pile of stuff. She told me she was much too busy and that I should use their web site when I got back to the States. Needless to say, I never did. I only register this complaint because we started business in Canada and dealt with American dealers and collectors for ten years . Whenever the C$ was below the US$ (and it did fluctuate back then), we would always give the discount. At any rate (pun intended) Mike’s auction and sale would make for a nice weekend in Toronto, a city that will surprise and amaze you with how boring it is. (Obviously, we spent our ten years in Canada in Montreal, arch enemy of Hog Town.)
rudy franchi
rudy@nostalgia.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MOVIE POSTER BLOG REACHES WIDER AUDIENCE
OFTEN CONTROVERSIAL BLOG ABOUT MOVIE POSTERS EXTENDS READERSHIP
MOVIE POSTER NEWS BULLETIN REACHES 3500 SUBSCRIBERS
Poster News Bulletin (http://www.posternewsbulletin.com) the web log embedded on the
front page of the mega movie poster site, Nostalgia Factory (http://www.nostalgia.com), has just had subscriber #3500 sign up to receive the bi-weekly screed written by the site’s owner, Rudy Franchi.
“When we started PNB 6 years ago, the word blog was obviously not in use, but I guess our periodic commentary on happenings in the arcane world of movie paper was just that before there was a that.” The Bulletin not only provides news of upcoming movie poster auctions and shows that sell related ephemera, it often comments, in a somewhat acidic tone, on trends in the field. Several times it has exposed questionable doings at the major auction houses and one of its commentaries on such skullduggery received wide attention in the mainstream press.
The Bulletin lives in symbiotic relation to The Nostalgia Factory web site, nestled on its front page and obviously read by the large number of visitors to the site, which gets more hits and unique visitors than any other movie poster site on the Internet. A hardcore group sign up to receive notification of every new issue and those are the subscribers whose count has hit the 3500 hundred mark.
The Nostalgia Factory has over 41,000 entries of entirely original movie posters and related items (press kits, pressbooks, promos) and is the largest and oldest such site on the Internet. The material for sale dates from the silent era through current releases and comes in formats ranging from lobby cards to immense billboard type 24 sheets.
The site is run by Mr. Franchi and his wife Barbara, who are authors of Miller’s Movie Collectibles, a guide to collecting movie posters. They have been in the business of selling movie paper for 36 years and have associated with the PBS series Antiques Roadshow as entertainment memorabilia appraisers since the show’s first season 10 years ago.
Mr. Franchi states that “PNB started as a ploy to attract traffic to the site, but it’s taken on a life of its own.” Franchi, who’s weakness for puns has left him with no friends (and barely tolerated by his family) states that he has made it quite simple to unsubscribe from PNB. “Actually,” he says “it’’s as easy as falling off a blog.”
#############################
rudy@nostalgia.com
The Nostalgia Factory, 50 Terminal St., Bldg. 2
Boston, MA 02129 617 241 8300/ 800 479 8754/Fax: 617 241 0710
Co-Author of MILLER"S MOVIE COLLECTIBLES available at Amazon
Movie posters: http://www.nostalgia.com,
Official suppliers of images to the IMDb
London Flat:
Entertainment Memorabilia Appraiser: Antiques Roadshow
Vintage Poster Consultant: Heritage Galleries
Movie Poster News:
Crime fiction reviews:
eBay User I.D.: firedog
"If the world made any sense, we'd all die in graveyards." Georges Simenon
MOVIE POSTER NEWS BULLETIN REACHES 3500 SUBSCRIBERS
Poster News Bulletin (http://www.posternewsbulletin.com) the web log embedded on the
front page of the mega movie poster site, Nostalgia Factory (http://www.nostalgia.com), has just had subscriber #3500 sign up to receive the bi-weekly screed written by the site’s owner, Rudy Franchi.
“When we started PNB 6 years ago, the word blog was obviously not in use, but I guess our periodic commentary on happenings in the arcane world of movie paper was just that before there was a that.” The Bulletin not only provides news of upcoming movie poster auctions and shows that sell related ephemera, it often comments, in a somewhat acidic tone, on trends in the field. Several times it has exposed questionable doings at the major auction houses and one of its commentaries on such skullduggery received wide attention in the mainstream press.
The Bulletin lives in symbiotic relation to The Nostalgia Factory web site, nestled on its front page and obviously read by the large number of visitors to the site, which gets more hits and unique visitors than any other movie poster site on the Internet. A hardcore group sign up to receive notification of every new issue and those are the subscribers whose count has hit the 3500 hundred mark.
The Nostalgia Factory has over 41,000 entries of entirely original movie posters and related items (press kits, pressbooks, promos) and is the largest and oldest such site on the Internet. The material for sale dates from the silent era through current releases and comes in formats ranging from lobby cards to immense billboard type 24 sheets.
The site is run by Mr. Franchi and his wife Barbara, who are authors of Miller’s Movie Collectibles, a guide to collecting movie posters. They have been in the business of selling movie paper for 36 years and have associated with the PBS series Antiques Roadshow as entertainment memorabilia appraisers since the show’s first season 10 years ago.
Mr. Franchi states that “PNB started as a ploy to attract traffic to the site, but it’s taken on a life of its own.” Franchi, who’s weakness for puns has left him with no friends (and barely tolerated by his family) states that he has made it quite simple to unsubscribe from PNB. “Actually,” he says “it’’s as easy as falling off a blog.”
#############################
rudy@nostalgia.com
The Nostalgia Factory, 50 Terminal St., Bldg. 2
Boston, MA 02129 617 241 8300/ 800 479 8754/Fax: 617 241 0710
Co-Author of MILLER"S MOVIE COLLECTIBLES available at Amazon
Movie posters: http://www.nostalgia.com,
Official suppliers of images to the IMDb
London Flat:
Entertainment Memorabilia Appraiser: Antiques Roadshow
Vintage Poster Consultant: Heritage Galleries
Movie Poster News:
Crime fiction reviews:
eBay User I.D.: firedog
"If the world made any sense, we'd all die in graveyards." Georges Simenon
Sunday, August 07, 2005
POSTER NEWS BULLETIN/MOVIE POSTER INFORMATION
Fear and Trembling in the World of Movie Stills: two major firms that deal heavily in 8 x 10 glossies, both originals and re-strikes, have been hit with major lawsuits from Corbis, the mega image library personally owned by Bill Gates (known to us Apple users affectionately as The Borg.) Movie Star News, the Wal Mart of film stills, has been hit with a $3 million suit and the British based web site, movemarket.com’s insurance company made a settlement in a $million suit. Corbis has been buying up every image in sight, from the murals in the Sistine Chapel to studio discarded negs featuring Pauly Shore. They not only buy the actual photos, but once they are in their vast archive, they claim ownership of all reproduction rights (though one could sincerely hope that Pauly Shore never reproduces.) I find it difficult to believe one can claim total ownership to all uses of Michaelangelo’s masterpiece, but whose going to go up against 60 billion dollars. For those of you out there who deal in stills in a major way, I suggest you consult wit h your lawyer or at least watch Judge Judy on a daily basis.
Heritage movie posters has had two one million dollar sales in a row and they are going for a hat trick this November with yet another massive sale. This one will feature posters from Red Dust ((1932), a Bogart collection including a rare African Queen (1951) U.K. quad (40 x 30 inches) plus two major Disney one sheets( 27 x 41 inches): a mid 20’s Alice poster and the seldom seen Wayward Canary (1932.) Heritage is also picking up the pace with its monthly internet auctions (www.heritagemovieposters.com) and the quality of material being offered seems to be ticking up a few notches. I guess a rising tide of movie paper lifts all one sheets.
Speaking of the internet movie sellers, Bruce Hershenson has resumed his furious pace of mass auctions one eBay. This week he announced that he will be auctioning the GREATEST AND LARGEST COLLECTION OF GLASS MOVIE SLIDES, etc. , etc. Of course Barnum Bruce is always selling THE GREATEST of everything, but as for the largest: the 2800 slides he is offering pales in comparison to the 4000+ we bought a few years ago and have been offering for sale on eBay. We took a hiatus because of our move to L.A,. and we’d like to let all our regular customers know that we will soon be resuming weekly sales of these late teens and early 20’s slides. I’d send everyone an e-mail message, but I don’t have 10,000 copies of our book to give away, since we had a publisher rather than just a printer.
Speaking of eBay, over the years we’ve usually used this venue for more off-beat items that weren’t listed on our web site, such as the glass slides mentioned above plus movie promo items and a large selection of material from the long period before we specialized in just movie posters (orange crate labels, vintage t ravel and war posters, political items, etc.) Now we have started to offer a few items from our web site (http://www.nostalgia.com) such as a rolled Scarface advance (1963), rolled poster of John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) plus BFI quads (Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Singin’ In The Rain, Some Like It Hot.) To view the auctions, just click on the eBay box. There are a few posters up now, but a lot more will go up on Monday (Aug 8) night. Regards, rrudy franchi http://www.posternewsbulletin.com
Heritage movie posters has had two one million dollar sales in a row and they are going for a hat trick this November with yet another massive sale. This one will feature posters from Red Dust ((1932), a Bogart collection including a rare African Queen (1951) U.K. quad (40 x 30 inches) plus two major Disney one sheets( 27 x 41 inches): a mid 20’s Alice poster and the seldom seen Wayward Canary (1932.) Heritage is also picking up the pace with its monthly internet auctions (www.heritagemovieposters.com) and the quality of material being offered seems to be ticking up a few notches. I guess a rising tide of movie paper lifts all one sheets.
Speaking of the internet movie sellers, Bruce Hershenson has resumed his furious pace of mass auctions one eBay. This week he announced that he will be auctioning the GREATEST AND LARGEST COLLECTION OF GLASS MOVIE SLIDES, etc. , etc. Of course Barnum Bruce is always selling THE GREATEST of everything, but as for the largest: the 2800 slides he is offering pales in comparison to the 4000+ we bought a few years ago and have been offering for sale on eBay. We took a hiatus because of our move to L.A,. and we’d like to let all our regular customers know that we will soon be resuming weekly sales of these late teens and early 20’s slides. I’d send everyone an e-mail message, but I don’t have 10,000 copies of our book to give away, since we had a publisher rather than just a printer.
Speaking of eBay, over the years we’ve usually used this venue for more off-beat items that weren’t listed on our web site, such as the glass slides mentioned above plus movie promo items and a large selection of material from the long period before we specialized in just movie posters (orange crate labels, vintage t ravel and war posters, political items, etc.) Now we have started to offer a few items from our web site (http://www.nostalgia.com) such as a rolled Scarface advance (1963), rolled poster of John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) plus BFI quads (Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Singin’ In The Rain, Some Like It Hot.) To view the auctions, just click on the eBay box. There are a few posters up now, but a lot more will go up on Monday (Aug 8) night. Regards, rrudy franchi http://www.posternewsbulletin.com
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