Massive movie poster collection to go on auction block
NEW YORK — A massive single-owner collection of vintage movie posters covering nearly the entire history of feature films — from 1907 to the present — is going on the auction block as one lot next month.
It belongs to Morris Everett Jr., who began collecting posters and lobby cards 53 years ago. He’s parting with them on Dec. 17 at Profiles in History auction house in Calabasas, California.
Everett, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and owns a New York City movie photo leasing company, said his collecting passion began as a student at the University of Virginia, sparked by a fellow student who had a “fabulous” small photo collection of such Hollywood’s legends as Bette Davis and Myrna Loy.
On spring break in 1961, Everett found himself buying two posters at Movie Star News, a New York City landmark of movie stills, posters and negatives that closed its doors two years ago.
He started small, focusing on 20 film stars including his favourite, Natalie Wood. Then he saw an ad in a collectors’ magazine for 6,000 original movie photos from the 1920s and 1930s which he purchased for around $400.
He continued to buy at conventions, auctions, from dealers and stores until he amassed a collection totalling 196,000 posters and lobby cards representing 44,000 titles for some of Hollywood’s greatest films.
He said he’s selling the poster collection because “it’s time.”
“I’ll be 74 next month. ... To leave it to my family to do this, will they do it the way I want them to do it?” Everett said.
By consigning the collection himself, “I have the pleasure of hopefully seeing people fighting over it worldwide,” he said with a laugh.