Signed lobby cards hit the auction block
Clark Howard was an American mystery writer who had a thing for old Hollywood.
Over the years he amassed a collection of 1,300 “lobby cards” from old movies, 11-by-14-inch images that were posted inside theatres to promote upcoming films. And somehow he got many of the stars to autograph them.
Jack Nicholson signed an image from the 1970 counter-culture classic Five Easy Pieces. The lobby card shows him playing piano on the back of a truck, hence he advises Clark to “keep on truckin.’”
Raquel Welch autographed a lobby card from her 1966 “prehistoric adventure saga” One Million Years B.C., where she’s clad in a fur bikini. She also signed an eight-by-10 glossy photo that looks to be from the same movie.
Rita Moreno was identified as “Rosito Moreno” in the 1950 Bmovie So Young, So Bad. So she circled it, then drew a line to her autograph on the side.
“The posters absolutely killed me!” she wrote in a note to Howard. “Is there any chance you might find the same for me?”
I don’t know how common it is down south, but here it’s pretty rare. It’s just a coincidence the ball fell into our court.
It’s hard to say if Howard helped her with her request. But if she’s still looking, she can bid on items from the Howard collection at Able Auctions in Surrey.
Howard died in 2016 in Palm Springs, Calif. He left the lobby cards to a Vancouver family that had a place there, and they sold them to Able Auctions, which is putting them up for sale.
“It’s kind of rare for something like this to make it into the Vancouver market,” said Able’s owner Jeremy Dodd. “I don’t know how common it is down south, but here it’s pretty rare. It’s just a coincidence the ball fell into our court.”
The collection is so massive that they ’re doing it over several online sales, month by month. The first Collector Movie Lobby Card auction is now online, and will conclude Sept. 12 at 3 p.m.
There are 214 lots in the auction. A few are from big stars in well-known movies, like a Robert De Niro autograph on a Godfather Part II lobby card. But many others are from long-forgotten flicks like 1941’s They Dare Not Love, starring the long-forgotten Martha Scott.
“I’d say it’s 10 to 15 per cent A-list Hollywood stars, and the rest are sort of B -listers,” said Dodd. “If you look at the lobby cards themselves they’re probably worth $20 to $50 each. But pretty much all of them have signatures, so that makes it a unique collection.
“Some of them will sell for $20 to $30, some will sell for $500, $600, $700, up to $1,000.”
The list of autographs is endless, and all over the place: Burt Lancaster to Sophia Loren, Charlton Heston to Elke Sommer, Red Skelton to Barbara Eden, Orson Welles to Lizabeth Scott, Yul Brynner to Jane Russell, Randolph Scott to Lana Turner, Janet Leigh, Jane Fonda, Lucille Ball and Stella Stevens. The lobby cards date from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Many of the most colourful images come from obscure movies, such as 1947’s Road to the Big House. Star Ann Doran is shown with a handgun, looking over her shoulder at a bunch of cons on the verge of a brouhaha. Other lobby cards feature va-va-voom images of stars like Rhonda Fleming, who suggestively reclines on a daybed in the 1953 movie Serpent of the Nile, The Loves of Cleopatra.
Some lobby cards have fantastic images, but were autographed by lesser lights. The card for the 1950 film-noir Edge of Doom has vivid colours and fab images of a terrified couple, a nasty crew intimidating the hero, and a femme fatale (in green!) tucked into the corner.
It was produced by movie legend Samuel Goldwyn and featured stars like Dana Andrews and Farley Granger. Yet the autograph is from somebody named Douglas V. Fowley. Who? The supporting actor played the “second detective” in the movie. That Clark Howard would even know who he was shows his knowledge of old Hollywood films, and the uniqueness of his collection.
The lots can be viewed online at the Able Auctions website, ableauctions.ca.