Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 191

In 2002, I found this one-sheet for The Case of the Stuttering Bishop at a movie memorabilia convention. It was only $75, which seemed on the low side for a 1930s, Warner Bros., Perry Mason film, but I wasn’t going to question the price. I bought it and went on my merry way. Some years later, I found out why I paid so little so it – the poster was not an actual Warner Bros. promotional piece but was an “Other Company” one-sheet.

Back in early 1930s, the studios controlled most every aspect of movie distribution, which included the manufacturing and distributing of posters – a job that in the eyes of the studio was a bit of a drain on resources. Eventually, a company called the National Screen Service (NSS) took over this aspect of the business, and mass produced posters on a large scale, which is why items from the 1940s and beyond are much easier to come by than those of the 1930s. Before the NSS made it easier for theaters to get poster art, a small number of posters and lobby cards were produced and traveled from theater to theater with the reels of film. For some of the theaters in the less metropolitan areas, the posters would be in shreds or so massacred with pinholes by the time they arrives that they were unusable.

This is where the alternate poster companies came into the picture. In some places, theaters would employ individual artists who created unique artwork, and there is an excellent book available on this topic. Then there were companies who actually received permission from the studios to fill this gap for the smaller towns. Leader Press was one that was around in the early to mid-30s and as soon as they went out of business, the Other Company popped up (yup that was the name of the company).

The only restriction the studios seemed to have placed on these companies was that their name not appear on the posters. If you take a close look at this poster, you’ll notice that “Warner Bros.” is nowhere to be seen.  I’m not sure how long the Other Company was around or what studios they worked with. This poster appears to be a stone lithograph, and I actually think it’s much prettier than the Warner Bros. poster, which I also own.

Just because I have to come up with another six months of posts, I am going to wait until tomorrow to post the WB version and then you can decide which one you like better.