World's biggest film poster auction expected to top $8m
Collector Morris Everett Jr claims to have memorabilia from almost every American film made since the early 1900s, plus many other classics
Ben Child
@BenChildGeek
Thu 20 Nov 2014 05.57 EST Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 11.33 EST
Under the hammer: a 1935 poster for a Bette Davis film, The Girl from 10th Avenue, also known as Men on Her Mind. Click here to see the full image. Photograph: Morris Everett Jr collection
The world's largest collection of movie posters is expected to fetch at least $8m when it goes under the hammer in Los Angeles next month.
Collector Morris Everett Jr, from Cleveland, Ohio, is selling his treasure trove of more than 196,000 posters from more than 44,000 films. He claims it features artwork from almost every movie ever made since the dawn of American cinema in the early 1900s.
Highlights of the collection, which Everett began assembling in 1961, are a unique poster from the classic 1927 science fiction epic Metropolis, with an estimated value of $47,000, and original artwork from Hollywood golden age classics such as The Wizard of Oz, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Gone with the Wind.
"I come from a collecting family and that was where my collection started," Everett told Mail Online. "I bought a collection of 6,000 pieces in the late 1960s and from then on I started buying up other people's collections. It became my goal to collect a poster from every single English-speaking film ever made.
The classic romance Casablanca (1942), starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Photograph: Morris Everett Jr collection
"There were only two people in the world at the time collecting posters from every single title. They are both now dead and I acquired both their collections. There's no other collection in the world that even comes close to mine in terms of its comprehensiveness, covering movie posters from 1907 right up to the present day.
"I want to see the collection go to a good home while I am living and save my family the trouble of dealing with 196,000 posters when I'm gone.
"It will be a strange feeling not owning it any more but at the same time there will be a small sense of relief at making life a little more simple."
Joe Maddalena, owner of auction house Profiles in History, added: "The Morris Everett Jr Collection is the most substantial and significant vintage movie collection in the world and will feature several one-of-a-kind treasures never before offered to the collecting public. The items exemplify classic Hollywood, reflecting the true lure of Hollywood's golden age."
The auction is due to be held on 17 December.