Bill Gold Advertising is undoubtedly one of the most successful poster design companies in the history of the movie business. This New Yorker was chiefly known for his productive relationships with Bob Peak and Clint Eastwood, with whom he worked with for over 30 years of his movies.
Speaking of Clint, there’s an excellent book out now called Clint Eastwood Icon: The Essential Film Art Collection…
No, not the Wes Anderson movie — this is the work of Robert Tanenbaum! One of the go-to-poster artists for major movie studios back in the 70’s, he has since moved onto specialize in doing portraits of Native Americans, dancers, and sports figures.
The early work of Frank Frazetta mimicked the cartoony silliness of the late 60’s and 70’s. However, later on, his style drastically evolved and he is now commonly known as one of the preeminent creators of fantasy art, doing the paperback covers for Tarzan and Conan.
But just last week, Mr. Frazetta’s world of fantasy came crashing back to reality as police arrested his son, Frank Frazetta Jr., for breaking into the family museum and attempting to steal $20 million worth of his father’s artwork. Now that story in itself could be a movie!
Check out the news story on YouTube here.
Yesterday, I mentioned the comedic movie poster stylings of Jack Davis — and today here’s Rick Meyerowitz, another incredibly prolific illustrator who worked at National Lampoon (where he did the infamous Animal House one-sheet) and later with Maira Kalman of The NY Times.
Jack Davis is like the Jerry Lewis of illustrators. What a ham! From Alfred E. Neuman’s MAD Magazine to countless TV Guide covers, his comedic, caricaturesque style has inspired and influenced (i.e., been ripped off by) legions of cartoonists. His parodies will likely be parodied forever!
Whenever I’m browsing through DVDs of old 70’s and 80’s movies, I’m always attracted to this former magazine illustrator’s work. You see, when Birney Lettick was not busy doing movie posters, he apparently had a very prolific career drawing portraits of such powerful figures as Ayatollah Khomeini and Ronald Reagan for Time.
And what an unusual spelling of his name! I’ve heard of a lotta Bernies before (Bernie Mac, Bernie Madoff, Bernie Kopell, etc.) — but never Birney. So if you’re in the mood, take a moment to stop your world and melt with Birney’s Valley Girl and many other classics.
Probaby best known for his iconic Raiders of the Lost Ark work, Richard Amsel had a brief but prolific career and was recently honored with a retrospective at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia…
Another solid series of poster books was published by Graham Marsh and Tony Nourmand, owner of The Reel Poster Gallery in London. Each edition covers the best one-sheets of its respective decade and unearths some real finds.
Meet Bob Peak, the man who is at the pinnacle of movie poster design and decorated theatre marquees throughout the ’60s and ’70s and introduced cinema lovers to everything from Apocalypse Now to Star Trek to My Fair Lady to Superman. That’s called range!
Movie Poster Museum 